Lucky Acres Fencing is a family owned and operated business serving the Inland Northwest since 1980.  Our reputation is backed by a combination of exceptional customer service, quality products, many years of experience, and a passion for the fence industry.  Our company specializes in horse/livestock fencing projects both large and small.

We are large enough to handle all of your fencing needs, yet small enough to provide the care you expect.  Our meticulous workmanship, quality products, and loyal clients have earned our company a superior reputation in the fencing industry.  We provide our horse/livestock community with quality galvanized products from feeders to complete arena set-ups using the highest degree of expert fabrication.  All Lucky Acres' products are manufactured by our trained employees to ensure quality.

We offer many products, which will allow you to truly customize your horse/livestock operation to your style and environment.  Our extensive line of galvanized fencing products includes, but is not limited to:  Panels-Gates and Dividers, Stall Fronts, Shelters and Mare Motels, Arenas and Contour Perimeter Fencing, Chutes, Feeders and much more!  We manufacture all of the essentials for horse and livestock set-ups.  Whatever requirements and/or design challenges your project may have, Lucky Acres is your first choice for customized quality fencing.

Dena Berquist
Lucky Acres Fencing, Inc.
www.LuckyAcres.net
208-746-1228-office
208-791-0291-cell
208-746-4477-fax

Northwest Equine Dentistry   |  June 24, 2011

Throughout my early veterinary career, I found myself frustrated looking in the mouths of my patients and knowing that what I was seeing in so many instances just couldn’t be normal or healthy.  But I had never been taught how to correct the malocclusions and disease states I was seeing on a daily basis.  I thought all I could do was file down the sharp points and call it good.  And even that was a struggle!  No wonder it’s so common for veterinarians to quickly grab a horses’ tongue, take a quick glance and say “oh, he’s alright for another year….or two.” 

Thank goodness the days of wrestling with horses  just to try and smooth a few edges with a hand rasp are over.  About 15 years ago,  my frustration led me to delve deeper into the medicine of dental care for horses and I found, at the time, that there were a lot of opinions and not too much science.   By the time I’d decided to limit my practice to dentistry, that situation had changed dramatically.  Equine dental care is rapidly coming to the forefront of equine medicine and there’s enough interest and solid information emerging to drive research on a large scale.  Veterinarians with the time and interest to acquire the knowledge and skills can now make diagnoses, plan treatment strategies and implement very effective dental health plans for their patients.

Successful implementation of all this new knowledge and instrumentation requires more than a little bit of expertise.  Speaking from experience; it’s a full time job!  Often, the busy general practitioner just doesn’t have the time or case load to become proficient with the most up to date diagnostics, treatment techniques and prevention strategies.  I commonly examine horses whose owners report “have been floated every year since I’ve had her, Doc.”  Many, perhaps most of these horses have significant dental problems that, had they been recognized and effectively addressed years ago, might have been successfully treated or even prevented altogether.  This is a very frustrating situation for an owner to find herself in and an even more frustrating one for me!  But of course, the horse is the real loser.
 
Abnormally worn occlusal surfaces,  malpositioned or abnormal teeth, periodontal disease (the number one cause of tooth loss in the horse!), developmental anomalies, and injured or decayed teeth are all issues that can make a huge difference for your horse’s overall health and well-being.  Their quality of life can be HUGELY affected by poor dental health.  As with any medical problem, prevention is WAY better than having to treat a problem once it’s already taken hold.  This is the true beauty of modern equine dental care.  Early, regularly scheduled examinations by a qualified veterinarian can prevent probably 90% of serious dental problems.  AND…. properly maintained healthy equine teeth will stay useful for much longer than those without proper care.  This is becoming critical now that horses are living into their 30s.  The longer a horse can properly masticate coarse roughage, the better their overall health.  In addition, we now know how painful some of the most common dental diseases are for the horse.  Just because he’s “fat” doesn’t necessarily mean he’s “happy.”  Just because “he seems to eat fine”  doesn’t mean he has a healthy or comfortable mouth.  Only a thorough yearly dental exam by an experienced veterinarian can determine what, if any, problems exist.

Horses are really very stoic and are hard-wired to eat.  Almost all horses will continue to eat, no matter how hard it becomes or how painful it is, until they mechanically can’t do so any longer.  By that time, not only may they have been in significant pain for a long time, but the problem is likely to be incurable or only resolved with great difficulty and expense.  Dental health is critical for your horse’s over- all health, comfort and athletic performance.  Choose your dental care provider carefully.  Make sure he or she has a license to practice veterinary medicine, can provide a safe and efficient place to work, uses appropriate anesthesia and pain control, has adequate instrumentation for both treatment and diagnositcs, and most importantly, has sufficient expertise and experience use the instruments and make accurate diagnoses  OR knows when to refer the case to a colleague who does.

Mary DeLorey, DVM                      
Northwest Equine Dentistry, Inc.
866-208-1268

www.nwequinedentistry.com
drmary@nwequinedentistry.com