Here’s an interesting fact that many dog owners don’t know, or don’t want to know.
Once upon a time, people didn’t even think about cleaning dog’s teeth. It was considered ‘too involved’ or unnecessary or a whole bunch of other excuses. Ten years ago, the practice was recommended about once a month, the limit that most dogs that weren’t sufficiently handled as pups, would tolerate.
Now most vets say to do it daily, just like you would ensure a child does.
But there is a massive chasm between knowing what you should do, and doing it. Something that is inherently not fun for your dog or you, is likely to be at the bottom of your daily list.
But here is one great financial reason to reconsider your stance.
You might get away with not cleaning your dog’s teeth with a brush for the first few years of their life, but eventually tooth decay will cause pain to your dog, will have them not want to eat, or eat on one side.
They are likely to get gum disease, that sets off a whole host of secondary diseases, including heart disease etc. and once a gum gets disease, besides pain, it will often result in loose teeth, then lost teeth. Lose even just one tooth and the whole row is compromised. It’s a very bad cascading effect you don’t want to see happen.
Then let’s say that you still aren’t motivated to regularly clean your dog’s teeth.
By about age 4 to 6, you might be forced to take your dog into the vet because of its teeth. Even if it’s just not because of how the teeth look with yellowing, your dog might either lose a tooth or crack a tooth on a bone, stick or anything it puts in its mouth.
You will soon find out, that even with private dog insurance, many countries have whole industries of insurance companies that won’t pay for ANY of the dog dental visit.
General anaesthetic and two operators (vet and assistant) will usually mean not much change out of $1000 usd. Your dog might even suffer negative reactions to the anaesthetic or at worse case can die on the table, for a procedure that could be avoided, or at least the number of them reduced during your dog’s life by this:
Dog dental chews benefits
If you’re are not convinced about enduring the struggle to clean your dog’s teeth daily or even weekly is worth it, the plaque then tartar build up will escalate, until any of the above side effects will happen.
This is when you will want to buy the best natural dental chew your dog can have. Because if you get the right one, they will preoccupy your dog for a while. The chew won’t break or damage your dog’s teeth. AND it will give the best clean your dog’s teeth can get, outside of using a dog tooth brush with expert technique for sufficient time.
But here’s the rub. And why you should choose very wisely.
If you use synthetic dog chews of any type, including rawhide pieces of leather glued together with nasties, your dog might get slow poisoning by these while you are actually trying to increase their health.
The other major issue is choking on these pieces that don’t dissolve and don’t travel easily down the throat. NOTE, properly made rawhide treats, just made from thin cow skin (not thick skin turned into leather) can be ok – but trusting which manufacturer understands this can be difficult.
Sythetic dental dog chews are the most common dental chew purchased by dog owners, but even if it’s the right hardness and doesn’t break apart to easily, it will provide NO nutritional value.
Why would you bother feeding your dog something foreign to its body? Just because it’s sold by a major dog food company or by a vet, doesn’t mean that its good for your dog.
The synthetic type, could even be made of material that is low calories, but any calories it provides are still calories typically from carbs – which for dogs are truly empty calories. This leaves less calories that can be part of a animal protein boost your dog could really benefit from (unless it has a major kidney disease and has to be on a protein restricted diet).
Natural dog chews for dental dog work are always the best solution, whether it be a dog bone or a meat jerky it will clean your dog’s teeth the best AND provide a great bio available protein boost.
When making your choice you need to ensure that you are buying something that your dog values and likes, and knows how to chew without choking. If you choose a bone, do you want your dog to break through to the marrow, or just clean its teeth on the outside of the bone.
How much of the bone do you want your dog to eat, and do you want a lot of meat on it or little meat. Bones that tend to have a lot of meat on them provide great nutrition, but can be a faster chew, meaning that the bone won’t be a time preoccupation treat. But it will clean their teeth well.