It's a subject that is often discussed whenever we talk about senior dogs.
Dental care in your dog's life is one of the most important things, although caring for your dog's teeth should be a no-brainer, sadly there are a lot of senior dogs arriving into the shelters with bad, even rotten teeth.
Dogs with regular dental care live an average of 2 years longer when compared with dogs that don't. Just as with people, there is a link between other diseases such as heart disease in dogs with poor dental health."
In fact, dental disease can potentially impact your dog's major organs - heart, kidney, liver, lungs and even bladder. One of the biggest problems associated with poor dental health is infection.
Especialy plaque. The reason this infection creates such health risks is that being at the gumline means that it can very easily enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the body causing problems.
What are some of the signs of oral and dental disease in dogs?
* bad breath
* tartar : When plaque hardens it becomes tartar. While plaque can be brushed away, tartar cannot and may require dental cleaning to remove.
* Behavioural changes :
Additional signs that dental disease may be present can be seen in changes in the way your dog eats; do they favour one side, are they actually chewing or just gulping down their food? Are they drooling or dropping food? Or are they showing a lessened appetite? All could be signs of a painful mouth
What steps can I take to improve the dental health of my senior dog?
* While regular brushing is recommended to help reduce the risk of dental disease, once present, the primary treatment method is dental surgery. When a dog is older, the challenge of treating dental disease escalates and many fear the risks associated with anesthesia.
And although anesthesia is scary for the dog and nerve-wracking for the dogmom, there is no reason to delay it. Your dog will live painfree.. even without teeth and will feel so much better
* dental chews
Grigri has no teeth, they all have been removed when I adopted him.
The only thing a dogmom needs for a toothless dog is a sharp scissor to cut the treats in tiny pieces.. Although.. I have seen a tiny dog without teeth eat an entire birthday steak ..
If you have an account on IG, check out @weeza_pom. This cutie who is now an angel will steal your heart and her mom has opened a shelter for dogs in need Cross My Paws
signed,
a 'Senior Dog' mom-O-Holic