Adventures in Canine Tooth Brushing

Greyhounds in general don't have many health problems, but their teeth sometimes warrant extra attention. Barbie lost a few teeth and has a clean and scale at the vets every year since. All the dogs in my house get at least one dental chew a day (dentastix, greenies, or sometimes pig's ears), but that's evidently not enough.

the two guinea pigs

Brushing doggie teeth is not something commonly done in these parts, so I had to go looking for doggie toothpaste. The first one I bought was an epic fail. Barbie screwed her nose up and ran away as soon as I took the cap off. It was vanilla flavoured - what did I expect? It didn't even smell good to me - it smelled a bit like human toothpaste. I figure that they were marketing this product to people more than dogs.

this is bad toothpaste, unless your dog likes weird vanilla smells

I ordered some 'Dentipet' chicken flavoured toothpaste from Jumbopets when I got my flea and heartworm meds last week and when I opened this container I got a totally different response from the dogs. They all came running to see what the delicious smell was.

good dog toothpaste

Mouse and Barbie both allowed me to smear it all over their teeth with my finger. Mouse was more cooperative so I got onto her with the toothbrush. She was pretty good. Barbie doesn't tolerate the brush yet, but I think smooshing it around on her teeth with my finger is better than nothing. I am doing it every night so I think it will be like nail clipping, eventually she will just give up and let me do what I want. Perhaps we can delay her next dental for some months.

I have seen some great videos of greyhounds submitting to an electric toothbrush. Including this one posted on greytalk.

 Maybe I'll try that …. one day haha…. I am not going to use mine though!

Doggy dental mishaps, Bender the Unlucky

Barbie had to have teeth out a few months ago, and the vet encouraged us to give her more bones and things to chew on.

I bought her smoked bones from City Farmers and she had a great old time gnawing at them, making no particular progress.

Bender then stole them and had more of a go at them. He had some time with a lamb shank before I noticed he was actually biting chunks off it, then I threw it out.

When we went to New Zealand, we put the dogs in the kennel. When we got back to pick them up, the guy at the kennel said Bender had a lump under his eye which had come up overnight, but went down after he treated him with Benadryl. The lump came back a few weeks later and we took him to the Vet. Unfortunately it was a new vet who seemed petrified of him. She lifted his lip tentatively and he growled, and she 'teleported' to the other side of the room. She gave us antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and said she thought it was an abscess and that his premolar was broken and would have to come out. We decided that we would take him back and see our regular vet, Beryl, to get a second opinion.

In the mean time we went down south on our road trip, and Bender managed to fall down the stairs, so the anti-inflammatories did more for him than just help his tooth.

The abscess resolved with the antibiotics but he was still eating his dinner slowly and his tooth had a distinct brown line on it where it was fractured. When we took him back to the vet he was scheduled for surgery pretty much the next day.

Bender was very nervous at the vet, and when N dropped him off for his surgery, they drugged him straight away. I don't think they could get him into the holding cage. Poor guy has had too many vet visits in his life!

It was a difficult operation physically for the vet. She had to cut the tooth into three pieces and make some incisions into his gum to get the tooth out. The vet said it was a shame that he had to go through this as his teeth are perfect. This is a dog who eats exactly what Barbie eats, and is two years older. Just goes to show that genetics have as much to do with dental health as the diet of the dog.

When Bender came home he wanted to play, even though he could barely hold himself up. His eye was a little watery and that side of his face is a bit swollen. He looked like me after I had my wisdom teeth out. I gave him his regular biscuits for dinner soaked in a bit of water to make it easier for him to eat them. I will probably do that for the next couple of days so that his mouth can heal.

Hopefully he won't have any more teeth problems since he is now middle aged and has perfect teeth. I will watch him closely with any bones from now on, and they definitely won't be getting any more 'long bones', which are hard and can lead to tooth damage.

I previously thought that only 'cut' bones, like marrow bones split in half, were the ones that caused dogs to break their teeth, unfortunately for Bender, I was wrong!!

Wordless Wednesday - Lamb Shanks

Ouch - Greyhound teeth

Barbie lost 7 teeth today, with a further 4 that are marginal. The Vet was convinced she ate soft food! She obviously doesn't chew her food anymore and just gulps it down. She is now going to have to eat super-big dental biscuits that force her to chew, and we will have to give her bones when Bender can't steal them from her.

I can't help but feel that we really dropped the ball on this one. I knew that Greyhounds have teeth problems, but I had no idea her teeth could get so bad in the 12 months between check ups. 

The vet has recommended we brush her teeth, or that we get her a clean and scale once a year. I know how ineffective human teeth brushing is (I mean, I still have to get a clean and scale once a year!), so I think we will be switching her to the special dental food and making sure she gets more bones and peace and quiet to chew them in. We shall see what the Vet's opinion is next check up time, and in the mean time I will be a lot more vigilant about what is happening inside her mouth!

The Vet and all the staff seemed to love her, and were impressed with how placid she was. She didn't complain at all. They even sent her home with a spiffy looking bandana, and gave her a nice purple vet wrap which says 'Ouch'. That's my girl, winning fans wherever she goes. 

Greyhound Comfort & Toothy Troubles

I moved the dog beds so that I could vacuum the carpet, and Barbie saw this as a perfect opportunity to continue her pursuit of ultimate comfort. 

I had to let her because she had bad news at the V-E-T this week when she went for her annual vaccinations and check up.

Finally her Greyhound tendency to have cruddy teeth has caught up to her at the age of five. The Vet says that she has to have at least one tooth out, maybe three. The problem is with the molars right at the back of her mouth. They were fine less than 12 months ago but I had noticed she was getting tartar build up over the last 6 months or so. My theory is that she can't do a proper 'teeth cleaning' session with a nice bone because she has such a weak jaw. Her teeth kind of skate over anything hard she tries to eat - it's very similar to the sound human teeth make as a gobstopper or Chupachup rattles around in a human mouth. It is nothing like the crunching, chomping sound Bender makes when he is given a part of an animal's skeleton!

Anyway in a couple of weeks she will be going in to have them out, and have the rest of her chompers cleaned and scaled.

So for now I will let her sleep on her mountain of bedding.