Teeth

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Yesterday AnnaBelle had to have her teeth cleaned.  AnnaBelle is 6 years old and Lucy is 11.  Lucy has beautiful teeth and has never had to have them cleaned.  We tried brushing AnnaBelles when she was little but it just became a huge fight and because Lucy was always fine I never really though too much about it (bad Momma).  I have always given them hard food and crunchy treats thinking this would help with cleaning the teeth.  So, imagine my surprise when I went to pick her up and she had 2 cracked teeth that had to be pulled.  I was totally shocked.  I have never worried too much about Antlers or Nyla Bones.  Neither of them are huge chewers so they don't really spend hours chewing on them.  They each got a BeneBone for their birthday and they were tossed aside in less than 15 mins.  So, I guess the question is, what's the difference in the teeth.  Wondering why AnnaBelle had so much tartar and Lucy basically has none.  Obviously the bones have now all been put up, but I wonder, is it really the bones or is all of this just a difference in genetic make up and one has good teeth and the other doesn't.  Just all things that have been going through my head since my shock when picking her up.

I asked the Tech at the Vet what I can do to help her teeth and she mentioned that there are Enzematic Chews that are made to help remove the plaque.  Anyone familiar with these or have any suggestions?

[Stacy]

Are greenies still unsafe? I know they were advertised for dental health, but there were some really bad things that happened with them. But I still see them everywhere.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I see Beggin' Strips everywhere too. That doesn't mean they are safe, lol. 
I believe the issues in the past were about them not fully digesting and causing obstructions, but I'm not sure. However, the fact that they are made by Mars is enough for me to avoid them. And they are loaded with wheat and gluten. 

[Stacy]

I still like to think that if a product was killing dogs they would recall it or reconfigure it. Naive, I know. 

Fair enough about them being unhealthy. None of my dogs have ever had a greenie. I guess they're not missing out on anything!

[Anne & Mr. Haley]

Haley had to have his teeth cleaned at 2 or 3 years.  Since then he gets plaque off in his food once a day.  He also gets a 3 to 4 inch raw marrow bone once a week.  He get to have it while Otis and I read the Sunday newspaper. He is finished with it in 1 to 1.5 hours.  He also flosses his teeth on stuffies almost every day.  He has not had to have a teeth cleaning other than the one time and he is 10 .5 years old.

[Stacy]

I was looking at Nylabone Nutrident dental chews, which look similar to me to the Whimzees. I compared ingredients and it looks like the main difference is the Whimzees have potato starch as the first ingredient and the Nutrident has Wheat starch as the main ingredient. I'm a terrible nutritionist. Is potato starch good and wheat starch bad? Or is the Nutrident another option for a good, healthy dental chew?

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Potato allergies are almost non-existent in dogs (and people). Wheat allergies, on the other hand, are the number one food allergy in dogs. So you do the math, lol. 

Another difference between the two is that the Nylabone product contains oat hulls, which is not terrible, but also not a very good quality ingredient.

I have never had any luck with any edible Nylabone product. They made JD sick. The non-edible Durabone chews were recommended by his IMS because they are hypoallergenic and he really needed something that he was allowed to chew. Otherwise, I would not have considered the brand when there are so many better quality products of every kind available. 

[Stacy]

That's really interesting, thank you! I didn't realize that wheat allergies were a big thing. I've been lucky with dogs who don't have food allergies so far, so I've been focused more on products that aren't dangerous. 

We have quite the assortment of Nylabone bones around the house. I've been happy with them. The girls chew on them intermittently. I step on them and holler frequently. I also really like the West Paw line of chewy/throw toys. But they're hard to find in stores around here. Nylabones are often an impulse purchase when picking up dog food.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Food allergies are rare in dogs anyway; only about 1% of all dogs has a food allergy. (Sensitivities are much more common). But if your dog is going to have a food allergy, chances are better than 20% that it's going to be to wheat.

The non-edible Nylabones products are fine; I especially like some of their puppy chews. But none of my adult dogs were ever very interested in their chews, given that they had much tastier options, lol. And as mentioned, the edible products made JD really sick.

[GBK]

Really love the Petzlife products, either the spary or the gel.  Kona had her first teeth cleaning ever at almost 12 and only one front tooth extraction all else really good.

I spray or rub on with my fingers, leave them for a half hour and then give them a chew like a trachea or something like that.  Buddy had really, really bad soft teeth and he never had a dental and never had any issues, 13 years.  He was so funny, he knew when the half hour was up.  He would come and sit in front of me and stare, I'd me like "what?" then I would remember it was time for the chew LOL

http://www.petzlife.com/catalog/oral-care-products.html

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Did you do this daily or weekly or ????