February is National Pet Dental Health Month. Unfortunately, most pet owners are not aware of how vitally important oral health is to their pets overall health. Small steps at home can make big impacts in preventing big problems below your pets gum line.
At home care is best done by utilizing the professional prescription veterinary dental diets such as Purina DH or Hill’s T/D diets. To be effective it would need to be feed 80-100% of the diet. Greenies and other low calorie dental snacks are also helpful in addition to the prescription diet to help prevent tartar from building up on your pet’s teeth. The Veterinary Oral Health Council (VOHC) rates products on their safety and ability to reduce plaque and tarter. Their recommendations can be found at https://www.vohc.org.
Regular veterinary exams to evaluate the level of dental disease in your pet is very important. Once a pet has been evaluated to have dental disease then a professional cleaning and full evaluation under anesthesia is imperative for successful treatment.
Small breeds and some large breeds (Greyhounds and Standard Poodles for example) are predisposed to severe dental disease. The teeth are like icebergs and occupy much of the jaw bones. When the teeth rot the jaw bone rots. The result can be serious nasal sinus abscesses and jaw fractures. Not to mention awful stinky kisses!
Is it time for your pets mouth evaluation? Call us at (407) 351-7722 today for an appointment. During February, enjoy $5 off a purchase of $20 or more dental products (DH food, dental chews, tooth brushes, paste, etc.) we will be offering a variety of dental products on sale including Purina DH prescription foods and Virbac dental chews.
