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Originally Posted by Lovetodream88  I thought this might be helpful to share. We were going over dental stuff in my vet assistant classes. It only takes 48 hours for the tarter on the teeth to turn into calculus which then can generally only be removed by a vet. So if your brushing teeth it's best to do it every day or every other day or it's really not helping. It was a shock to me because I was only brushing weekly  . |
Question for your teacher: My sister has a terrier mix rescue from her local animal shelter, almost 20 lbs. in weight, perhaps a Miniature Schnauzer-Cairn mix from his salt and pepper, guard-hair coat and overall look, at least 10 years old this past March, he eats mostly wet food, and she never has brushed his teeth and he's never had a dental! He's always had bi-annual full bore check-ups so his teeth are checked by a vet at least twice yearly. His teeth look like those of a 2 year old dog! Still white and vital looking with only very slight yellowing along the base of the molars with the finest set of gums I've ever seen.
I don't get it! Is is just a toy-dog thing with the tartar and why doesn't her dog, Tavi, ever have any? My Tibbe, only slightly younger than Tavi, weighing 7.2 lbs., has had a yearly dental since I got him 9 years ago just two months after Billie got her terrier mix and I brush his teeth now at least 3 x weekly, his diet is mostly dry, prescription kibble, occasionally wet or microwaved and cooled. I need to go back to daily tooth brushing which I did for years but even then and still he has plaque and tartar by 11 months from his last dental cleaning under anesthesia, no matter the daily brushing I did for so long. After each professional cleaning, Tibbe's teeth are clean and white and he's never had a cavity, abscess or lost any teeth except for those taken at his first cleaning, when his little teeth were a brown cast and he had many retained baby teeth and 2 or 3 very bad teeth already at only 9 mos of age - 3 weeks after I first got him.
Could you ask your teacher why the difference in these two terriers?