Dental Care for Cats
70% of all cats are estimated to suffer from periodontal disease and a majority of them are affected by the age of 3 years old.
Periodontal disease is the most common clinical condition in cats. Oral problems is not just a local problem to the mouth but may cause complication in the full body. Dental problems may lead to other severe diseases and in a cat with periodontal disease bacteria might enter into the blood stream causing sepsis, kidney, liver or heart diseases.
It is important to be aware of that cats seldom shows that they have pain unless it is really severe and therefor it can be difficult to observe teeth problems in a cat without a regular control of the teeth. Wild cats use chewing on bones and grass to remove plaque from their teeth. Many domestic cats have lost this possibilities and usually their feed is much softer than the feed is for wild cats.
Be observant on your cat and its teeth:
- It does not eat dry feed
- The cat is drooling
- The cat has problem with tooth fractures
- The cat spills food around the feeding plate
- If your cat holds its head in a different position while eating, for example tilts its head
- Bad breath is a sign of oral problem
Brush the cats teeth regularly preferably every day. If every day is not possible try a few days a week. Try to make it a nice event both for you and the cat. You can finish the treatment by giving your cat something it really likes. Only the outside surface and the teeth need to be brushed since the cat keeps the inside of the teeth clean by the tongue. To brush the cats teeth is the most important step to good oral hygiene. However the compliance to tooth brushing is low. The reason to this is that it is common that it is very difficult to brush the teeth of a cat. If this is the case complementary products for dental care is important to use.
There are products and diets addressing dental health on the market and those can be used as a complement to teeth brushing. When you are choosing complementary products look for products that have been scientifically studied. ProDen PlaqueOff® is an efficient complement for good dental health by its efficient removal of both plaque and tartar and through this it also improves the breath of a cat.
Read more about ProDen PlaqueOff® here
