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Attend your cat’s teeth
If your vet’s best advice to you is to leave your pet’s teeth in the loving hands of nature, it;s time to start getting worried. Then you can imagine one of two conditions to be already happening. One - your cat is very old and almost all the teeth are in bad shape or two - your cat’s teeth have reached the point of no-return. Since you cannot equip your pet with a pair of dentures - your poor kitty will just have to live with bad teeth, bad breath, bleeding gums, horrible pain and bad health.
A study done at the Louisiana School of Veterinary Medicine showed that having just one bad tooth can cause failing kidneys and heart ailments in cats. Worse, still 8 out of every 10 cats older than three has at least one bad tooth. And most cats 5 years old and older have dental bone loss, infected teeth and gums. Now, that sure is a grim statistic. The numbers shock!
Then of course, there’s a little understood observation - many veterinarians are not too fond of dentistry, or applying some of the great new ideas coming out in this new field.
The idea of acting like a hammer and tongs expert doesn’t feel too good for many a pet vet. Who wants to feel like a caveman anyway? Yet, that’s precisely what gets done when a tooth is bad. It goes without saying that to extract a tooth from a terrified cat is intimidating even for your vet.
With names like endodontics, periodontics, orthodontics, and intraoral radiology ... who wants to know more? But it’s not that difficult really. There are ways to take corrective measures. All you need to do to is to practise some great habits regularly.
Remember, your cat’s teeth are just like your teeth. However, unlike you, your cat will not stop eating food even with many bad teeth and a bad tooth pain. For that, they could do with a bravery award. The poor creatures would just go on bearing the pain and eating the food. Just imagine! Something you and me cannot even think of enduring! And with each passing day, the decay in their gums and teeth just keeps getting worse.
The same basic principles apply. So, here’s an important question that you need to ask yourself. Do I need to brush my cat’s teeth and if so? How often?
10 easy steps to help save your cat’s teeth
1.Smell your pet’s breath every week or ten days. Bad breath should ring alarm bells!
2.Brush your cat’s teeth everyday. Use a good toothbrush suitable for your cat. Remember, unlike us humans, the inside parts of the mouth are not the places to look - for plaque and tartar. Cats rarely get them there. You can use a cotton wool or soft cloth to clean out most places of your pet’s teeth. However, where you really need to use the brush is at the border bit - between gum and teeth.That’s where the plaque really settles down - especially on the upper teeth.
3. Examine your kitty’s teeth at least once a week or ten days. Look for swollen, red, bleeding gums, broken teeth, pockets of pus, ulcers and plaques.
4.Plaque deposits heavily at the border between tooth and gum. Keep a sharp eye on that line!
5. Train your cat to enjoy eating raw carrots, apples and pears after every meal. They make a natural way to keep the teeth clean.
6. Give your pets chewies, and "tooth-safe" chew toys to play with.
7. Make sure that your pet’s chow is well supplemented with vitamins. Vitamin C is especially useful to help keep the gums and teeth in good shape.
8. Get your kitty’s teeth checked and treated by your veterinarian. Follow up with 3 monthly and later 6 monthly check-ups.
9. If your cat has periodontal infection ask your vet about perioceutics and bioactive ceramic materials. Perioceutics are long acting antibiotic gels which when injected into a periodontal pocket (area with bone loss) of more than 4 mm - reduce the infection there.Of course, if this is done, you may need to apply a chlorhexidine rinse everyday and avoid brushing your pet’s teeth for at least two weeks. Daily brushing will still be essential.
10. If you see that your cat has teeth which have become shaky, don’t panic! In the good old days such teeth were just pulled out. Of late, a bioactive ceramic designed to bond to bone as well as soft tissue can actually help the bone to grow back in periodontal pockets.
Homeopathic and herbal remedies that help!
*Cloves - a pinch of dried clove powder mixed with a few drops of honey helps reduce pain and control infection
*Garlic - a quarter clove of garlic added in the food helps clear up bacteria
*Onions - two teaspoons of raw, diced onions added to the food at least thrice a week helps kill germs
*Myrrh: good for gums
*Echinacea: helpful in periodontal disease
*Arnica: good after oral surgery
*Calendula Lotion: heals ulcers
*Fragraria: cuts down on tartar - if given bimonthly
*Hypericum: reduces pain.
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Cats Tips.
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