Clean Your Dogs Teeth? Seriously?

Have you ever thought about why your dogs breath just might not smell that great? If you have dogs like myself, when you are out taking them for a walk and they find goose droppings or droppings from anything else for that matter, yes that could be one reason that your dogs breath is not so fresh. But what about things that you can attempt to control? Have you thought about cleaning their teeth?

One of the main reasons to have your dogs teeth cleaned is that, according to vetstreet.com, 85 percent of dogs already have some sort of gum disease by the time that they are 3.

Is it tough to clean your dogs teeth? It depends on your pooch. I know that for a couple of my dogs (and cats) a professional cleaning was the only way to go for my family. If your dog allows you access to their mouth, you can keep an eye on this regularly. However, with my wee beasties, I could not even get a look into their mouth. I had to leave it up to the pro's.

Here are a few things to keep in mind and discuss with your veterinarian:

• Any changes to your dogs mouth odor, are they drooling more?
• Is your pet, not allowing you to look inside their mouth.
• Dental disease can result in bad breath, painful chewing, and tooth loss.
• Bacteria under the gum can travel to the heart, kidneys, and liver.
• A professional dental cleaning is required to remove plaque and tartar from a pet’s teeth and to assess the health of the mouth.

There are several over the counter products that can help you keep your furry family members teeth and gums healthy. Next time you take your pet in for a check up, ask you veterinarian what they recommend as far as measures to take and how regularly you should be checking their teeth/gums.