Evaluation of the Ewesplint Method for Treating Broken Mouth in Sheep

Extract

The ewesplint method of treating broken mouth in sheep was evaluated on five farms in Caithness and Sutherland. The ewesplint is a commercially available technique for splinting together the eight incisor teeth of sheep using a stainless steel brace and acrylic resin. The technique of splinting proved to require considerable skill and practice and is likely to remain a contractor's operation rather than a farm skill. Three lowland Caithness farms which had park-type North Country Cheviot sheep co-operated in the trial. On these farms the sheeps’ teeth were short and broad (“good teeth“) and tooth loss was not a major problem. Two Sutherland farms, one of which was Achany, with hill Cheviots and Blackface X Cheviot sheep co-operated. On these farms incisors were long and rat-like (“bad teeth“) and tooth loss was a major problem. Results on the effectiveness of splinting are shown in Table 1. Most of the sheep on the Caithness farms were unsuitable for splinting because the teeth were too short to carry a splint. Of those that were splinted most lost their splints (62 %) after one year because of inadequate amounts of cement penetrating between the teeth. A more brittle dental cement was used in the Caithness farms which may also have contributed to the higher rate of splint loss.