The vet wants me to brush Oranjello’s teeth every day because he apparently has a lot of tartar buildup and she was surprised as he is only a year old. She said she recommends him for a cleaning already, but unfortunately, the cleaning she’s talking about is like $400 because they have to anesthetize him. So she wants me to brush his teeth to push back having to go in for that major cleaning. It sucks. Why’s he have to have bad teeth? (Insert mullet-guy joke here.)
I linked to the training video they had for me, but here it is again http://partnersah.vet.cornell.edu/Brushing-Your-Cats-Teeth/Entire-Video
Luckily for me, it doesn’t seem like Oranjello hates the toothbrush or the toothpaste. He actually jumped ahead to week three and was like putting the brush in his mouth and licking the dab of toothpaste off of it… so I think it won’t be too traumatic for either of us (crosses fingers)
May 26, 2009 at 8:57 pm
It’s the eating exclusively moist food. Eating the hard/crunchy food helps keep their teeth from getting too much tartar, and they even make formulas specifically for that.
We’ve only take Toonces to get his teeth cleaned twice in his life.
May 26, 2009 at 10:16 pm
Actually, at previous visits with another vet (at the same clinic), I was told the canned food does not cause tooth decay. Today, when the vet said there was all this surprising tartar buildup, I asked if the canned food caused it, but she said no.
She also said that the dry food scraping the teeth clean doesn’t happen on the level that one would think to keep the teeth clean, but that could be vet rhetoric to encourage teeth cleaning.
May 26, 2009 at 10:40 pm
Our vet didn’t say moist food caused decay, just that dry food helps prevent tartar from building up as fast. As in don’t give them ONLY moist food.
They also make cat treats for tartar prevention.
One year surprises me, Toonces didn’t need his first cleaning till he was at least 7 years old. Vladi has never needed one
And it wasn’t $400, more like $250. They might be trying to take you for a ride.
They even have a dental diet Friskies you can buy at any grocery store.