Plague / Tartar on dogs teeth

Bid08

hi,

just noticed last night my lab has what appears to be plague build up on his back teeth, its very hard to see unless you hold him and look into his mouth. it seems like a thin layer nothin too bad. my other 2 have a small bit aswell

just wondering if its 'normal' for a dog to have some amount of this or should they have absolutely none.

whats best for getting rid of it? we give them little rawhide sticks most days so I will just be more routine with this. Also we feed them nuts (i read some where this can be a cause aswell opposed to raw) but not sure

just looking for others experience please

mymo

My small dog has a problem with plaque, I feed raw meaty bones about once a week, and brush her teeth couple of times a week. Also I found something called plaque off, it's great and does work, you sprinkle a tiny bit on their food, it's worked out by weight, guide is on the pack, it lasts ages too even with 2 dogs, well worth the money.

tk123

Raw uncooked bones are great for cleaning teeth - ribs, chicken legs/wings/backs etc. My guys teeth were always dirty when he was on dry food so I don't know why vets etc say dry is best for keeping their teeth clean!? Even when we started on raw I fed him minced chicken for a few months and they got clean without him chewing any bones!

cgarrad

Raw all the way, it's what they are designed to eat.

Bid08

yea we used to always give the raw bones from the butchers but found it never quite agreed with their stomach I wont go into detail but it wasnt pretty and not nice for them

is the raw hide sticks any good to help this?

tk123

Bid08 wrote: »

is the raw hide sticks any good to help this?

I wouldn't think so - they're kind of sticky when wet and break into small pieces?
Possibly the bones you got from the butchers were eg marrow bones which are fatty and might have caused the problem?

ButtersSuki

Big no on chicken bones and smaller bones! Had a real scare with one of ours who swallowed a chicken bone and it got stuck in his stomach and he couldn't pass it but couldn't eat and it was causing him real pain and discomfort breathing. He was about to be opened up when he finally managed to (pardon my language here!) push it out but we had a very rough few days with him over it. He was in the vets for 3 days and we were worried sick.

fits

I book mine in for descaling every few years. but the odd bone helps enormously.

Wibbs

tk123 wrote: »

I don't know why vets etc say dry is best for keeping their teeth clean!?

Well look at what many vet practices are selling in the reception area TK. It's beyond daft that those charged with informing owners about health and diet are suggesting glorified meat flavoured weetabix for a carnivore, barely removed from an apex predator. Common sense would tell even an uninterested wildlife documentary watcher that it was more than a bit daft.

Bear in mind I'm not some hardline raw food faddist. EG I have issue with giving bones to juveniles as in the wild most food is predigested, "cooked" by adults for the pups(up to yearlings) and I'd have some issue with the ability of some breeds to break down and digest raw foods the way their wild cousins(with bigger, thicker enameled teeth and jaws) can. Still no dogs eat cereal by choice, with all it's starches and sugars, certainly not if animal protein was up as an option. If you can find me a wolf or Dingo with tartar or tooth decay I'll buy a hat and eat it.

tk123

ButtersSuki wrote: »

Big no on chicken bones and smaller bones! Had a real scare with one of ours who swallowed a chicken bone and it got stuck in his stomach and he couldn't pass it but couldn't eat and it was causing him real pain and discomfort breathing. He was about to be opened up when he finally managed to (pardon my language here!) push it out but we had a very rough few days with him over it. He was in the vets for 3 days and we were worried sick.

Was it a raw bone?

mathepac

If my dog had plague I'd be inclined to stay away :eek:

Irishchick

If your dog has plaque build up the only way to remove it is to get a de-scale and polish done. Then you have a blank slate to work with. That's when you start giving bones/raw hide etc.

People don't seem to understand the basis of dry food preventing tartar build up. It's not the food the prevent's the build up, no food will do that. Bones can help chip plaque off but that's about it.

It's the act of chewing, which produces saliva that helps protect teeth. Saliva contains Lysosomes which help by engulfing bacteria, preventing it from settling and hardening as plaque on the tooth.

Dogs tend to spend more time chewing a dry food so more saliva is produced. Wet food and cooked meat tend to get wolfed down so less saliva gets coated on the buccal side of the tooth.

This is why rope chews and natural hide are recommended because dogs tend to spend long periods of time chewing them.

DBB

It has been shown that unless a dry diet is specifically formulated for dental cleaning, you are wasting your time using dry food as a tooth-cleaning agent: indeed, generic dry food, and tinned food, can actively contribute to poor tooth health, evidenced by the fact that some ridiculous proportion of dogs (is it one in 4?) have gingivitis by the time they're 3-4 years old.
When you use a dry food that is specifically formulated for dental, it is reasonable at promoting tooth cleanliness. But only reasonable, it's better than non-dental food.
However, the research (and I mean independent, not-funded-by-dry-food-company research) shows that feeding on raw bones and dental toys (e.g. Kong Dental range) is the most effective means of cleaning teeth, and these can remove calculus even without a descale. However, once a descale is done, they are also be far the most effective way to maintain tooth cleanliness.
Ascophyllum (a seaweed) has also been shown to keep teeth clean, you can buy it as a supplement to add to food, "Plaque Off" is one example.

Irishchick

As I've said it's not the food thats cleansing it's the saliva. The important thing is to get a de scale done and then get your dog chewing on dry food/ raw food/ bones/ toys

Any dogs I have seen in consultation with bad teeth are those who are fed on scraps like milk, gravy, bread and biscuits. They are the foods that do real damage to teeth.

Any dogs I have seen that have been fed solely on dry food and the odd bone or some meat have brilliant teeth

I don't have evidence to back this up but I think milk is a huge culprit. I have seen a large amount cats fed on crappy wet food and water with good teeth but any cat I have seen that is regularly getting milk usually has a really bad mouth.

ISDW

My dogs are fed on dry kibble, with a bone once a week.

2 of them suffer very badly from plaque, the rest are fine. One of my girls is having to go in for a teeth clean at the vets in a few weeks, the other one was done a few months ago. My vet says it can be genetic, which seems to be borne out by my own experience, 13 dogs all fed exactly the same food, 11 have no problems, 2 do.

Irishchick

ISDW wrote: »

My vet says it can be genetic .

That is very true and often overlooked. Some animals (cats) can also be allergic to their own plaque. It causes a horrific inflammatory effect. Is called lpgs.

boomerang

A big problem in greyhounds, and it's not entirely down to diet.

Of my two dogs, both collies/collie x, one was much more prone to tartar build up than the other and they are/were both fed the same.

mymo

I have a Lhasa apso that has awful build up on teeth, I feed dry and veggies, with raw meat in large pieces so she has to chew and meaty bones once a week.
The other dog has perfect teeth, although a year older and same diet.
No milk, bread or dentastix etc (I swear they made it worse) so don't think it's diet alone.
I use the plaque off for a month, then leave it a month, it's very hard brush her teeth as she's got a small mouth, but I do it at least once a week.

DBB

Absolutely, a genetic component has been proven too, afaik. Not only do owners see a difference between their own dogs, as several of you have noted here, but some breeds are clearly more prone to dental problems than others.