oral hygiene in Dogs

Cork24

i have a chihuahua who will be four in Nov.. i always keep a close eye on the teeth of my dogs but I'm starting to notice some amount of Dental plaque on here teeth this may be caused as she is very sweet toothed..

Which i have cut out, i brush her teeth all the time and i also got stuff from Christies direct Tropiclean Fresh Mint Foam

can a vet clean the teeth and try and get plaque off it ?

RoverZT

I have been cleaning my Sibe/Malamute teeth since he was 18 months, I feed him raw meat and boiled chicken to compliment his dry food and his teeth back teeth started to get a little yellow.

He didn't like them getting them brushed at the start, would start fighting back, but after a week or two he started to enjoy it.

Now when he sees the brush come out he runs right over:D

I use this toothpaste ( meat flavour ) for 3 euro.

Hatchwells

http://www.pet-bliss.ie/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pet-bliss.ie%2fcgi-bin%2fss000001.pl%3fpage%3dsearch%26SS%3dtoothpaste%26search.x%3d0%26search.y%3d0%26PR%3d-1%26TB%3dA&WD=toothbrush&PN=copy_of_Dog_Toothpaste_Hatchwells.html%23a30489#a30489

This brush.

http://www.pet-bliss.ie/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww.pet-bliss.ie%2fcgi-bin%2fss000001.pl%3fpage%3dsearch%26SS%3dtoothpaste%26search.x%3d0%26search.y%3d0%26PR%3d-1%26TB%3dA&WD=toothbrush&PN=Hatchwell_s_Denti-Fresh_Soft_Toothbrush.html%23a31829#a31829

How old is he?

I priced the vet and he wanted 200 euro for a full mouth clean.

paultf

Cork24 wrote: »

i have a chihuahua who will be four in Nov.. i always keep a close eye on the teeth of my dogs but I'm starting to notice some amount of Dental plaque on here teeth this may be caused as she is very sweet toothed..

Which i have cut out, i brush her teeth all the time and i also got stuff from Christies direct Tropiclean Fresh Mint Foam

can a vet clean the teeth and try and get plaque off it ?

One of my dogs normally gets his teeth cleaned most years by the vet. Cost depends on the size of the dog as they have to be sedated and would normally spend the full day in the vets. For a 13kg dog -> €100. The problem is he has tartar back within a few months. His diet is mostly dry nuts. My vet thinks that is the way it is with some dogs.

Just to say if you have pet insurance they'll insist that your dog's teeth are examined by your vet (maybe when getting a vaccination). If they are not kept clean and there are any serious problems the insurance company might not pay out if there are any major dental problems.

Maybe get them cleaned by the vet - a once off - and then brush them everyday. Some people say raw bones are good.

**Vai**

Cork24 wrote: »

i have a chihuahua who will be four in Nov.. i always keep a close eye on the teeth of my dogs but I'm starting to notice some amount of Dental plaque on here teeth this may be caused as she is very sweet toothed..

Which i have cut out, i brush her teeth all the time and i also got stuff from Christies direct Tropiclean Fresh Mint Foam

can a vet clean the teeth and try and get plaque off it ?

What do you mean by sweet toothed? They will generally eat anything that you allow them to eat.

Vets can clean the teeth but the plaque will be manageable if you feed only dry food and give her carrots instead of treats.

Cork24

**Vai** wrote: »

Cork24 wrote: »

i have a chihuahua who will be four in Nov.. i always keep a close eye on the teeth of my dogs but I'm starting to notice some amount of Dental plaque on here teeth this may be caused as she is very sweet toothed..

Which i have cut out, i brush her teeth all the time and i also got stuff from Christies direct Tropiclean Fresh Mint Foam

can a vet clean the teeth and try and get plaque off it ?

What do you mean by sweet toothed? They will generally eat anything that you allow them to eat.

Vets can clean the teeth but the plaque will be manageable if you feed only dry food and give her carrots instead of treats.

I have 3 dogs the 2 won't take anything sweet but she loves them

Cork24

I brushes her teeth but not as often as I should I also have meat fav.

I don't give my dogs any wet food it's all nuts or rabbit,chicken and deer meat

Sigma Force

My collie is 13 my middle mix breed dog is nearly half her age....they are fed the exact same diet and have access to marrowbones (they can't eat raw it gives them the squits) my collies teeth are near to perfect for her age my middle dogs teeth are a lot worse and even using pastes her teeth will need another vet clean every few years this needs to be done.

Diet does play a big part but some dogs teeth just decay and gather plaque easier.

Deffo stick to as natural a diet as possible and avoid shop bought treats but if the teeth are really bad then the vet may have to clean them which isn't ideal for any dog best to avoid anesthetics if possible but if they are super bad it'll have to be done. I found Logic paste didn't work well, I'm now trying another paste that seems to be better but time will tell..can't think of the name of it right now but a lot of vets seem to be stocking now instead of the Logic paste.

If you can brush them that's even better obviously. But if they get really bad it's best to have a chat with the vet. Smaller dogs like Chis. are more at risk when it comes to anesthetics but if the teeth get worse the dog might have to go under anyway to get a tooth out.

Often people say dry food is better than wet for their teeth..I don't agree.. in fact (although I do feed only dried) the dry food sticks to their teeth and gums a lot more than wet food does.

planetX

Sigma Force wrote: »

Often people say dry food is better than wet for their teeth..I don't agree.. in fact (although I do feed only dried) the dry food sticks to their teeth and gums a lot more than wet food does.

I agree, I feed dry food and you can see it stuck in the back molars for hours afterwards. It must surely be a main cause of decay.

tk123

planetX wrote: »

I agree, I feed dry food and you can see it stuck in the back molars for hours afterwards. It must surely be a main cause of decay.

Same here - my dogs teeth are much cleaner since we switched to barf/raw even though the bones are ground up in the mincer(for convenience). I used to brush them every other day on dry but only brush them once a week now if he needs it.

ncmc

My dog gets quite bad plaque and bad breath; my vet said that certain dogs are more prone to it than others. He would suggest switching to hard food (she was already on hard food) but he said that the hard food with the small kibbles wasn't great at removing the plaque. The bigger the kibbles, the better. Unfortunately, our fussy lady will only eat the small kibbles! We started brushing her teeth for 30-60 seconds daily and the vet couldn’t believe how much improved the plaque was after only 2-3 weeks.

We also give her rawhide sticks to chew; her breath is noticeably better after chewing one of these. Would it be a bad thing to give her too many of these sticks though? I am probably giving her 1 or 2 most days.

BennyBlanc0

ncmc wrote: »

My dog gets quite bad plaque and bad breath; my vet said that certain dogs are more prone to it than others. He would suggest switching to hard food (she was already on hard food) but he said that the hard food with the small kibbles wasn't great at removing the plaque. The bigger the kibbles, the better. Unfortunately, our fussy lady will only eat the small kibbles! We started brushing her teeth for 30-60 seconds daily and the vet couldn’t believe how much improved the plaque was after only 2-3 weeks.

We also give her rawhide sticks to chew; her breath is noticeably better after chewing one of these. Would it be a bad thing to give her too many of these sticks though? I am probably giving her 1 or 2 most days.

I've read Lonsdale (Raw Meaety Bones) and Billinghursts (Give a Dog a Bone)'s books, both cite buckets of references from the likes of the British Dental Association on the importance of raw meaty bones in clean teeth. Invariably the bad breath is from rotten teeth (halitosis I think they call it). Those raw hide chews are cow hide, so skin, so pure fat. Give them like you'd give a chocolate bar to your kids.

Hard kibbles, such rubbish vets preach, it's the bloody kibbles fault! It's funny, when they sell kibble that is harder or bigger as its "better for the teeth" does that not make every other kibble on their shelves necessarily worse for teeth? And if so, then vets are not doing their job, which is "do no harm". That really gets me.

Lonsdale has a site (raw meaty bones.com) but I think it's a bit ranty and long winded. While a pioneer for the whole thing I reckon he's at the end of his tether debating the whole thing. Dogsfirst used to post a lot here on boards but has since left, probably for same reasons, but there is enough info from others, toomanydogs for eg, mainly cuz she has, well, too many dogs.

Cork24

i dont give my dogs bones. I would be worried since they are only "Toy" breed that they will do more harm then good with them..

I was reading somewhere before that a dog is not able to break down the bones as we humans think they can. which in turn could rip a hole in their throats going down etc.

tk123

My guys teeth have been more spotless than ever the last few weeks and I think it may be down to his stagbar lol! He chews it for AGES trying to get the marrow out and there's only small signs of wear on it so far.

1Tony1

Cork24 wrote: »

i have a chihuahua who will be four in Nov.. i always keep a close eye on the teeth of my dogs but I'm starting to notice some amount of Dental plaque on here teeth this may be caused as she is very sweet toothed..

Which i have cut out, i brush her teeth all the time and i also got stuff from Christies direct Tropiclean Fresh Mint Foam

can a vet clean the teeth and try and get plaque off it ?

I also have a chihuahua and she has had to get her teeth cleaned at the vet, we feed her mostly just dry food but the vet says it could be the breed too because generally bad teeth are seen in dogs who eat wet food, but my dog has never eaten that so i think it must be the breed!

mirekb

Cork24 wrote: »

i dont give my dogs bones. I would be worried since they are only "Toy" breed that they will do more harm then good with them..

I was reading somewhere before that a dog is not able to break down the bones as we humans think they can. which in turn could rip a hole in their throats going down etc.

Raw bones of any kind are fine - they are bendy and chewy.

Cooked bones of any kind (even big ones) are NOT fine - they splinter and crack and that's where the throat or stomach can get damaged.

I'm curious as to what sweet things you give your dog?