dental defects in sheep.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3774, 8 March 1913, Page 3

dental defects in sheep.

REMOVING TROUBLESOME MOLARS. ' The removal of broken teeth and stumps from the mouths of aged ewes has. according to an Australian writer, resulted in a marked improvement in their condition. "Benaleby” records the incident thus in the ‘•Australasian —"With equine dentistry, and with much that ascertains thereto. rpest members of the community, ev'"> *bom who own nothing more for-m’dnbl'-i than a solitary pony, or acquire their knowledge of the subject from advertisements, illustrated and otherwise, can claim some measure of acquaintance. But T have never yet, until last week, when brought into contact with a Riverina manager, heard of ovine dentistry. Having done so. the subject lias* appealed to me as being one of those simple and easy expedients which cannot fail t'» °arrv “imeess in its train. We ad know what a. broken, mouth in a ewe means, and how some forms of feed: and some classes of country, establish a broken condition of the mouth morerapid I v than others. Mo jn like manner know that when old owe' arrive at tlie gummy stage, they, under normal conditions of feed and season, thrive Imtte" tha nwhen the mouth was in a broken state, and the irregularities of the teeth hampered them in the ae+ of nipping off a mouthful of ties of the even biting surface which characterises the lower jaw on the complete disappearance of all teeth, one of the leading Riverina meriori studmasters a while ago set about making ‘gummies’ of 1200 old stud ewes, removing with a dentis’s forceps all broken teeth and stumps. The animals seemingly suffered less than any of the ordinary victims of teethdrawing, and which were dealt with

both expeditiously and easily, have j since fed better than was thier habit, j and after a lapse of a few weeks only, I were among the best-conditioned in j the place. This idea may have occur- • red to, and ,!>een practised by, others ; on an occasional}- individual sheep, > hut T have never yet heard of it being ' undertaken on any such extensive seal? as the above. Seeing how many studmasters retain their old ew»s (often the best of all) in the stud until thev aerially succumb to senile decay, and to what an extent attention of tb’s sort to the teeth must lielrr anv old ewe in gathering her keep, it will not surprise me in future to find the dmitist’s forceps ;ls honsnicnously part of the equipment of shed and yard as ear-markers, secateurs, and erutchingshears have been in the past.”