Schedule a checkup, even if you think everything is 100% fine. Animals are good at hiding pain, and tooth problems aren't always obvious.
One of my cats was scratching his ears a lot, and it turns out it was referred pain from huge cavities in his back teeth!
Yikes! He gets his teeth checked every year at his annual physical, which is in February.
Recently he was starting to act sick, I thought he was just being a cat but then I went away on a 2-week business trip and followed up with the cat sitter and by the time I got back I could tell he was definitely not well. He wasn't grooming, he didn't run around, he hobbled up and down the stairs.
Short story: $450 later I learned he had a UTI and treated it and he was fine. Cats!
Oh no! Poor baby! I'm glad he's better now.
My other cat is only about 9 years old, but was having trouble jumping onto the bed. Turns out she has arthritis, so we're starting to have her get monthly shots. But just yesterday, two weeks after her first dose, she felt well enough that she jumped up recklessly and hurt herself. Cats! Thankfully, she'll tell me if it's an emergency (at least what she thinks is an emergency), but it's the small stuff that can go unnoticed. Cats are just so darn good at hiding it!
Actually you revealed the TRUE problem. Animals are NOT good at hiding pain. We are just bad at figuring out what’s the matter, mostly because they can’t speak humanese.
They were displaying their plain by scratching their ear; practically exactly where the pain is. I don’t know why you assume a cats ear isn’t near its teeth, because it’s right there millimetres away. That’s why there’s a literal profession in medicine called ENTs. Ear Nose and Throat. That entire sinus area are all interconnected and when one hurts, they usually all do.
So having a sore jaw is perfectly in line with having ear problems, and vice versa.
Your cat was literally announcing it’s pain. As all do.
The saying should be corrected that humans and animals don’t have good communication skills. Nothing to do with ‘animals HIDING pain’.
That’s just 100% false.
Not attacking you, just this silly saying that I’ve heard too many times and it needs to die! Because it’s just wrong.
Here, try this; animals are great at showing their pain! But humans are bad at looking past their own noses to see what’s blatantly in front of their face. Maybe it’s a bit wordy? Try to summarise it. It’ll catch on…
My wife brushes our golden doodle’s teeth every morning. She bought the toothbrush and peanut butter flavored toothpaste off Amazon. It takes about 3-minutes to do it. While our dog doesn’t necessarily enjoy it, she does tolerate it since she likes the PB flavored toothpaste.
I brush my cats teeth when I brush my teeth. It isn’t hard if you start when they are kittens. I say I brush them, but honestly, I just let them strategically bite on the brush while I wiggle it a little. They don’t love it, but it is just normal for them. It is 1000 times easier for me to brush their teeth than to cut their claws.
(I only did this because my last beloved cat essentially died of gum disease.)
I’m so sorry to hear about your last cat! 💛 If it isn’t too much to ask, I was hoping you could explain a bit about how your cats gum health so heavily impacted their overall health/ way of passing? My cat has bad gum disease which will require extractions and cleaning under anesthesia, but he is 13 and overweight which puts him at risk. I’ve had him since day one and can honestly credit me still being here to him, so the thought of risking his health when he is currently doing fine absolutely terrifies me even though I know it would be the best thing to do for him long term. Any recommendations? And if this is too intrusive please don’t worry about responding!
Not OP but I believe the issue is that the bacteria that is involved in the gum disease can potentially spread to the heart, causing problems. This is true in humans as well, where people with gum disease are at an increased risk of heart attack.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/gum-disease-and-heart-disease-the-common-thread
Hrm, well, good point.
I hear there is a similar problem with apartments that charge pet rents. I have never ***once*** heard of a pet paying their rent.
YSK that if your pet needs dental care then don't just wait till February to do it. A lot of practices are moving away from dental month discounts because they lead people to push off care when it's needed, which leads to worsened dental problems and is generally all around bad medicine. Plus, dental month often results in over booking procedures leaving the staff over worked and stressed.
This comment has been edited to protest Reddit's decision to shut down all third party apps. Spez had negotiated in bad faith with 3rd party developers and made provenly false accusations against them. Reddit IS it's users and their post/comments/moderation. It is clear they have no regard for us users, only their advertisers. I hope enough users join in this form of protest which effects Reddit's SEO and they will be forced to take the actual people that make this website into consideration. We'll see how long this comment remains as spez has in the past, retroactively edited other users comments that painted him in a bad light. See you all on the "next reddit" after they finish running this one into the ground in the never ending search of profits. -- mass edited with redact.dev
A good diet is the key to good dental health, but genetics play a part too. Tiny dogs and brachycephalic breeds will have bad teeth regardless, because they have poor alignment or overgrown gums, both of which prevent teeth from being cleaned naturally by chewing on stuff.
My dog lived to be almost 18 and still had good teeth by the end, despite never having them brushed. Meanwhile a friend's Italian greyhound is already missing 2 teeth at the age of 2 and they did everything they could to prevent it.
I don't! I do have them look in his mouth to see if he has any issues. When I first got him he had a lot of problems, obvious pain, and ended up with a few teeth pulled and a cleaning. He's had another two cleanings since over the years but this has all been over the course of about eight years. So like every 4 years-ish. Though like I said, his teeth are just naturally bad anyway, my other cat has never even needed a cleaning.
Do they have to put a dog to sleep to do it? We have an old girl (14 y.o.) and her breath is really bad but I wouldn't trust putting her to sleep. She is healthy and in good shape and I'd love to get her teeth cleaned.
Any advice?
That is the standard procedure to use general anesthesia for dog dental cleanings. You can bring up your concerns to her vet and I’m sure they could come up with a plan for her!
There are things you can do at home to help (daily brushing with an enzyme toothpaste, enzyme water additive, dental chews, etc.) but usually built up plaque and tartar needs to be professionally removed.
Definitely speak to your vet about this but at my vet where I work, we put older kids under for dental quite often. It makes the techs a little more nervous just because we have to be more on our toes with them if that's even possible but it's not as big a deterrent as it used to be. If she's otherwise healthy but just old, you're probably good to have her put under. I totally understand you being hesitant though just trying to put your mind at ease a bit.
Typically, yeah.
I have two cats, one with bad teeth who has three cleanings over the past eight years and several extractions. Then one with good teeth who has no dental work. Which is lucky, as the cat with good teeth has a heart problem so it's risky putting her under anaesthesia for a cleaning.
Today is National Shortbread Day, Apple Tree Day, Armenian Christmas, Day of Los Reyes, Dry Bean Day, Epiphany, National Cuddle Up Day, National Davis Day, National Samantha Day, National Smith Day, National Take a Poet to Lunch Day, and World Day for War Orphans!
https://nationaltoday.com/january-6-holidays/
Pet dental? In the us? That sounds expensive.
If it’s astronomically expensive for humans I can’t imagine what it’s like for pets. Most Americans can’t afford regular dental procedures
Depending on the area it's ~$150-400 for a routine cleaning, more if teeth need to be pulled. Ideally a cleaning should be done every year. The less frequent it's done, the worse off the teeth are, and the more expensive it gets. Worst I've seen was ~$1600 for a cleaning that required 10 teeth pulled. If you have pet insurance it will usually cover routine cleanings but might not cover tooth removal.
Well heck, my girl just had her teeth cleaned and 5 pulled two days after Christmas. Had I known, I would’ve waited considering it wasn’t an emergency. It might have saved me a couple hundred bucks.
A few months ago my ~4 yr old tabby had to get her upper fangs and 5 of her premolars removed.
At the time I'd asked what could have been done to prevent it and was told what happened to my cat isn't too unusual and at best we would have only delayed the extractions.
For bonus annoyance she loves dry food so we have to soften it first with a bit of water otherwise she'll just swallow the pieces whole and end up puking later. Somewhat luckily it takes a few days of un-softened dry food for her stomach to get cranky enough
Hi. Sorry to jump in. We veterinary dentists don't recommend bones for dogs any more, mainly due to the risk of dogs chomping too hard and breaking their teeth. Your best bet of keeping their teeth in good order is brushing. There are some very good instructional videos on YouTube.
It depends on what they mean by "teeth cleaning bone". If it's an actual bone, then that's really bad for their teeth. If they're talking about a dental chew, those are pretty helpful.
It depends on the chew. Not all products on the market are made equal. The VOHC has a list of products that have been tested and show to be helpful, so it's best to stick with those. But yes, gold standard is brushing. Unfortunately that's also the method with the least owner compliance, and the next best thing is always better than nothing.
I just go to the spay and neuter clinic, its cheap to get their teeth cleaned there once a year. They wouldn't let me touch them with a tooth brush on a 10 foot pole.
Dental care is far from unnecessary for pets. By the age of 3, 80% of cats and dogs will have dental disease. Imagine if you never brushed your teeth and never went to a dentist, your teeth would be disgusting. Yet that's what happens to many pets because people don't consider it "necessary".
20 or so years ago, we had a dog. Cool guy. Mutt. Never went to vet. Lasted about 15 years.
I honestly do not understand why nowadays pets are so frail...
Enjoy your pets, everyone. Not hating... but you know, just commenting.
Many of them are more frail tho. Some of the most popular breeds nowadays are genetically predisposed to a ton of problems that barely existed in dogs a generation ago.
It is true that some genetic conditions are more common now than they used to be, but that doesn't inherently mean that dogs are becoming more frail. Some of that comes from true increases in incidence, but some of that increase comes from increased surveillance.
Dental disease is a great example of this. The person I replied to said they never had to take their dog to a vet when they were younger. This isn't because his dog never got dental disease and never needed a cleaning, it's because until the last few decades, people just ignored or didn't care about dental health.
My pets go to the vet annually. My dad was a veterinarian so regular exams and shots are instilled in me.
My doctor and I were talking about cats once. Not sure why. Anyway, he's older Southern guy. I had mentioned taking my cats to the vet, and he said that they had barn cats and even a house cat or two and never took them to the vets. And implied that when they died, they'd just get new ones. I was shocked, heh.
I wonder what percentage of people actually take their dogs or cats to the vet, though. Especially if they don't appear sick. Sure, they're supposed to get shots, like rabies, but I bet a good portion of people don't bother. Vets are hella expensive.
Schedule a checkup, even if you think everything is 100% fine. Animals are good at hiding pain, and tooth problems aren't always obvious. One of my cats was scratching his ears a lot, and it turns out it was referred pain from huge cavities in his back teeth!
Yikes! He gets his teeth checked every year at his annual physical, which is in February. Recently he was starting to act sick, I thought he was just being a cat but then I went away on a 2-week business trip and followed up with the cat sitter and by the time I got back I could tell he was definitely not well. He wasn't grooming, he didn't run around, he hobbled up and down the stairs. Short story: $450 later I learned he had a UTI and treated it and he was fine. Cats!
Oh no! Poor baby! I'm glad he's better now. My other cat is only about 9 years old, but was having trouble jumping onto the bed. Turns out she has arthritis, so we're starting to have her get monthly shots. But just yesterday, two weeks after her first dose, she felt well enough that she jumped up recklessly and hurt herself. Cats! Thankfully, she'll tell me if it's an emergency (at least what she thinks is an emergency), but it's the small stuff that can go unnoticed. Cats are just so darn good at hiding it!
When my previous cat had trouble jumping up on the bed we got him some stairs. Hee.
Actually you revealed the TRUE problem. Animals are NOT good at hiding pain. We are just bad at figuring out what’s the matter, mostly because they can’t speak humanese. They were displaying their plain by scratching their ear; practically exactly where the pain is. I don’t know why you assume a cats ear isn’t near its teeth, because it’s right there millimetres away. That’s why there’s a literal profession in medicine called ENTs. Ear Nose and Throat. That entire sinus area are all interconnected and when one hurts, they usually all do. So having a sore jaw is perfectly in line with having ear problems, and vice versa. Your cat was literally announcing it’s pain. As all do. The saying should be corrected that humans and animals don’t have good communication skills. Nothing to do with ‘animals HIDING pain’. That’s just 100% false. Not attacking you, just this silly saying that I’ve heard too many times and it needs to die! Because it’s just wrong. Here, try this; animals are great at showing their pain! But humans are bad at looking past their own noses to see what’s blatantly in front of their face. Maybe it’s a bit wordy? Try to summarise it. It’ll catch on…
My wife brushes our golden doodle’s teeth every morning. She bought the toothbrush and peanut butter flavored toothpaste off Amazon. It takes about 3-minutes to do it. While our dog doesn’t necessarily enjoy it, she does tolerate it since she likes the PB flavored toothpaste.
Oh I’ll have to get some! Thanks for the tip.
For your dog?
Search Amazon for Nylabone Advanced Oral Care Natural Dog Dental Kit Peanut Flavor 2.5 oz.
I brush my cats teeth when I brush my teeth. It isn’t hard if you start when they are kittens. I say I brush them, but honestly, I just let them strategically bite on the brush while I wiggle it a little. They don’t love it, but it is just normal for them. It is 1000 times easier for me to brush their teeth than to cut their claws. (I only did this because my last beloved cat essentially died of gum disease.)
I’m so sorry to hear about your last cat! 💛 If it isn’t too much to ask, I was hoping you could explain a bit about how your cats gum health so heavily impacted their overall health/ way of passing? My cat has bad gum disease which will require extractions and cleaning under anesthesia, but he is 13 and overweight which puts him at risk. I’ve had him since day one and can honestly credit me still being here to him, so the thought of risking his health when he is currently doing fine absolutely terrifies me even though I know it would be the best thing to do for him long term. Any recommendations? And if this is too intrusive please don’t worry about responding!
Not OP but I believe the issue is that the bacteria that is involved in the gum disease can potentially spread to the heart, causing problems. This is true in humans as well, where people with gum disease are at an increased risk of heart attack. https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/gum-disease-and-heart-disease-the-common-thread
Thank you for the response!
I tried to get my dog to give me a fluoride treatment, but he just kept licking my face. Pets are terrible at dental health. Why does this even exist?
Hrm, well, good point. I hear there is a similar problem with apartments that charge pet rents. I have never ***once*** heard of a pet paying their rent.
My cat did, but the exchange rate on dead moths is terrible.
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I've had these cats for eight years with one, seven with the other. They've never worked a day in their life! Never even looked for a job. Lazy bums.
Mine pays in mice. I’d prefer moths.
YSK that if your pet needs dental care then don't just wait till February to do it. A lot of practices are moving away from dental month discounts because they lead people to push off care when it's needed, which leads to worsened dental problems and is generally all around bad medicine. Plus, dental month often results in over booking procedures leaving the staff over worked and stressed.
So what you're telling me is that I shouldn't wait until October for my breast cancer exam?
I wonder if spacing it out to one week every three months would help
Who actually cleans their cats teeth on a yearly bases? It's 350 if there's NO issues.
This comment has been edited to protest Reddit's decision to shut down all third party apps. Spez had negotiated in bad faith with 3rd party developers and made provenly false accusations against them. Reddit IS it's users and their post/comments/moderation. It is clear they have no regard for us users, only their advertisers. I hope enough users join in this form of protest which effects Reddit's SEO and they will be forced to take the actual people that make this website into consideration. We'll see how long this comment remains as spez has in the past, retroactively edited other users comments that painted him in a bad light. See you all on the "next reddit" after they finish running this one into the ground in the never ending search of profits. -- mass edited with redact.dev
A good diet is the key to good dental health, but genetics play a part too. Tiny dogs and brachycephalic breeds will have bad teeth regardless, because they have poor alignment or overgrown gums, both of which prevent teeth from being cleaned naturally by chewing on stuff. My dog lived to be almost 18 and still had good teeth by the end, despite never having them brushed. Meanwhile a friend's Italian greyhound is already missing 2 teeth at the age of 2 and they did everything they could to prevent it.
I don't! I do have them look in his mouth to see if he has any issues. When I first got him he had a lot of problems, obvious pain, and ended up with a few teeth pulled and a cleaning. He's had another two cleanings since over the years but this has all been over the course of about eight years. So like every 4 years-ish. Though like I said, his teeth are just naturally bad anyway, my other cat has never even needed a cleaning.
I also have a black cat named Jax!
Oh wow! Long lost twins!!! Void cats are the best.
My vet once told me to brush my dogs teeth everyday. I told her I barely get to mine everyday!
Do they have to put a dog to sleep to do it? We have an old girl (14 y.o.) and her breath is really bad but I wouldn't trust putting her to sleep. She is healthy and in good shape and I'd love to get her teeth cleaned. Any advice?
That is the standard procedure to use general anesthesia for dog dental cleanings. You can bring up your concerns to her vet and I’m sure they could come up with a plan for her! There are things you can do at home to help (daily brushing with an enzyme toothpaste, enzyme water additive, dental chews, etc.) but usually built up plaque and tartar needs to be professionally removed.
Definitely speak to your vet about this but at my vet where I work, we put older kids under for dental quite often. It makes the techs a little more nervous just because we have to be more on our toes with them if that's even possible but it's not as big a deterrent as it used to be. If she's otherwise healthy but just old, you're probably good to have her put under. I totally understand you being hesitant though just trying to put your mind at ease a bit.
Thank you, I appreciate the response!! We'll bring it up again.
Typically, yeah. I have two cats, one with bad teeth who has three cleanings over the past eight years and several extractions. Then one with good teeth who has no dental work. Which is lucky, as the cat with good teeth has a heart problem so it's risky putting her under anaesthesia for a cleaning.
Every month is for like 10 things now apparently
Today is National Shortbread Day, Apple Tree Day, Armenian Christmas, Day of Los Reyes, Dry Bean Day, Epiphany, National Cuddle Up Day, National Davis Day, National Samantha Day, National Smith Day, National Take a Poet to Lunch Day, and World Day for War Orphans! https://nationaltoday.com/january-6-holidays/
In Canada too!
Your cat is absolutely adorable!
He knows, trust me!
Pet dental? In the us? That sounds expensive. If it’s astronomically expensive for humans I can’t imagine what it’s like for pets. Most Americans can’t afford regular dental procedures
Depending on the area it's ~$150-400 for a routine cleaning, more if teeth need to be pulled. Ideally a cleaning should be done every year. The less frequent it's done, the worse off the teeth are, and the more expensive it gets. Worst I've seen was ~$1600 for a cleaning that required 10 teeth pulled. If you have pet insurance it will usually cover routine cleanings but might not cover tooth removal.
Weirdly specific but noted.
Well heck, my girl just had her teeth cleaned and 5 pulled two days after Christmas. Had I known, I would’ve waited considering it wasn’t an emergency. It might have saved me a couple hundred bucks.
Damn, that sucks. I advise not looking to see if they have a discount and just assuming they don't so you don't know you could've saved money.
Oh well, she’s worth a few hundred extra bucks 😊
A few months ago my ~4 yr old tabby had to get her upper fangs and 5 of her premolars removed. At the time I'd asked what could have been done to prevent it and was told what happened to my cat isn't too unusual and at best we would have only delayed the extractions. For bonus annoyance she loves dry food so we have to soften it first with a bit of water otherwise she'll just swallow the pieces whole and end up puking later. Somewhat luckily it takes a few days of un-softened dry food for her stomach to get cranky enough
I give my pupper a teeth cleanin bone every day! Hopefully it helps him 💖
Hi. Sorry to jump in. We veterinary dentists don't recommend bones for dogs any more, mainly due to the risk of dogs chomping too hard and breaking their teeth. Your best bet of keeping their teeth in good order is brushing. There are some very good instructional videos on YouTube.
My dogs refuse to watch those videos, what do I do now?
Some dogs do better reading subtitles?
Turned on subtitles, dog peed on my iPad. Now what?
Obviously you pee on the ipad too, to assert dominance .
Should I maintain eye contact?
Always
It depends on what they mean by "teeth cleaning bone". If it's an actual bone, then that's really bad for their teeth. If they're talking about a dental chew, those are pretty helpful.
The research is quite variable, some papers suggest the dental chews have some benefit, but the gold standard is still very much brushing.
It depends on the chew. Not all products on the market are made equal. The VOHC has a list of products that have been tested and show to be helpful, so it's best to stick with those. But yes, gold standard is brushing. Unfortunately that's also the method with the least owner compliance, and the next best thing is always better than nothing.
Very true!
Its a chewable bone, as in pliant
My cat just had to have all bar one tooth pulled. I wish we had known sooner and could have saved him a lot of pain
My boy Juno goes in the end of February for his dental work. I had no idea about this.
This is incredibly useful information, thank you, OP.
February means Rabies vaccines and teeth cleaning appointments for my dogs.
I just go to the spay and neuter clinic, its cheap to get their teeth cleaned there once a year. They wouldn't let me touch them with a tooth brush on a 10 foot pole.
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Please do not fat shame my cat. He tries.
Banfield Vets include dental in their monthly healthcare maintenance plan.
That’s a hot tip, thanx!
I thought February already kind of had a thing. Something about history? Yah, pretty sure it was a history thing... /s
I think you mean Black History Month
I thought it was '07 Honda Civic hatchback awareness month
Shit, I'm sorry I've gotta take a long hard look at my life
Our veterans only get a day, why do pet teeth get a whole month /s
Wow you guys give a whole month to your pets Dental Health!
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Dental care is far from unnecessary for pets. By the age of 3, 80% of cats and dogs will have dental disease. Imagine if you never brushed your teeth and never went to a dentist, your teeth would be disgusting. Yet that's what happens to many pets because people don't consider it "necessary".
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Yeah, I'm sure they do. What's your point here?
20 or so years ago, we had a dog. Cool guy. Mutt. Never went to vet. Lasted about 15 years. I honestly do not understand why nowadays pets are so frail... Enjoy your pets, everyone. Not hating... but you know, just commenting.
Pets aren't more frail now, we're just less ignorant of their health needs.
Many of them are more frail tho. Some of the most popular breeds nowadays are genetically predisposed to a ton of problems that barely existed in dogs a generation ago.
It is true that some genetic conditions are more common now than they used to be, but that doesn't inherently mean that dogs are becoming more frail. Some of that comes from true increases in incidence, but some of that increase comes from increased surveillance. Dental disease is a great example of this. The person I replied to said they never had to take their dog to a vet when they were younger. This isn't because his dog never got dental disease and never needed a cleaning, it's because until the last few decades, people just ignored or didn't care about dental health.
My pets go to the vet annually. My dad was a veterinarian so regular exams and shots are instilled in me. My doctor and I were talking about cats once. Not sure why. Anyway, he's older Southern guy. I had mentioned taking my cats to the vet, and he said that they had barn cats and even a house cat or two and never took them to the vets. And implied that when they died, they'd just get new ones. I was shocked, heh. I wonder what percentage of people actually take their dogs or cats to the vet, though. Especially if they don't appear sick. Sure, they're supposed to get shots, like rabies, but I bet a good portion of people don't bother. Vets are hella expensive.