Brush Cat's Teeth - C.E.T. option

I've been exploring the options of brushing my cats' teeth. I've never done it with any of my cats, so this is new to me. One of the two I have now has very red inflamed gums. The vet is going to call with a dental cleaning estimate. 

Anywho...so I was looking at the options. I know some say to just wipe the teeth with a cloth and that's enough. However, if I do actual paste, I keep see this C.E.T. as being the best. Why is that? I'm curious. 

emerrube said:

 
I've been exploring the options of brushing my cats' teeth. I've never done it with any of my cats, so this is new to me. One of the two I have now has very red inflamed gums. The vet is going to call with a dental cleaning estimate. 

Anywho...so I was looking at the options. I know some say to just wipe the teeth with a cloth and that's enough. However, if I do actual paste, I keep see this C.E.T. as being the best. Why is that? I'm curious. 

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What is C.E.T.?

emerrube said:

 
I've been exploring the options of brushing my cats' teeth. I've never done it with any of my cats, so this is new to me. One of the two I have now has very red inflamed gums. The vet is going to call with a dental cleaning estimate. 

Anywho...so I was looking at the options. I know some say to just wipe the teeth with a cloth and that's enough. However, if I do actual paste, I keep see this C.E.T. as being the best. Why is that? I'm curious. 

Click to expand...

CET brand toothpaste and toothbrushes have been working great for our cats: they love the seafood-flavored toothpaste so much that it's pretty much a treat for them. Other people on the Cat Site have said their cats love the chicken flavor. Either way, it's enzymatic toothpaste that's supposed to help prevent mouth problems. Our cats' mouths have improved tremendously after full cleanings then daily brushing and antibiotic treatment for the Bartonella bacterium. (Not all vets seem to believe that Bartonella treatment is helpful but our cat specialist vet says she's seen it help a lot of cats.)

Our vet recommended watching Cornell's videos on tooth brushing, and trying their methodology for introducing the toothpaste and toothbrush. I used a modified version of that: the cats quickly took to gnawing on the toothbrush so I combined paste and brush faster than the method. One Cat Site member, @Angels mommy, who recently recommended another brand of toothpaste, shot a video that I also found very helpful because she emphasizes alternating between brushing teeth and feeding a little toothpaste as a treat. I'm getting more real brushing in after doing things more like she does! (The post is here.)

I hope your cats like the toothpaste at least half as much as ours do! Good luck!

We get little sample packets of the CET toothpaste from our vets and use them. I won't say our cats like the paste; they hate getting their teeth cleaned so I doubt a tasty paste would make much difference to that. It's a quick process though, giving their teeth a bit of a scrub and we don't use much paste each time so it lasts a while.

LisaHE said:

CET brand toothpaste and toothbrushes have been working great for our cats: they love the seafood-flavored toothpaste so much that it's pretty much a treat for them. Other people on the Cat Site have said their cats love the chicken flavor. Either way, it's enzymatic toothpaste ...

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LoL, a treat indeed! I used the chicken flavor to help start to train my rainbow kitty to learn to Sit on command. A tiny little fingertip dollap of the enzymatic toothpaste was the training treat, and doing this had the eventual double benefit of having her like her teeth being brushed.

PushPurrCatPaws said:

LoL, a treat indeed! I used the chicken flavor to help start to train my rainbow kitty to learn to Sit on command. A tiny little fingertip dollap of the enzymatic toothpaste was the training treat, and doing this had the eventual double benefit of having her like having her teeth being brushed.

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That is so great! Our cats enjoy the toothpaste so much that they remind me if I'm late with brushing in the evening!

I appreciate the help!

StephenQ said:

 
What is C.E.T.?

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It's a brand of pet dental products: http://www.virbacvet.com/products/category/dental-health

emerrube said:

 
Anywho...so I was looking at the options. I know some say to just wipe the teeth with a cloth and that's enough. However, if I do actual paste, I keep see this C.E.T. as being the best. Why is that? I'm curious. 

Click to expand...

Many cats just love the taste of CET toothpaste Using a toothpaste the cat loves makes it a lot easier to brush the teeth. The seafood and poultry flavored toothpastes are popular with cats. I'm not sure if a cat would like the mint or vanilla or malt ones.

Thanks again Lisa,  I'm so glad it's helping!!  This is important info we all are sharing with eachother.  I need to step up the number of times I brush angel's teeth, but also don't want to stress him out everyday. Not that brushing his teeth stresses him out, but I'm worried if I bother him with it everyday, it may.  (he can stress easily sometimes, & we certainly don't need any more cystitis. he's been all clear since 2012!)

What I am trying to do is more like every other day. 

-Kelly

Angels mommy said:

 
Thanks again Lisa,  I'm so glad it's helping!!  This is important info we all are sharing with eachother.  I need to step up the number of times I brush angel's teeth, but also don't want to stress him out everyday. Not that brushing his teeth stresses him out, but I'm worried if I bother him with it everyday, it may.  (he can stress easily sometimes, & we certainly don't need any more cystitis. he's been all clear since 2012!)

What I am trying to do is more like every other day. 

-Kelly

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Every other day is pretty good, particularly considering that you get a lot of real brushing in. I brush our cats' teeth daily but spend less time than you do (they love the toothpaste but they're still young, squirmy cats) so we probably end up with about the same thing!

LisaHE said:

 
Every other day is pretty good, particularly considering that you get a lot of real brushing in. I brush our cats' teeth daily but spend less time than you do (they love the toothpaste but they're still young, squirmy cats) so we probably end up with about the same thing!

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  Sounds good!