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Yes, but I'm not vry good at sticking to it. Which is lame because it only takes a few minutes and would save my pet a lot of discomfort n the future, and a huge expense for us when she has to be knocked out to get them professionally done. If you don't do it very regularly, she can get sick from the crap on hr teeth going into her stomach. It really isn't that bad- they like the toothpaste- it's beef flavored!
oh, and we changed her food to Science Diet Dental care. It has made a huge difference!
ooh good to know about the dental diet food! the vet mentioned special chew toys too, but said the toothpaste was the most effective
No. I did have a vet tell us we should brush his teeth occasionally, but he hates it. Honestly I never do it and the last time I took him to the vet she commented on how great his teeth and gums look! lol. I think its because I always give him rawhide and bones to chew.
80% of dogs over 3 years of age have peridonal disease. It's not just the teeth it affect, but other internal organs! Dental care for pets is VERY VERY important!
Raw meaty bones are nature's toothbrush. (Always raw, never cooked bones. Cooked bones are dangerous; they are brittle and splinter into shards. Raw bones are soft and digestible.)
Which bones to give depends on the size of your dog. My 6-12 pound dogs get duck necks, chicken legs, pork necks, etc. Bigger dogs can obviously handle bigger bones.
Good book: http://www.amazon.com/Raw-Meaty-Bones-Promote-Health/dp/0646396242/ref=pd_sim_b_2
Here are my dogs' teeth after switching to a raw diet: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaccYHXL6ek
(Even if you don't feed raw, giving them bones a few times a week still helps the teeth a lot!)
I cannot recommend any Science Diet product. The ingredients are HORRIBLE. It's cruddy, overpriced food. I wouldn't even feed it if I got a free lifetime supply.
Chicken by-product meal, corn meal, brewers rice, powdered cellulose, soybean mill run, animal fat (preserved with BHA, propyl gallate, and citric acid), dried egg product, vegetable oil, natural flavor, flaxseed, taurine, preserved with BHT and BHA, beta carotene, minerals [potassium chloride, salt, ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, copper sulfate, manganous oxide, calcium iodate, sodium selenite], vitamins [choline chloride, vitamin A supplement, vitamin D3 supplement, vitamin E supplement, ascorbic acid (a source of vitamin C), niacin, thiamine, calcium pantothenate, pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin, folic acid, biotin, vitamin B12 supplement].
Mystery chicken parts, corn, soy, mystery animal fat, carcinogenic preservatives... bad bad bad stuff!
Dog food reviews: http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_reviews/
thanks abbyful for the advice! he loves rawhide but we haven't given him too many...but we should give him more!
@abbyful: do you have any good/reliable links to websites that talk about feeding raw? I don't really know much about it, but I do try my best to feed my dog healthy stuff and keep him active. Right now he is on canidae and doesn't seem to have any issues... but I'd prefer he lives to be at least 73 years old so I would like to do the best thing possible for him :)
Here's a link to a post on Dogster with a bunch of raw-feeding resources listed: http://www.dogster.com/forums/Raw_Food_Diet/thread/431875
My favorite resources:
"Work Wonders: Feed Your Dog Raw Meaty Bones" by Tom Lonsdale
"Raw Meaty Bones Promote Health" by Tom Lonsdale
"Raw Dog Food" by Carina Beth McDonald
http://rawfed.com/myths/
http://www.rawlearning.com/
http://www.dogster.com/forums/Raw_Food_Diet/thread/491589
My vet also suggested that I brush my dog's teeth everyday. I must admit, I don't do it everyday, but I do brush her teeth at least once or twice a week. When I switched to a new vet this summer, she said she was pleasantly suprised by my 7-year-old pups teeth and could tell I was a brusher :) I personally don't think treats, toys, or bones are comparable to a good brushing...it would be like a person using just a mint or mouthwash instead of a toothbrush and toothpaste!
Wolves don't have peridontal disease because they eat bones.
In my opinion (and I've tried virtually everything because one of my dogs has, or actually had, horrible teeth), bones are #1 for dental health.
Brushing is good, and should be done especially if a dog is fed kibble/canned or has bad teeth genetically. But it doesn't get rid of existing plaque and tarter; raw bones do. And even religious daily brushing didn't help my pom-mix's teeth; but raw bones did.
Don't knock raw bones until you've tried them! I was amazed!
@abbyful: I'm totally going to look into this, thanks! I do give Stew cleaned raw bones anyways just to chew on, but I've never fed raw. Inspired by your post though I just gave him a little piece of raw steak (about to cook for FI) and he loved! He looked at me like hmmm I'll take some more of that! Too bad if I do feed raw it won't be 13.99/pound delmonico ;)
Please please be careful when feeding dogs any kind of bones! Cooked should always be avoided, but some bones like poultry can splinter even when raw. Your dog's esophagus is no match for a sharp bone fragment!
Raw diets are extremely tricky to get right. It's not just a matter of finding the right ratio of vegetable and protein, rather a complex balancing act of ingredients to supply the right amount of dozens of nutrients. If you want to put in the work, try http://balanceit.com/adevaluator/p01_index.php . It takes quite a bit of work to put in everything, but shows exactly where a diet is deficient and where it meets the requirements.
Brushing your dogs' teeth is a safe and dependable way to take care of their dental health.
Abbyful- while I certainly respect that you've done a lot of research, I disagree with your premise. Yes, dog foods contain a lot of byproducts, but meat scraps and intestinal musculature have the same nutritional value as a filet or breast while being a lot more affordable for pets. I'd rather use them to feed animals than be thrown away! Also, those fats and fatty vitamins use FDA-approved preservatives because they would otherwise go rancid; Vitamin E in a diet would be pretty much be gone in a couple of weeks without something to preserve it. I am a vet student, and know plenty of nutrition residents and clinicians who happily feed their dogs and cats commercial diets. The animals seen at the nutrition service for deficiencies are invariably on some sort of home-made diet, sometimes with disastrous consequences.
Our pet dogs are no longer wolves, their digestive tracts don't work like a wild canid and they certainly don't have the same resistance to bacteria in their food. The only animals that are susceptible to the awful EHEC E. Coli, sometimes found in raw beef, besides humans are dogs. Take the same food safety precautions with your dog that you'd take for your own food.
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has anybody else's vet advised them to brush their pet's teeth every day? our dog just had some teeth removed because his were weirdly aligned. our vet, who is a dental specialist, is a big teeth brushing advocate, saying it'll save a lot on yearly cleanings with expensive anestesia, since his breed always has bad teeth. our pup's only 2, so it's not like his teeth were all that bad, except the ones that were removed that were crowding the teeth next to them. it actually isn't too big a deal--the little guy likes the toothpaste flavor and is pretty passive about letting me brush him, but it's such a weird, random, pet-obsessive daily chore that we'll have to take care of every day for like, the next decade! that takes some pet-parenting dedication :P