Sniff your dogs breath, does it not smell like a garden of fresh roses? Do you often wonder what you could do to make your dogs breath smell better so you get those endless licks on your face!
We were also quite clueless about oral hygiene when we had our first dog Red and were quite unaware on how we could prevent her teeth and gums from getting unhealthy. These days there are quite a lot good products that are available through which you can care for your dogs oral wellbeing. Its a good idea to start sooner than later so you can ensure as your dog gets older their teeth and gums are well looked after.
So the questions remains, how can we start?
- Get your dog chewing toys and bones
It is a good idea to invest in good quality nylon, rope and rubber toys along with safe to consume raw hide bones. What does this do?
- Exercises the Jaw
- Makes teeth stronger
- Massages gums
- Different texture on the toy can help scrape away soft and easy to remove tartar
If you have punjabi grandparents like we do , I am certain you would have heard them say in one of their stories that they used to chew ganna or sugarcane when they were young & when times were simpler! Why did they do this exactly? This used to help strengthen teeth and help keep gums and mouth clean! The fibre in the sugarcane served as a natural brush while being chewed. In villages today you can still see people chewing on sugarcane stalks. So get some sugarcane and start chewing! The same principle is applied to your dog when it comes to chewing.
- What products can I use for my dogs dental care?
There are now an increased number of products available in India which can help you maintain oral hygiene for your pet. Below are reviews of a few products that we have tried and tested.
Petkin Dental Chew Toy Spray INR 699
[Available in store now]
Buy it online on RedPawsShop.com - http://www.redpawsshop.com/chewtoyspray
This spray is really good as you just have to spray it on your dogs toy that they love to chew and voila! The chew toy spray will help keep the plaque and tartar at bay and the solution is odourless and as they say "works invisibily"
Petkin Liquid Oral care INR 599
This product is great and very easy to use. All you have to do is simply add the solution to your dogs clean drinking water. It lasts very long as well and we noticed with our dogs it really did help keeping the bad breath away. You only have to put a capful into 250ml so we generally added about 2 capfuls to their drinking water bowl and this product also lasted quite long and proved effective.
Petkin Plaque Spray INR 699
Now this spray has to be sprayed about 5 -6 times all over the teeth and gums. If your dog is a patient one like the lab we have then its easy to apply but if they jump at the sight of a spray bottle like most dogs then its better to get the liquid oral care. This seemed to work quite well on Phoebex and lasted quite long, its been 2 weeks since we started using this and we would have used up only 1/4th of the bottle.
Pet Head Teeth Wipes
INR 710 [Available in store now]
These wipes are fairly simple just rub them over the teeth to wipe them clean. Again we would think this would be a bit tedious and most dogs are not happy and not so patient with keeping their mouth open and getting their teeth wiped! Nevertheless a client had used these wipes and she said they worked fairly well on her Yorkie.
Other than the products above there are also dog tooth brush and brushing kits available. Again this proves to be quite tedious but if your dog is patient and loves to get some teeth cleaning time then again it is advisable to do so. Please do not use HUMAN TOOTHPASTE as this is not good for your dogs tummy. Use the brush and slowly in circular motion brush your dogs teeth like you would do so to your own teeth. These kits are available from INR 250 - INR 400 and obviously they are available in store!!
Alternatively you made need to take your dog for teeth scaling if the tarter and plaque deposits are really bad. (The yellow deposits your dogs teeth). There are vets who provide teeth scaling to keep your dogs teeth clean. We had Phoebex get her teeth scaled as her tarter just needed to be cleaned out as it had gotten quite bad. The procedure was very simple and her teeth were shiny as new after she was done and the bad breath was GONEE! We recommend going to Dr Chaudhary's Pet Clinic in Anand Niketan as they are simply the best and most experienced vets in town from our opinion and always do an amazing job with dogs (both pet and stray). The procedure cost about INR 4000 and was worth every penny we spent! Visit them at: http://www.choudharypetclinic.com
Our pick from the products above would be the Liquid oral care! Just because it is easy to use , cost effective and works quite well.
Flash that sexy smile! Like zoey does!
*Please keep in mind what we are writing about in this blog is though our own experiences with our dogs. We do not know the fancy medical names for the different gum and teeth issues, this information is just for the general wellbeing of your pet. In few cases when the problem is severe it would be better to advise with your vet as more extreme measures may have to be taken to fix the problem.
Buy Dental, Ear & Eye products online on RedPawsShop.com - http://www.redpawsshop.com/dentaleareye
Excellent post. Thank you for sharing.
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