Home Dental Care for Your Pet
As your veterinarians, we strongly recommend home dental care for your pet. Daily brushing of teeth is not only important to prevent serious dental disease; it also helps to protect the heart, kidneys, and liver from large numbers of bacteria that are showered into the blood stream every time a pet with periodontal disease chews. It is well-known that this daily bacterial assault can cause heart disease, kidney disease and infection, and liver problems. We hope that this information will encourage you to apply the step-by-step training procedure below to train both you and your pet to participate in a home dental care routine.
The first step is to encourage your pet to come to you for love and attention while you are engaged in one of your daily routines. This will allow you to link pet dental care with one of your established daily rituals. For example, many people link pet dental care with brushing their own teeth. Every day when you brush your teeth, bring your pet into the bathroom. Generally make being with you while you brush your teeth a wonderful experience, give your pet special attention, special treats and happy talk. Dogs will generally catch on in 2 to 3 weeks, with cats generally taking 4 to 6 weeks. All older animals generally take longer to make the association.
1. After your pet is eagerly attending your daily routine, you can start paying special attention to the area around your pet's mouth. Rub and scratch your pet's cheeks, chin and all around the mouth. Once your pet is accepting of this, gently lift up a lip and put your finger on your pet's teeth. Do this only when your pet is thoroughly comfortable with you working around the mouth. If at any time you are nervous that your pet may bite, do not push the idea of home dental care further.
2. Each day progress a bit further with your finger massaging the gums and touching the teeth, until you are able to touch all teeth from the big molars and premolars in the back of the mouth to the big canine teeth in front. Then, start using specially flavored pet toothpaste on your finger as your massage the gums and teeth. We have home dental care kits available for dogs & cats including a finger brush, a toothbrush and either malt, poultry or seafood flavored toothpaste.
3. The next step is to use a little finger toothbrush over your finger while brushing the teeth and massaging the gums. These finger toothbrushes were originally designed to help teach toddlers to have their teeth brushed, and they work very nicely for pets too! Finger toothbrushes are available in the home dental care kits mentioned above or in larger pharmacy-type stores in the baby section.
4. The next step is to work up to using a real toothbrush. Dog and cat toothbrushes are available in the dental home care kits mentioned above. For larger dogs the smallest pediatric brushes in grocery stores will work well.
Home dental care can be very successful in maintaining good dental health for our pets just as daily brushing helps us to maintain good dental health. Also, like with us, daily brushing does not eliminate the need to have professional dental cleaning done on occasion. Have your veterinarian evaluate your pet's teeth at least once a year so that problems can be caught early and, if possible, corrected.
Some pets will not accept home dental care and many will require more frequent professional cleanings. Those dogs that like to chew have a decent alternative. We strongly recommend small rawhide chips, retriever rolls or Buddha Bones as an alternative to home dental care, along with yearly dental exams during the annual physical exam. C.E.T. also makes chews, treats and bones that can help with your pet's home dental care. When using rawhide and Buddha Bones (rope bone chews) be sure that shoes and laundry are not accessible to your dog.
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