You meticulously choose their food, schedule routine checkups and give them plenty of exercise. But you\u2019re not a dentist. How do you know what\u2019s going on in your pet\u2019s mouth?<\/p>\n
At-home dental care can make a huge difference in their health. Whether your pet has a serious case of stinky breath or is just overdue for a cleaning, taking care of your little buddy\u2019s teeth shouldn\u2019t be daunting. But you do<\/em> have to know what you\u2019re looking for, and how to take care of it.<\/p>\n Just like you, your pet can suffer from gum disease. And unfortunately, the early stages of gum disease typically go unnoticed because they\u2019re virtually invisible to the naked eye. Veterinarians find that most dogs and cats have some degree of periodontal disease by the age of three<\/a>. Set up an at-home dental care regimen early on to help decrease those odds for your pet.<\/p>\n Brushing is the first and foremost method of fighting plaque and gum disease. Here are some supplies you will need to gather:<\/p>\n Daily brushing is recommended, but don\u2019t expect to jump straight into that routine. Eventually your pet will understand what\u2019s happening and won\u2019t fight you (as much). If you have questions about this process, set up an appointment and work with the veterinarian to set up a routine.<\/p>\n Dental treats and toys that bend or have some give (aren’t hard) may help manage tarter buildup.<\/p>\n If you can\u2019t get your pet to sit long enough to brush his teeth, try an antiseptic, recommends avcd.org<\/strong>. Chlorhexidine<\/a>, the most effective anti-plaque antiseptic, is available as a gel or liquid. Chlorhexidine is safe for pets and has few negative side effects \u2014 although they may not be too fond of the taste.<\/p>\n To apply the antiseptic:<\/p>\n So you\u2019ve bought all of the tools, made a plan and you\u2019re ready to get started! The next step to setting up an at-home dental care regime is knowing when and how to approach your pet. To make this process easier, try these steps:<\/p>\n As you\u2019re starting up this routine, reassure your pet. This is most likely a new experience and it might be a bit scary, so be sure to cut Fluffy some slack and back off if anxiety levels are too high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You meticulously choose their food, schedule routine checkups and give them plenty of exercise. But you\u2019re not a dentist. How do you know what\u2019s going on in your pet\u2019s mouth? At-home dental care can make a huge difference in their health. Whether your pet has a serious case of stinky breath or is just overdue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5288,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"What You Need to Know About At-Home Dental Care for Pets | Diamond Pet Foods","_seopress_titles_desc":"How do you know what's going on in your pet's mouth? At-home dental care can make a huge difference in their health. Learn more here!","_seopress_robots_index":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,243],"tags":[100,185,10,11],"class_list":["post-4144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-safety","tag-cat","tag-dental","tag-dog","tag-health"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diamondpet.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Gum Disease \u2014 It\u2019s Not Just for Humans<\/h2>\n
Brushing<\/h3>\n
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Increased Chewing<\/h3>\n
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Antiseptic Rinse<\/h3>\n
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So now what?<\/h3>\n
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