I'm Dr. Clayton Greenway with
healthcareforpets.com and what we're going
to show you today is how to brush your
cat's teeth. I really encourage you to
watch our other videos about dental care
and about how to introduce toothbrushing
to a pet. So you're going to want to
start off very slowly.
The first thing is is you really just
want your cat to get used to you feeling
around its mouth. Always keep in mind
that you want to be as safe as possible.
Even though your cat is friendly to you
in most circumstances when you start
doing this it could stress them out and
you don't want to get bitten. If there's
fear of that then I don't want you to
incorporate this into your routine with
your pet. So first we just want to
massage the lips a little bit. When you
do this, you'll figure out how your cat
reacts. The way I'm holding Kiwi is very
important. When you come at them
face-first it tends to scare them so I
actually come over top of the head and
as she just did there
she's trying to backup. So if I stand
behind her
then she's only backing up into me and I
have a little better control over. First
you want to start just by placing some
toothpaste on your finger and putting it
in front of her just to see if she has
an interest in the taste of the
toothpaste and whether she'll lick it or
eat it and you can try this many times
before you actually advance to the next
stage. Next you'll want to actually try
rubbing her teeth with your finger.
Now It's important to know that the Tartar
accumulates on the outside of the teeth
so you have to take your pet and try to open its
mouth. When you do that they do get quite
frustrated so what we're going to do is
we're just gonna rub the outside of the
teeth by keeping the mouth closed.
So if we actually hold her head like
this we can hold her lower jaw and the
top of her head
we have a pretty good control over her
and also her mouth is properly
positioned for this for me to slip my
finger past her lips and just rub along
the side of her teeth like this.
So this is the first time I'm trying
this with Kiwi and you can see she's
already fairly accepting of it. Once
you've spent many days doing that and
getting to the point that your cat is
accepting of that you can then move onto
a tooth brush. You can put the toothpaste
on the toothbrush and you can do the
same motion.
This is the first time again that I'm
doing this with Kiwi and she's already
accepting of it but the more you do it
and the slower you go she'll accept it
better and you'll get better at it.
I recommend that clients brush their
pet's teeth every day and I know that we
all have busy schedules so what's most
important to me is that I make it easy
because I know if it's difficult, clients
won't be consistent with it. So make it
as easy as possible and then you'll do
it more consistently. If you can't brush
your pet's teeth as much as four or five
times a week
really the value of it goes way down. If
you're going to a groomer once a month
and they're actually brushing the teeth
I don't see a lot of value to that. We
have to think of it in terms of our
teeth. We brush our teeth everyday,
two or three times a day
and it's no different for pets. We want
to try to do the same thing but doing it
once a day is going to be fantastic and
it's really going to improve their
dental healthcare overtime and limit
your need for dental cleanings or getting
into tooth decay and expensive tooth
extractions. So try to put it into your
routine on a daily basis, try to get them
to accept it by going very very slowly
and rewarding them with lots of love and
treats all the way along. If you're able to do this
you're going to be providing fantastic
care for your pet and cutting down on
your veterinary bills so good luck and
you can read more and watch our videos
here at healthcareforpets.com.