what's up everybody jackson galaxy your cat daddy today on the scoop what is the scoop about
brushing your cat's teeth what's that all about now listen when we talk about the scoop this is
my personal experience my personal take and i am going to put out this disclaimer right off the bat
go and have a conversation with your vet about such things and that's what today is my personal
experience there is our disclaimer now let's get on with it so here's the thing when it comes to
your cat's dental health sure i mean just like with anybody's dental health you don't want to
allow the formation of plaque you don't want gums to get inflamed you don't want all this
junk that's forming under their teeth to form and fester and whatnot and to that end you would say
right brushing their teeth seems like the right thing to do i mean it breaks all that stuff down
and that's great that's fine and i'll tell you this is just something that just kind of bugs
me is that for every time i take our cats in for their general wellness exam you know once a year
sometimes more often if they're seniors a lot of times we'll get that little toothbrush pack
you know with a little finger toothbrush and then it comes back to our house and it sits in a drawer
i'm sorry that's what happens and and it makes us feel like bad people because we're not brushing
our cat's teeth every day because we know that for the most part we didn't adopt our cats as kittens
it's harder to get an adult cat into it and i'm not just willing based on the results that i've
seen in terms of my animal family's dental health we haven't seen disasters happen you know so i
just i'm not willing to risk it and and it just like i said i think it's a setup especially if you
have multiple cats to expect to brush their teeth every day and listen if you can get away with once
a week if your cat's cool with it and you have formed that positive association and you can get
away with it once a week or once every couple of weeks or however often that you can do it then hey
man do that just my truth man few little pointers about brushing your cat's teeth because it sounds
you know a little nightmarish the idea of sticking your finger in your cat's mouth or a
brush or whatever every day and that's part of the scoop because i agree but that said if you want to
get started get started early what we do when we want to get cats acclimated to having their nails
trimmed which has to get done has to get done every four to five weeks max you want to trim
your cat's nails the way to do it is at first you start with just sort of you know touching the paws
just touching i'm just touching your paws slowly you get yourself up to the point where you press
on the the the knuckle here and boop out comes the claw then we get into the trimming of it we try
to make it a positive experience okay so that's nail trimming now when it comes to toothbrushing
it would apply the same way when they're young you just want to start handling their mouth
you know when you guys are hanging out now of course cats love to have their cheeks
rubbed most cats do so you can start there a lot of times you guys might have seen this before when
you have your cat rub up against you and you get into that gum sometimes and they're like
as you go towards up the cheek that's where you go you know you're trying to handle their mouth
and then slowly we get to the point where and of course this is very important if you're
using toothpaste you're going to use an animal toothpaste a cat toothpaste not human ever because
that could be very toxic to your cats so you want to use it something that's species specific but
then you put that on your finger and then you're rubbing it in you know that kind of thing then you
graduate up to a brush okay so that's very fast motion about how to brush your cat's teeth and
there are much better tutorials out there that go into a lot better detail but that's not the point
of the scoop the point of the scoop here is is it practical can you do it every day my experience
is with most cats no and even if it is practical on a daily basis how many times are you going to
do that daily before your cat starts to flinch every time your hand comes towards their face
no god please no again my experience is that that's what happens we know what it's like when
when we have a cat with a chronic illness they have to get medication every day if we don't find
a routine around it to make it somehow positive every time you come up to your cat they're going
to be like what what are you going to do to me i don't like this you know and and that's
a painful thing for us to have to go through so if we can sort of moderate how many times we're
gonna go up to our cat and mess with them to some degree then in my opinion we are on that side and
again i can just see every vet out there just going who is this looney tunes idiot saying this
stuff you know what call me a looney tunes idiot that's your prerogative my prerogative is to get
on youtube and blah blah blah blah anyway i have just found that the most effective way to make
sure my cat's teeth are clean is to take my cats to the vet and have dental procedures done yes
they have to go under anesthesia for that that's why we only do it you know i mean i go once a year
maybe a little more and then make sure my cat's teeth are clean uh that's a great way to do it um
in the meantime yeah i mean i hear you guys out there saying well look plaque forms within a day
or two true but again in my experience unless there's serious dental disease that goes above
and beyond plaque formation i'm just not seeing my cats like wind up with rotten teeth or teeth that
are falling out i mean granted as they get older okay i hear you i mean if i were brushing my cat's
teeth every day once they get to 14 15 years old i wouldn't have to have that that oh can i bring
them in for a dental or not but your vet will be able to say yeah your cat's healthy enough for
this look guys cats are living longer lives now than they ever have before in in the past the idea
of having routinely 17 18 year old cats was not realistic with advances in medical care proactive
measures that we take better nutrition etc cats are living longer lives so yeah that question
of what happens once they get older yeah i get that and there's i have no clean answer for that
but i i just also don't like the idea that we can encourage our cats to accept an everyday brushing
and and and for us to do that every day to get our cats down on the ground and whatever it is
even if we make a vaguely positive experience as often as you can sure you know in my experience
taking them to the vet for regular dentals that keeps their teeth clean another thing
that you might want to think about because you know there's this fallacy that dry food helps
clean teeth which it does not that that's not how things work with the cat's mouth they they don't
clean their teeth by chewing you know but but if we think about how uh cats more in the wild will
keep their teeth clean it's with the bones of the prey that they eat so you can get bones
raw bones never cooked never cooked bones that you can get at most of the sort of premium pet
stores where you can under supervision your cat can chomp on these bones and that scrapes a lot of
that stuff off their teeth i would rather you do that i would rather see cats gnashing on raw bones
under your supervision so that's not something they just you don't want to just have them walk
away with it and there's also a few other things you might want to think about there are dental
gels that don't require brushing but still help break down the plaque and that is just a matter
of getting it in there and spreading it around and we don't have to go for the brush brush as much
you know i get into this whole advice giving thing i'm just thinking about me my cats my experience
only is that trying to brush my cat's teeth and we have a lot of cats by the way it's just not
realistic it's just not going to happen in my home and i have not seen a ton of really painful
dental disease uh in my home now and again there's when we talk about dental disease i'm going past
the place of like plaque and gingivitis um i'm going into things like tooth reabsorption things
like stomatitis which are really painful mouth diseases that's a whole different ball of wax here
but when it comes to sort of just proactive dental health hey man you know what put it on me i am not
as good as i could be with my cat's dental health i try to do everything i can do but i am just not
going to stick my fingers in their mouth every day i'm just not so the answer shall i brush my
cat's teeth or not first and foremost that's a discussion that you have with you and your
veterinarian okay and you guys do what you think is the right thing and like i said i gave you a
few little pointers about how to get your cats to accept uh having their mouths open and having
something well your finger or a brush in there so i'm not gonna be the one to tell you don't do it
don't ever brush your cat's teeth i'm just trying to give you my perspective and that's what the
scoop is all about it's just what i do what my family does may not be the right thing sometimes
but it's the thing that works for us like i said we've got seniors in our home that have to have
meds every day that's about as much as i'm going to do i'm going to trim nails i'm going to give
meds as they need to be given every day and that's as much as i'm willing to
risk breaking down the bond between my cat family and me so take that with a grain of salt or with
a toothbrush or however you want to take it do your own research come to your own conclusions
just what i'm saying today that's the scoop on toothbrushing i am your cat daddy jackson
galaxy and until next time we meet all light and i'll love and i'll mojo to you [Music]