How’s your dog’s dental health score? It’s Pet Dental Health Month, and we are talking about keeping dog teeth healthy. Dental scores range from zero to four with zero being perfect and four severe dental problems. As with humans, the health of your teeth and gums can affect your overall health. We do a lot of things to make sure our teeth and gums stay healthy.
Those shiny white teeth and healthy gums belong to me, Nelson. I don’t quite have a score of one yet. My mouth is only two but there are very young dogs with terrible scores out there. All my sisters all are in the one range. Mom makes our teeth a priority. What do we do to keep them healthy? For starters, we eat a raw diet which is good for our mouths. The raw meat, ground bone and organs all help to keep our teeth and gums happy. We have some other things we do too, PlaqueOff, teeth brushing, and chews.
Every morning we get PlaqueOff on our breakfast. It is a fine green powder made from Kelp off the coast of Scandinavia. We love the taste and eat it right down with our meal. Breeders have talked about it, so Mom decided to try it many years ago. It is a daily addition to all our breakfasts. PlaqueOff helps clean off your teeth and keeps the gums healthy too.
Chews are also part of our daily routine. I always enjoy chewing on a bone or antler. Every night we get a single ingredient chew to also help keep our teeth clean and provide extra nutrients in our diet. Esophagus, duck feet, pigs ears, gullet sticks, dried tripe, all super yummy for us, not always pleasing for the human. Mom prefers us to have non processed food items whenever possible for our health.
Finally, we all get our teeth brushed every night at bedtime. Yes, we love it! Mom buys tasty toothpaste for dogs and uses one of her old toothbrushes to brush our teeth. We started getting our teeth brushed as puppies, so we are used to it.
Our goal is to never need to have our teeth professionally cleaned as it requires anesthesia, and a lot of money. So far, Mom’s dogs have never needed to have it done, so we must be doing something right? Hopefully our dental health score history will remain under two. Do you have any good dental tips to share?
I’m joining Brian’s Home Blog in the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
The last time we were at my vet’s office, mom told them that my breath was stinky – can you even imagine. They told her about Plaque Off and now it’s on my breakfast and dinner meals☺
It doesn’t completely cure bad breath but it helps some and it will help keep your teeth in top shape. Don’t give up, though. It might take a month or two before you see the results. Mom says it takes time to work on the “project” you have that needs to be taken care of.
we will try that magic power… maybe it helps for us too?
It is for all dogs, and we think it helps anyone that uses it regularly. Lots of breeders we know use it as they don’t have time to brush all the dog teeth they have and it works. Just remember to be patient as it may take a month or two before you start seeing the results.
We get our teeth brushed almost every evening….that toothpaste looks familiar. We get lots of crunchy chews, also. Even with all the things we do, we have still had to have a couple of dentals in our lives, though, because of issues that we could not do anything to prevent.
That is a bummer, but it happens. Thankfully none of us has had any issues and we have all our teeth. Bailie has a couple that are “filed down” from her chewing but it is not a problem.
Wow! You guys are just like children and you have the best mom in the world
We are the fur kids 🙂
Nelson I think your pearly whites are fabulous. WOW might be whiter than mine but I do drink COFFEE
Hugs Cecilia
I haven’t started drinking coffee. Mom says I have plenty of energy as is.
Wow! Such healthy looking teeth ~ thanks to Mom ~ Sweet photos too ~ hugs,
Wishing you good health, laughter and love in your days,
A ShutterBug Explores,
aka (A Creative Harbor)
Thank you. We want all our friends to have healthy teeth too.
You have such a great dental routine!
xoxo,
Rosy & Sunny
We all want to avoid a cleaning and/or losing teeth.
avoiding dental work DOES mean working on the teeth daily! YoOur mom gets an A+1
She doesn’t want us to go through the anesthesia and she wants us to keep our teeth forever.
Love those beautiful white teeth and hooray for all you do to keep those chompers in tip top shape! Thanks for joining Angel Brian’s Thankful Thursday Blog Hop!
We are all thankful for healthy teeth and gums. It seems like so many dogs we know are having teeth removed and lots of cleanings. If we can prevent that it is all worth it.
Congratulations on healthy teeth and gums! Your mom is smart to be so proactive.
We don’t want to lose our teeth like so many of our friends have. A healthy mouth is good for the whole body.
Our vet recommended Norwegian Kelp but we’re going to add that Plaque Off stuff to our regimen. Thanks!
That is about the same thing as PlaqueOff is Kelp from the Scandinavian waters. It is amazing stuff that a lot of our breeders use. It does take a good month to really take effect but it is something we are so happy to have for our teeth.
Your teeth and gums look fabulous! You’re doing a great job – keep up the good work! Personally speaking, I hate having dental work and I’ve had plenty of my share of it done in my life. I even have an appointment this week. I cringe to think what my dentist might discover since I’m dealing with similar problems as last fall. Hoping for the best! Have an awwesome Monday!
That doesn’t sound good. Mom has a dental appt this week, but just a cleaning. Thankfully, no issues that we know of.
Healthy teeth are very important!
None of us want to lose any of our teeth!