Posted: 8/26/2009 11:07:03 AM EDT
| Can I use human toothpaste to brush my dogs teeth? |
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Quoted:
Can I use human toothpaste to brush my dogs teeth? The general consensus is that fluoride toothpastes may present toxicity problems in dogs. Don't use human toothpaste. Get some dog-specific toothpaste. Additionally, like someone else has already mentioned, your dog will prefer the beef or liver flavors of pastes designed especially for animals. By the way, kudos to you for taking the time to brush your dog's teeth! Not enough folks do that. |
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I use a brand called petrodex on my Beagle. It is called a Enzymatic toothpaste. It is chicken flavored.
I have also used a brand from my vet that has the same stuff in it. Basicly there are enziymse that break down plaque and help promote healthy teeth and gums. Also there is a prescription dog treat called T-D treats that is for teeth and gum health that works very well. it is made by science diet. |
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Don't use human toothpaste, it can be toxic to dogs. Use the dog specific stuff plus it's chicken flavored so may get some of it in their mouth.
Honestly, brushing your dogs teeth is sort of a waste of time if you continue to feed them kibble. Kibble is almost all corn or starch related sugars which isn't good for dogs/cats for a number of reasons but I'll get to that later. Think of it like this, you eat nothing but greasy potato chips all day long and then MAYBE once a month a total stranger jumps out of the bushes and trys to brush your teeth for you. Yeah not gonna work. So besides the hassle and futility of it, you need to change your dog/cat's diet to a raw (uncooked) meat/bone based diet as all of those corn starches are slowly killing them. Sounds scary feed them this as its unthinkable for a human's diet, but a dog/cat's stomach is 100% stronger than a humans regarding fighting bacteria and acidic content for bone desolving. There's so many pluses to this, I could write a 10 page paper on this but for your specific need regarding clean teeth, the dog's action of working the meat off of the bone and also crunching the bones acts like a dentist pick and scrapes the tartar off. So you end up with clean teeth, good breath, no rotting teeth (really bad for small dogs) and stink free poop, yes that's right, stink free. |