Who brushes their cat's teeth?

I'm sure this topic has come up before, but I'd appreciate any thoughts on brushing our cats' teeth - do you do it, and if so, do you have any tips?

I've just come back from the vet with my little three-year-old girl, Sapphire, and the vet says she has a little plaque and the best thing is to get her used to me cleaning her teeth with one of the special fish-flavoured products on the market. Sigh... Saff is as good as gold but I can't see her letting me do this, although maybe it's a bit like home-testing - once you've mastered the knack, it's easy? I'm not so sure. I never cleaned my previous two cats' teeth, but I first had them 20 years ago and perhaps vets didn't push for it as much then. They (Tom and Sophie) did have dentals though, and of course I want to spare Sapphire (and me!) that for as long as possible.

The other thing the vet said to me was switch her diet to dry food, which was better for teeth - grrrrrrrrrrrr! I started to explain why I preferred to feed wet but it fell on deaf ears. Vet also says that Saff is at the top end of the normal weight range so I should introduce dry food into her diet and that will help her to keep weight off - grrrrrrrrrr! I know vets like to push the dry but I do wish they would listen to the owner's thoughts on diet.

Anyway, any thoughts in the teeth cleaning situation would be appreciated - thank you.

Diana

 

With 14 cats, I don't.

Cat Info on Dental Health

You might print this page and give it to your vet.

 

Great link BJM, thank you. As I thought. I hadn't seen this particular vet before and I was not impressed. He talked at me as if he was giving a lecture and I could hardly get a word in. Why don't some vets respect owners... We do have a lot of experience cat(2)_steam

 

Same as BJ got 14 cats and not a single one gets their teeth brushed they do however get raw chicken gizzards and raw chicken wing tips about once a week and have great teeth. The only ones to need dentals in the last 9years were my diabetics when they were first adopted. Maxwell just had his yearly exam and was declared perfect from the tip of his nose to the tip of his tail

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn and The Fur Gang

 

Great tip Mel, thanks!

 

I used to put the paste onto a bit of cheesecloth and sort of scrub their teeth. I wasn't really committed to it though.
Dana

 

I went to a special internal medicine doctor once for $$ and she talked at me about diabetes for 90% of the hour consultation. I did not even go to her to talk about diabetes. I wanted a second opinion on J.D.'s blood pressure results. I was not impressed with her at all. I was struggeling to get a word in edgewise while she talked and talked.


J.D. had his second dental in January (at 18, so we saw a Dental Specialist). J.D. had 8 teeth removed at his first dental in 2009, and another 8 removed including one badly abcessed canine this January. This dental specialist who I highly trust, gave us these three things (what I call dental drops) to give him once a day: one drop of Maxi Guard Oral Cleansing Gel that I put on my finger and just spread along his teeth or gums the best I can and one drop of C.E.T. Oral Hygiene Rinse that I put on my finger and spread along his teeth and gums every morning and one 1-TDC Periodontal and Joint Health capsule every other day also spread across his gums the best I can.

 

I've never brushed the teeth of any of my cats. But if I knew years ago what I know now then I would have done what Mel does, and started giving the cats raw chicken wings to knaw on while the cats were still young. And if I ever get any more cats after this current gang have 'popped their clogs' then that is exactly what I will do...

All my cats are old now, and all but one of those has needed dentals to clean their teeth and to extract bad teeth. And one of my cats really needs a dental right now but is in poor health and the vet is advising against it... :sad:
The only cat who hasn't needed a dental (and who still has perfect teeth at age 15) is my feral girl, Sophie, who catches and eats a lot of prey.

I only fairly recently tried feeding my cats raw food. I never thought they'd take to it but they love it now, and it forms about a third of their diet. If I'd got them used to raw at a younger age, when their teeth were still in good nick, then giving them chicken wings (or something similar) to chomp on may well have kept their teeth in good shape for longer.

Diana, - your Saffy is still a youngster and so may well benefit from the 'chicken wing chomping' thing. Does she catch and eat prey? If so then she may take to the chicken really easily.

Or if she's not a hunter but you'd like to try her with some raw food then I can let you have some. I've just today had a delivery of whole minced wild rabbit. You could try adding a little to her current food and see if she takes to it...?

Eliz

 

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and suggestions. It does sound as if introducing some raw food is the way to go - not wildly keen on the thought of actually doing it but all of us here will do anything for our kitties and I'm no exception!

Thanks again.

Diana