The My Buddy Butch Chronicle - Camp Bow Wow & Banfield Pet Hospital

"Babe" was my childhood dog. She was a Boston terrier - surprise. She was already 2 or 3 years old when I was born so by the time I was old enough to remember her she was getting up there in age. One thing I do remember is that by the time she neared the end of her life (almost 14) she had very few, if any, teeth left and rarely, if ever barked at anything...for any reason at all! She was our toothless watchdog! I'm not quite sure why she had no teeth except that my Dad had told me that he did recall that she had issues with her teeth but can't remember what they were. That was about 35 years ago. He also said that there is much more that they do for dog's teeth today than they did 40 or 50 years ago. OK, he should know, he was raising Bostons about 15 years before I was born.

Moving ahead to 2010, pet dental care is still a serious issue and much more is known about it and can be done about it since "Babe's" toothless days. Not surprisingly, I now know that if you do not take good care of your dogs teeth it can lead to Liver, Kidney, and possibly Cardiovascular trouble resulting from infections that can develop. OK, OK I know Pet Dental Month was February but I was still thinking about this probably from my own perilous dental journey over the last few years. I'm living proof that even if you take the best care of your teeth, things still can go wrong! Talking with Dr. Patrick Mahaney on our "Vet Topics" segment he told me that just like us humans, dogs can suffer greatly from neglected teeth, a broken or cracked tooth, and plaque build up can lead to an abscess in some cases which can keep your dog sick for months without showing any signs. There are many problems that can arise out of neglect and/or just plain forgetting to take care of your pet's teeth. I am guilty of this to some extent, as I probably do not check Butch's breath or his teeth as often as I should. When I had to take him in and have his torn Dew Claw removed last summer, I had the vet do a complete Dental cleaning while Butch was under anesthetic. I figured we might as well take care of that also. Click on the Picture or here and you can see some yellowing starting on his rear molar before his cleaning. This was his 1st pro cleaning and he was 5 years old. Generally, his teeth are in great shape. He had a little yellowing on the rear molars but I must admit outside of giving him the dental bones to chew on, I haven't done much in the past in the way of brushing them. Giving him the dental bones to chew is a good thing as he does actually gnaw on them for awhile. As last week's guest Dr. Karen Johnson of the Banfield Pet Hospital mentioned, "It does them no good if they bite the chew in half and just devour it!" Luckily (or unluckily) Butch is a chewer, so he does get most of the benefit of the dental chews and this helps in between cleanings. But is this enough? Should I actually try to brush his teeth? Well as part of our weekly ritual, after he plays with the giant ball in the basement and slobbers himself up real good, I give him a bath sniffing and cleaning his ears. I suppose I could take a whiff of his breath and slowly get him used to the brushing. Even if it is only occasional brushing, I guess I still should know what his breath smells like when he is healthy. As I move forward on this I'll let you know how it goes...that is, unless one morning I grab the "Liver Flavored" toothpaste by mistake, in which case I'll toss my cookies all over the bathroom! I imagine that would be something like putting salt on my cereal instead of sugar by mistake...should have tasted it first...