Icky Tooth Gel = Run Away!

Greyhounds are notorious for having bad teeth. One of the things most adoption groups will do when a greyhound joins the adoption program is make sure they receive dental care at the same time as their spay/neuter. As you can imagine it is impossible to get a dog to sit still in a dental chair so groups take advantage of the time a dog is anesthetized to have their teeth cleaned as well.

Bella had her spaying done at the farm but did not have any dental work done. We made an appointment for her back in October, but as it turned out, her teeth were in great condition so she didn't need to have the procedure done.

I believe one of the reasons is we feed a high quality raw diet to the dogs. They get chicken necks every day which provides a source of calcium along with the teeth scraping action of chewing on a bone. However we also give them grain-based treats (who doesn't like a cookie?) and peanut butter. These may contribute to tartar build up on the front teeth. To manage this build up we use Petz Life get (or you could get Vetz Life from a vet - same stuff). I squeeze a Lima bean sized portion on my finger and put it on their teeth. The dogs lick the gel and distribute it to all of the other teeth. Rio & Wavorly know the drill and take it.

Bella flees when she sees me coming. She DOES NOT LIKE IT. She's like the little kid that will not take the medicine. Today she fled upstairs to her crate (her safe place). It took a half hour for her to come downstairs, which was the time required to be safe from the icky nasty gel.

I am not sure what we will do, but we will continue to work with her on this. She really doesn't like anyone looking at her teeth.