A donation from the Equine Foundation of Canada (EFC) has allowed the Atlantic Veterinary College (AVC) at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown to purchase new equipment for equine dentistry procedures and laryngeal surgery.

Equine dentistry should be a routine part of preventive health care for horses, says Wendy Duckett, DVM, MS, Dip ACVIM, associate professor of large animal medicine at AVC. An important dental procedure for horses is floating, the process of gently filing sharp edges and/or overgrowths on a horse’s teeth. Because a horse’s teeth keep growing throughout their lives, they need to be filed–or floated–regularly. If not, the teeth can develop sharp enamel points that can cause painful sores in the animal’s mouth, making eating or wearing a bridle painful.

With this grant from the EFC, the AVC has purchased a Powerfloat, a mechanized dental device for floating horses’ teeth, as well as new hand floats equipped with tungsten carbide blades.

"Mechanized dentistry floats can safely and quickly deal with routine dental procedures as well as problems such as abnormal tooth overgrowth," says Duckett