Those pearly whites

By Mary Wade Burnside
Times West Virginian

FAIRMONT May 13, 2008 05:34 pm

— I have a confession to make: I do not regularly brush my cats’ teeth.
In the couple of decades that I have lived with cats, I have been generous and timely with everything else: food, water, belly rubs, dangling toys, regular visits to the vet, rabies shots, cuddling and more belly rubs.
I can bathe a cat with the best of them and do a few times a year.
And when one veterinarian thought my cat had hyperthyroidism — all evidence to the contrary as she was overweight and one sign of the disease is a tendency to be too thin — I dutifully gave her expensive medicine every day.
But pet dentistry? That has managed to escape my otherwise careful cat care checklist.
Every now and then, I would try to reform, buying cat toothbrushes and feline-specific toothpaste. The effort never really took, however.
That changed when I acquired Bodhi, my first boy cat. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that every girl cat I ever had has been well-groomed and sweet-smelling. But the boy? He’s a bit stinky, in ways including but not limited to his breath.
My interest renewed, I hauled out the new toothbrush sets that I bought but never had used and implemented a weekly grooming schedule that takes place in a very specific order, starting with Bodhi. I trim his nails, give him a dose of stinky fish oil for his coat, brush his teeth to get rid of the generic stinky breath plus the fish oil.
It’s a challenge, maneuvering the toothbrush around his tiny teeth, but, with the advantage of being the one with opposable thumbs and the help of a towel wrapped around him like a straight jacket, I generally prevail.
Then comes the reward: a brushing and combing that he actually enjoys.
The process earned him a nickname: Mr. Minty Fresh, in spite of the fact that the toothpaste is malt-flavored that is supposed to appeal to cats.
Then I repeat the routine on Lotus, who, while practically perfect in every way and not so stinky, can stand some grooming sessions herself.
While pleased with my stamina in adhering to the schedule, I found out that I still could be doing more.
“Ideally, you could brush your pets’ teeth every day, but a few times a week is better than none at all,” said Dr. Audra Henderson, a vet at Middletown Animal Clinic.
In addition to brushing teeth, a few other options exist to help keep Fido and FiFi’s pearly whites, well, pearly white. Those include pet chews, such as Greenies, which prevent tartar from building up on teeth. Henderson noted that early problems with the product, which kept them from dissolving and caused some pets to get sick and, in some cases, to die, have been resolved.
“At the clinic where I worked in Georgia, we did tests on them and you could tell how quickly the new kind dissolved if you put them in water,” she said.
Also, for dogs, especially larger ones, rawhide bones can help, although Henderson regards them more as a supplement. “It’s not 100 percent,” she said. “They’re not the most effective thing, but they are better than nothing.”
And, finally, when build-up does occur, a vet can clean the teeth in a process that usually requires sedation.
But nothing beats regular brushing, either with paste and a brush designed specifically for pets, or with a plastic brush that sort of resembles a thimble that a pet owner can slip over his or her finger.
Dr. Scott Moore of Fairmont Veterinary Clinic prefers that method.
“I personally believe a finger brush is the easiest way to brush,” he said. “Sometimes, toothbrushes are a little bit bulky and are difficult to guide.”
Both vets emphasized using pet-specific paste as well that come in a variety of flavors, like liver, beef and fish. “Human toothpaste have sweeteners that can be dangerous for pets,” Moore said.
Neglecting pets’ dental health can have some serious health results beyond just setting them up for periodontal disease and abscessed teeth that have to be pulled, which makes eating more difficult.
That’s because bacteria can build up in the dog or cats’ mouth that then gets released into the bloodstream, causing problems with other organs.
“The most common thing we worry about is the heart,” Henderson said. “Bacteria can lodge on the valves and cause bacterial growth, which can lead to heart disease. That’s one of the worse things we worry about. Bacteria can shower the heart or kidneys or just about any organs if it gets in the bloodstream.”
Several times a week, she sees pets with neglected teeth, Henderson said.
“Looking at the ones in the back, that’s where the worst problems happen,” Henderson said.
Small dogs actually have more problems because accessing their teeth to clean them can be difficult.
Judy Jenkins’ 10 1/2-year-old dachshund, Brandy, is one example. Jenkins, of Fairmont, tries to brush her dog’s teeth, but “She doesn’t think too much of it. We’ve more or less given up on it.”
Jenkins takes the dog for a check-up every six months at Middletown Animal Clinic, and if necessary, she has the vet clean them.
Sometimes, this can be avoided if pet owners start a dental routine early on. In order to get animals to accept the tooth brushing, vets recommend starting during kitten and puppyhood.
“It’s best to get them used to having their mouths messed with when they are young,” Henderson said. “It makes them less head shy and scared about having their mouths opened.”
And, like me, more pet owners seem to be jumping on the toothbrushing bandwagon.
“I’ve been impressed recently,” Moore said. “There are a large number of pet owners that are trying to push toward doing this, a lot more than I thought. I think people are becoming more informed and the paradigm is shifting that people realize we need to brush our pets’ teeth.”
E-mail Mary Wade Burnside at mwburnside@timeswv.com.

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