Dental Health

Do you brush your kitty's teeth?

or use a oral rinse?

Or go to the vet for full cleaning?

my Grayson has some plaque it appears and we are gonna attempt this brushing thing so we'll see how it goes. not too successful thus far. but we will keep trying.

piglet was just diagnosed with FORL and we realized how important dental health is.  none of my three cats seem to want to drink the water when there's an additive in it; i might try again in a few days but every time i've tried they won't drink it.  we are trying to get them used to the toothpaste first, then will go to brushing.  i've read a lot about c.e.t. enzymatic toothpastes, even just smushing it in their mouths and them licking it off and mixing it with saliva can help break up the plaque a bit.  so we're doing that now.  once they're used to that, i'm going to try using a finger brush, or if that doesn't work, wrapping a bit of gauze around my finger and 'brushing' with that.

samantha had a dental cleaning at about 3 years old.  she had to have a tooth extracted and a molar looked at; it's completely brown, like a light brown or dark tan, but they found there is nothing wrong with it. it's just discolored.  and piglet had a full cleaning when she had her dental procedure (9.5 years).  my old cat, taylor, lived to 16 with all of his teeth intact and we never had him cleaned.  he had some plaque build up, but not much - our vets never even recommended a dental until he was already almost 14 and in early kidney failure.  i decided the risk of being put under was too much and declined.