By Emma Schmid Looney Registered Veterinary Nurse (RVN)
Despite how much we love seeing our clients and their pets coming to visit us at our clinics in Clare Street, Shannon and Henry Street, we here at Rockhall Vets equally enjoy spreading the love and keeping our clients informed in everything they can be doing at home to help keep their pet healthy and happy!
Of course our work is to help your pet stay in or get back to good health, however, we also want to help you sidestep a totally preventable visit to the vet!
Dental Health issues are among the most frequently diagnosed problems we see in our daily work. Studies have shown that from as early as 3 years “70% of adult cats and 90% of adult dogs” are affected by periodontal disease. That’s 7 out of every 10 cats and 9 out of every 10 dogs! Our furry friends can suffer from dental issues just as we can – so let’s talk about the issues that plague our pets and what we can do to keep our pets’ teeth and mouth as healthy as possible for as long as possible.
So how do you recognise the early signs? What can you do to help prevent dental health problems for your pet?
Here are Rockhall Vets “10 things you need to know about your pet’s teeth and how to care for them”
- How it happens?
Bacteria forms like a film around the teeth can harden over time, and if it is not cleaned off, can cause serious problems! Plaque and tartar begin to collect in these areas and creates an ideal environment for infections to occur. It is easy to visually assess the mouth and see how periodontal disease is progressing and affecting the mouth. However, through these infections, the bacteria can infiltrate the bloodstream and in bad cases even cause sepsis, and affect major organs in the body – this is less simple to examine and can result in a high bill if the problem is very serious.
It is important to know that our pets can be quite good at masking discomfort or pain, and so by the time they are exhibiting signs of pain and discomfort, the disease may already be reasonably serious…
2. Painful Toothins
Our pets will often hide any sort of pain until it is very bad. When it comes to the mouth, usually they will not exhibit any major signs of pain. There are little things to watch out for – drooling, pawing at the mouth, not grooming themselves like they normally do, or not eating as much as they usually would or even stopping eating altogether.
3. Ew! It smells like Dog’s breath?
Even though we are all too familiar with this term, your pet’s breath shouldn’t actually smell “bad”. If you notice a funky odour coming from your pet’s mouth, take it as a sign that they may need their teeth cleaned.
4. BY GUM!
Red, swollen gums is a sure sign that your pet’s teeth need a seeing to. In a healthy mouth, a pet’s gums should be a nice, healthy, pink colour. Inflammation can occur at one tooth or the whole mouth, so it is important to check your pet’s mouth regularly for redness or puffiness at the tooth/gum junction!
5. Tartar… and we don’t mean the sauce…
Tartar is a yellow/brownish/blackish coating that can cover the teeth. The mechanical action of chewing hard kibbles helps to prevent build up.
6. Losing Weight
Losing a little bit of weight can sometimes benefit our pets. However, if you notice a drastic change in your pets weight it can often signify a dental problem that is causing pain. Also, chewing and saliva play a large part in the metabolic process, even if your pet seems to be eating normally, they could be swallowing their food whole because of sore teeth and therefore not getting the nutrients from their food.
7. Seems a little clumsy?
Dropping food or favouring one particular side of the mouth when they chew is an almost definite sign that there is something up with their teeth. By doing this they are avoiding chewing on a sore part of the mouth and may need treatment to help get their dental health bak on track.
8. Drooling
Drooling is often a sign of dental discomfort as they don’t want to use their tongues to keep the saliva in the mouth due to gum pain.
9. Vomiting
Vomiting can also be a sign of oral pain. Cats in particular may vomit up whole pieces of unchewed kibbles as they find it too painful to crunch them.
10. Do some pets suffer more commonly than others?
Certain breeds of both cats and dogs can suffer dental problems. Breeds like Chihuahuas, Shih Tzus, and Pugs can suffer with overcrowding of the teeth. It creates more surface area for bacteria to flourish and tartar to build up. Certain breeds of cats such as Siamese, Himalayans & Persians also suffer more with dental health problems. If your pet has an under- or over-shot jaw for example, their teeth are exposed to abnormal forces which can cause fracturing or abnormal wear patterns on their teeth. In finely-bred dogs, we can often see teeth developing in abnormal positions or rotating, and again this can cause major problems. Stone & bone ‘chewers’ can develop root exposures and fractures which are very painful. As they age they can literally ‘wear away’ their teeth to stumps. Also, as dogs grow, their baby teeth will fall out just like humans. However, what can sometimes happen is the retention of baby teeth which can greatly affect the adult teeth coming up behind them, they also contribute to overcrowding and abnormal wear and forces on the opposing teeth and should be removed if not falling out by themselves.
Rabbits too, if fed inappropriate diets without enough grass or hay in them. Rabbits & some rodents have ‘growing’ teeth and if not worn down with appropriate chewing can develop very bad malocclusion problems and sharp ‘spikes’ which can lead to mouth ulcers and even anorexia. And as we all know, a rabbit who stops eating, should not be taken lightly as it can quickly turn into a veterinary emergency.
So what do we suggest?
Even with daily brushing, an appropriate diet and dental chews, your pet will still need regular dental health checks at least once a year. All dental health checks at Clare Street Vets, Henry Street Vets & Shannon Vets are free of charge! Our dedicated nurse and vet teams are happy to take a peek on your pets mouth and advise you on how to prevent problems arising and also with how to deal with any current problems you may already have.
When it comes to dental health, prevention is far better and cheaper than the cure. We advise annual dental health checks and a dental descale and polish if required. Sometimes if teeth are damaged severely with root involvement, extraction/s of teeth might be required. Vets are even offering ‘root canals’ now to save the tooth but have a pain free pet. There are a lot more options available now as the veterinary field progresses.
For a procedure called a ‘Dental’ (which involves removing and tartar from the teeth by descaling and polishing the teeth) your pet will have to undergo a general anesthetic. Unfortunately, we can’t just ask them to sit still and say ‘Aaaaah’ as we would in the dentists chair. 
This is generally a 1-day procedure whereby they would be dropped to one of our clinics on the morning of the procedure, and you would be able to collect them that same evening. We use much the same equipment as a human dentist: an ultrasonic descaler is used to clean not only the surface of the teeth but also under the gumline too. And it is this under-the-gum clean that is vital to our pet’s dental health! We then use the polisher to polish the teeth with a substance that helps to keep the teeth clean for longer.
As February is Pet Dental Health Month, we at Rockhall Veterinary are offering:
10% off Dental procedures
10% off toothpaste for your pet
and a FREE pet goody bag after every dental performed during February with loads of goodies and information on pet dental and oral health!
As said earlier we always offer FREE dental health checks and advice on dental care, so even if you just want to have them checked or to get free advice, don’t hesitate to give us a call and book your free Dental check up at:
Clare Street Vets 061-415104
Shannon Vets 061-472161
Henry Street Vets 061-314203.
Pssst!!… for a list of food and treats that are good for your pets dental health, check out the ‘Veterinary Oral Health Council’ at http://www.vohc.org/accepted_products.htm