August is Pet Dental Health Month
This month is a great time to take advantage of a FREE dental health check with one of the team at Gosford Veterinary Hospital.
Four out of five cats and dogs who are over the age of three will have some sort of dental disease. Unless you spend a lot of time looking in your pets mouth, (which let’s face it, not many of us do!) it is all too easy to miss the signs of dental disease progressing. One of the most obvious signs and how we generally first discover a problem is bad breath. Your pet’s mouth isn’t meant to smell like something died in there! Bad breath will often mean there is some sort of infection in your pet’s mouth. They also will get red and inflamed gums and a plaque build-up on the teeth which stain them a brown colour.
The Signs of Oral Disease
Something very important to know is that infected teeth don’t just affect your pets mouth but the bacteria can also spread through the blood stream to the heart, liver and kidneys and so will affect your pet’s overall health.
Oral Disease Stages
If you think about it this way, dogs age at a rate roughly 7 times faster than humans so in 1 year it is as if they haven’t been to the dentist in 7 years! Plus I don’t know about your pets but my dog certainly doesn’t brush her teeth twice a day and is very lazy on the flossing. Can you imagine if this was the case with a human, no wonder they get smelly breath!
This is why we recommend getting your pet’s teeth checked every 6 months to check on how they are going.
Preventatives
There are also lots of different preventatives.
Teeth Brushing
Brushing your dog’s teeth with pet toothpaste is a great way to keep their teeth clean. The video below outlines the most effective way to brush you dog’s teeth
Diet
Feeding a special dental kibble diet or the use of a water additive which helps prevent plaque build-up.
The important thing to know about most of these methods is that they work most effectively on teeth which have already been scaled and polished and are back to how healthy teeth should be.
FREE dental health check
This is why we would love for you to come in and get your pet’s teeth checked so we can let you know what state they are in at the present time and can advise you on how to best look after them for the future. We know that all dogs and cats are different if everyone tried brushing their pets teeth we would end up with some of our clients losing a finger or two and since that is NOT what we want we like to make a dental health plan specifically to suit your pet and your time.