What does it mean to have your horses teeth floaded?

My horse just had her teeth floated. :)





A horse's teeth are growing constantly. Because they eat forage (grass/hay) their teeth get worn down and sometimes unevenly. This can create sharp points on the tooth surface that can cut the inside of a horse's mouth everytime they chew. Of course it's very painful if never treated.





They treat it by "floating" the teeth, which basically means they are filing the sharp points down to make the chewing surface even and straight again. The file or rasp can either be a manually used thin rod with an abrasive gravel tip or it can be a hand held electric powered rotating file tool.





Some teeth can be so badly worn and uneven that it can throw a horse's jaw out of alignment and additional treatment may be required to align the jaw back into place or in some cases I've seen with neglected horse's the inside of their mouth is so cut up it resembes hamburger more than the smooth surface typical for the inside of any animals mouth.





A horse's teeth should be checked every 6 months to a year. The younger the horse, the more often they should be checked.

What does it mean to have your horses teeth floaded?
That's floated...sometimes their teeth get sharp edges on them or uneven an it's hard for them to chew. so their teeth have to filed down.
Reply:"Floating" is filing the horse's teeth so that they grind food more thoroughly, to improve their efficiency in processing food into nutrition.





If a horse's teeth don't meet properly, they don't grind the grain and grass into small enough chunks for the digestive system to process them efficiently, and a lot of the food winds up as solid waste. After the veterinarian floats your horse's teeth, the horse will get more nutrition from his/her food, and possibly need less food.
Reply:floating a horses teeth actually involves filing them down on the top so they are flat and come together so they can gring their grain
Reply:a horse's teeth never stop growing so they need to be filed down, which is called floating. they need it roughly once a year. when they need their teeth done they are crabby (their teeth grow a little crooked, so they cause blisters on the side of their mouth), they look like chipmunks when they eat, and eat very very slowly.
Reply:sometimes horses teeth worn unevenly and your vet will just give your horse a seditive and go in and file his teeth down. it doesnt hurt the horse what so ever.