"Dental" bones?

[Ritz459]

Chloe has always had bad breath. I think it is because as a younger puppy she would always eat the horse poop out at her breeder's barn. (Not to mention she'll eat poo out of the litterboxes and cow patties if given a chance.)

She doesn't like to chew on her Nylabone and it is rare for me to see her chewing on any of her hard toys. I'm worried about plaque build up because of this. I'm very leery about giving her tasty bones (be they animal bones or edible Nylabones) because she gets possessive over them. I don't give her rawhide or anything like that because it gives her an upset stomach. Rose as nice clean teeth, but she chews on Rawhide and bones frequently.

I also don't want to start brushing her teeth because that will probably be a battle and I'd like to avoid it if I could. So my question is do those edible "dental" bones (like Greenies and other off brands) really work at freshing breath and reducing tarter?

When I was out in town today I picked up a small package of these "all natural" dental bones (ingredients being: Sweet Rice Powder, Rich Powder, Chicken Meal, Carlic Powder, Honey, Chlorophyll, Dill Seed Powder, Fennel Seed Powder, Peppermint Oil, Parsley Oil, Rice Vinegar, Rosemary Oil, Mixed Tocopherols (Vitamin E), and Glycerin). I gave one to Chloe and she seemed to like it. I'm hoping it won't upset her stomach. It was small enough (although ment for dogs 60+lbs) and chewy enough she was able to finnish it off semi-quickly so I didn't have to worry about her becoming possessive over it with the kids.

If they do work, how frequently should I give them to her? Also, what is the best brand to buy? Greenies are freak'n expensive ($15 for a small bag of petites!) and I'm not too thrilled with that kind of price tag. These FreshSticks I bought were only $3.50 (and I got seven sticks). I also liked the fact that they used natural herbs and were gluten free. Any thoughts?

[dogs4life]

IMO, the coolest part about Greenies is the chlorophyll, it's a wonderful natural deodorizer If you're interested in chlorophyll, you can find liquid concentrated chlorophyll in the refrigerator section of most natural food stores. You can add it to her water, my daughter loves it and thinks it's juice since it's mint flavored, never thought of giving it to the dogs until just now.

I read something regarding toxic copper levels and chlorophyll supplements, I never really investigated it though. I wonder if someone else here knows more about it. It may shed some light on how often you give Chloe a Chlorophyll chew or supplement. I'll see if I can find it again.

If you're worried about tarter, you can change diets and/or give probiotics...kibble and canned foods IMO give dogs tarter, it's a bacteria thing. Another option is to brush her teeth, I personally hate brushing teeth though and avoid it at all costs. If you want to give something to chew on, I used to give Montana Bully Sticks and Flossies, she really like them.

[dogs4life]

I checked on the copper toxicity from chlorophyll supplements and the only thing I can find is something referring to Chlorella (green algae) being grown in polluted waters and having elevated levels of heavy metals. Some supplements are made from Chlorella, so I'm thinking it's not that valid of a concern, but maybe something to be aware of.

I did however find a wonderful reference on Chlorophyll if you are interested. I see the dental bone you listed the ingredients for has Chlorophyll listed.

Chlorophyll and Chlorophyllin at Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University There are great explanations and a list of whole foods high in chlorophyll if you don't want to use a supplement or concentrate.

[Ritz459]

Thanks, Dogs4life.

I don't know if I would want her drinking Chlorophyll just because I don't like supplimenting an animals water in the instance they'd rather not drink it.

Chloe just eats kibble - no moist food. I'd give her more of a raw-food diet (if I was brave enough to try it lol), but again, her posession issues come into play. She's fine with people around her kibble while she is eating, but "human" food? Nuh-uh. I'm finding it eaiser to just avoid her triggers than to go through the struggle of getting her to not be posessive. She does get veggies every now and then though (carrots, green beans, etc), however.

Giving her a "harder" chewbone during the day when no one is home is an option, but anything along the lines of rawhide or beef bones gives her an upset stomach. I might try to Flossies you mentioned and see how they are to her stomach...so far the Dental bones I bought for her haven't given her any greif.

[TinyAlbinoDancer]

The bully sticks are supposed to be pretty good for teeth if given regularly. I bought a dozen of them online for Bella's owner, and I think it was like $25.

Missie used to get Dentabones every so often, and they did seem to help (especially the first one she ever had, for some reason).

I wouldn't write off the possibility of tooth brushing so fast, either. It takes me maybe 15 minutes to do all three of my little dogs, and you just kind of figure out ways to hold them so that they're still (and then once they get used to it from having it done regularly, it's no longer a battle). I also use a gel called Petz Life oral gel on their teeth that softens plaque (so it can be brushed or scraped off), and kills bacteria. After about 2 weeks of use I really saw results, though we're still battling Ollie's plaque (his gums look way better though, which tells me the gel is killing bacteria). Their breath was improved by it, too, and I noticed slight improvement in breath and teeth when we used stuff in their water (I rarely hear of dogs who won't drink when ANY of those oral solutions you add to their water are used).

Have you tried like the dental rings? I bought some of those from JeffersPet for cheap ($3.50 for 4+ 2 free, I think it was), but haven't tried them yet.

I still hear bad stories about Greenies, so I won't give them to my kids or recommend them.

Does Chloe have plaque build up already or are you trying to prevent it?

[Ritz459]

I looked at her teeth the other day and she is getting very, very slight tarter buildup on her rear teeth. Her gums are healthy.

I can barely get Chloe to let me look at her teeth so brushing right now is out of the picture. I'm going to start working on her excepting handling such as looking in eyes, looking at teeth, etc., and once she is okay with that I'd be more than happy to try brushing, but until then, I would like to avoid it if at all possible.

What are dental rings? The only thing that comes to my mind are those "minty" rawhide rings.

[gaddylovesdogs]

So....you don't want to feed raw bones? Because, IMO, raw bones are the best for truly cleaning teeth. If you *do* want to feed raw bones, go for knuckle bones. I stress this, because, if the bone is small enough that Chloe could fit in in her mouth and chomp down on it, she could break a tooth. It's very important to get large bones rather than small ones.

My dogs usually go at them for about two hours and it *really* cleaned their teeth up.

[Ritz459]

I'm leary of giving her raw bones because I'm afraid it might upset her stomach....she's very sensitive to everything.

And speaking of having a upset stomach, Chloe isn't eating...yet again. I swear every three months she decides she is going to fast and won't eat. This time it isn't accompanied by runny poo or vomiting so I'm not too concerned, but I noticed that she started to refuse to eat shortly after I started feeding her the dental bones (which she LOVES). Could anything in those ingredients caused her to loose her appitite? (When she refuses to eat I just leave the food down for her...I don't add anything to it or make it "yummy" to bribe her to eat.)