Dental Health
Give a Dog a Bone

So, you've decided to get your pet's teeth cleaned (and rotten ones removed) and give him a brand new healthy mouth. How do you keep those teeth clean so you don't need to go through the whole process again? The secret to clean healthy teeth in our pets is actually very simple:

RAW MEATY BONES.
No big secret really, just natural healthy food to which our pets have evolved over millions of years. We as humans haven't domesticated them and made them evolve to commercial dog mush nearly long enough to change this process yet! Cats and dogs which regularly eat raw meaty bones are not only healthier animals (this is the best food we can feed them), but they rarely have rotten teeth over 10 years of age.

We as veterinarians can pick them every time, when a pet has great teeth we ask “he obviously gets plenty of bones?” and the answer is invariably “yes”. Conversely when we see a patient with very smelly breath and rotting teeth we ask “he doesn't get much in the way of raw bones does he?” and the answer is invariably “No”.

Cats are particularly difficult to get onto bones if not started from a very early age, so I recommend them from 6 weeks of age. Dogs just about always love them and will guard them jeolously as they know what's good for them. Occasionally however some individuals may have a problem with bones, constipation, vomiting, and the very remote possibility of getting something stuck. If cooked, these problems have a higher chance of occurring. I often advise people, yes there is only a very remote chance of getting a serious problem, but the chance of getting a serious problem from infected rotten teeth is a hundred fold more. Let alone the poor pet having to live with infected gums, and that smelly breath! So for mine, the positives by far out weigh the negatives.

But what do we do if for one reason or another we can't or decide not to use raw bones. Well there are many less effective but still worthwhile alternatives. Number one is Hills's T/D or “teeth diet”. Despite not being much of a believer in commercial diets, Hill's is one of the better ones, and their T/D is probably the most effective teeth cleaning food next to bones. The dry kibble doesn't break up until it has sunk to the gum, hence removing the plaque. This diet is especially good for cats. I highly recommend it for any older patients having their teeth cleaned under general anaesthesia, so as to minimise the chance of needing to do it again.

Then there's products such as denta bones, raw hide chewies, greenies and the like. All these can help, but these products are commercially lucrative for the companies that make them but not nearly as healthy or as effective as my favorite, you guessed it... RAW MEATY BONES.

So as the old saying goes, give a dog (and a cat!) a bone!