dental bites

Mocha went for her 1 month check up at her dental vet today. Vet said gums look great, told her we couldn't get her used to us brushing her teeth. Vet tried showing us how, but she couldn't even get a grip on mocha, so she suggested just letting her lick the toothpaste each night, and to buy these dental bites from them. I will upload a picture to show the box, and also how large the treat is. Vet said to give her one, one a day, but they are massive! Plus they only come 24 to a box, so it won't even last a month at that rate. Not sure if they are safe for diabetics, so posting ingredients here. Does anyone have any experience with these?

They are fairly soft, I would almost have to compare them to the freeze dried chicken treats we bought her.

Ingredients:
freeze-dried fish, barley malt extract, antioxidants (containing tocopherois, ascorbic acid, natural flavor, citric acid, polysorbate 80, propylene glycol, canola and/or soybean oil, potassium sorbate), dried whey protein concentrate (source oflysozyme, lactoferrin and lactoperoxidase).

 

The ingredients do not look bad at all. The specially formulated dental "bites" like you described are supposed to work somewhat. They have to be big and not brittle to work. Regular dry food is brittle so it does not clean teeth, it just breaks instead of scraping against the tooth surface. There is a recent discussion in civi health about what meat to use for dental health. Regular meat (as in that topic) would probably work just as well and be less expensive.

 

My vet gave me a few of these to sample and, while my cats all loved them, I think that you would get just as much benefit (with no unnecessary ingredients and MUCH cheaper) by letting Mocha have pieces of meat/gizzard to chew on. IMO the benefit from these dental chews comes from the simple act of chewing.

 

thank you for the replies. We didn't really have any idea about the meat for dental teeth. Had heard of it, but not looked into it. Do you cook the meat first?

 

I use CET brand and they have helped. Before I started using them, Minou needed a dental about every other year. We are now coming up on four years, and she is just starting to get tartar again. I buy them from petfooddirect.com. They are a bit cheaper that way. They did not seem to affect Angus's BGs.

CET chews

 

I use Hills T/D (Feline) prescription dry food, get from vet.

It is a dry food (Tarter/Dental) that can be fed as a diet.

Comes in a BIG BAG (4 pounds, I think) and vet said give 1-2 a couple of times per day, after a meal.

They are about 1/2-inch in diameter, and are supposed to help clean teeth
because they do not shatter like regular dry food, but rather scrape against the teeth.

Likely has some carbs in it. I always gave Smokey a few each day, and he was OK.

 

I would never rec td as it was what squeak was on and likely caused his diabetes, never helped his teeth and gave my civie nasty allergies. dry food does not clean teeth. the large cet treats can be broken in half and are supposedly enzymatic......

 

it's my understanding that if giving chicken or beef for dental purposes you keep it raw and in fairly large chunks (like the size you would use for beef stew).

I haven't tried that, as I'm attempting to brush Maui's teeth and will start with Sydney's after her dental this week.

 

thanks for the responses. I will check into other dental treats online, and see how those prices are. Hillary, how is brushing mauis teeth coming along? Mocha made it difficult for us. I don't think I want to put any dry kibble into mocha .. cause I know ECID, but I also know that mocha IS different and it would affect her numbers! I should have checked out the meat at the store today but walked right past it cause we never buy it ourselves. I'll have to put it on my list to look at next week.

 

My vet recommended a kelp-based product called Plaque-Off and we have had wonderful results. It is safe for diabetics, but not safe for Hyper-T cats because it does have iodine (part of kelp). We found that after we got them used to it (sprinkle in the food) and every-other day maintenance dose seems to work really well. We also tried breathies - dried chicken breast pieces. It works well to get the big ones and tear off big pieces that can be gnawed upon - Scout likes these, but Smokey won't touch them. Laura

 

Ingredients: Chicken By-Product Meal, Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Ground Whole Grain Corn, Powdered Cellulose 10% (source of fiber), Pork Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Chicken Liver Flavor, ....
http://www.hillspet.com/products/prescr ... e-dry.html

Not just some carbs. A lot of carbs and definitely not good for a diabetic :-Q But ECID.

There's a thread on general Health about feeding raw meat for dental health: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=8102

Is teeth brushing an option? CET toothpaste is good, just not the malt one because the malt flavoring is sugar based.