Methods to Keep your Dog’s Teeth Clean

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Ammo

Disclaimer: this post is brought to you by Chewy.com and contains affiliate links.

As you may or may not know, this month is National Pet Dental Health Month. And if you’ve been reading my blog for a while now, then you might also know a few months ago I jumped back on the “teeth brushing” bandwagon and started trying to maintain my pearly whites a bit better.

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

While I still continue to use the Tropiclean Gel on my teeth each night before bed, I’ve also added some new tools to my dental regime.

How to Maintain your Dog's Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund // Pet Dental Health Month

My friends over at Chewy.com sent me this Nylabone DuraChew Dental Dino Toy and my mom picked me up a Pet Dental Scraper (thanks to a recommendation from my Facebook friend, Alex).

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

Now incase you may have forgotten, before I even started on my teeth cleaning regime, my teeth looked like this. And even after getting into the habit of brushing regularly I was still left with some plaque on my teeth.

How to Maintain your Dog's Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund // Pet Dental Health Month

So to aid in keeping my teeth clean I decided to break open my new Nylabone.

How to Maintain your Dog's Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund // Pet Dental Health Month

Now I’ve always been a lover of Nylabones, and this Dino chew is no different. The little bumps are super fun to chew on, and as a bonus mom says they help to clean my teeth and freshen my breath!

How to Maintain your Dog's Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund // Pet Dental Health Month

You can fetch your own Nylabone Dino Dental Chew from Chewy.com – and it’s on SALE now for just $3.99!

How to Maintain your Dog's Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund // Pet Dental Health Month

So on top of using my new Nylabone, I also started using this Pet Dental Scraper to scrape the plaque off my teeth. Now I must admit upon first inspection it looked pretty scary.

How to Maintain your Dog's Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund // Pet Dental Health Month

But my mom waited until I was extra sleepy on the couch one evening to test it out.

How to Maintain your Dog's Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund // Pet Dental Health Month

Each night my mom has been working on my teeth in little bits to scrape off the plaque while I’m tired, and you know what, it’s not so bad.

How to Maintain your Dog's Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund // Pet Dental Health Month

And while I still have a ways to go to remove all the plaque, even after just one time, my teeth look a whole lot better!

How to Maintain your Dog's Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund // Pet Dental Health Month

If you want to use a Pet Dental Scraper on your pet, here’s what I’d recommend:

Only try on dogs that are relatively calm and not fazed by being “examined”
Start with just playing around with your dog’s lips and teeth without the tool to get them used to having their mouth examined
Use the dental scraper when your dog is in a relaxed state
Use one hand to hold your dog’s mouth steady incase they pull away quickly
Apply the dental scraper in small doses to your dog’s teeth and don’t overdo it. Gradually increase the time you use it as your dog gets comfortable with it

What sort of things do you do to keep your pet’s teeth clean?

Disclaimer: This post is brought to you by Chewy.com, but all opinions are my own. Be advised that the best way to get a full dental cleaning for your pet is to contact a licensed veterinarian – and these are just my own personal experiences with pet dental cleaning, and I am in no way an expert. Use the pet dental scraper on your pet at your own risk.

Clean Teeth Club – How I’m Doing

Posted on January 29, 2015 by Ammo

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

You might remember that a couple of months ago I vowed to get back on the teeth cleaning routine. Well since I started taking better care of my teeth back in early November I thought it was high time I give you an update on how I’m doing. And more importantly what my teeth look like!

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

My regime consisted of eating a TropiClean Fresh Breath Chew (sent to me by my friends from Chewy) about every other day and using the TropiClean Teeth Gel every night.

Mom puts a little of the gel on her finger and rubs it all over my teeth before I go to bed. I was pretty good about making sure I cleaned my teeth every night, but I did miss a few days here and there.

Here’s a closer look at what my teeth looked like before I started cleaning them regularly and after. (P.S. the dark spots on my gums is not some funky gum disease, I’m actually a dapple dachshund and my skin is spotted with pink and black coloration)

Clean Teeth Club // How to Keep your Dog's Teeth Clean // Ammo the Dachshund

So as you can see the large spots of plaque build-up are still there on my teeth – but my vet did say that even when I started cleaning my teeth regularly that discoloration would not go away, but it would prevent new build-up from forming.

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

But the good news is that there isn’t any additional build-up on my teeth, and mom thinks that they might be a little less yellow overall from when I started “brushing” regularly. So I’ve decided to keep up with my teeth cleaning routine – hopefully to even prevent needing a full blown teeth cleaning from the vet. In which case mom says we’d look into options that don’t require me to be sedated (like this mobile service in my area) …because what fun is that?

How do you keep your dog’s teeth clean?

Clean Teeth Club

Posted on November 18, 2014 by Ammo

Disclosure: This post is brought to you by Chewy.com

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

Recently I went to my annual vet check-up, and while I got a clean bill of health (yay!), my vet did suggest I get back on the teeth brushing bandwagon.

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

Truth be told, I sort of fell off that bandwagon a while ago. I know, shame on me.

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

While I wouldn’t consider myself a “difficult” patient when it comes to teeth brushing, it’s not exactly easy to brush them.

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

I blame it on a tiny little mouth, and the fact that I have these clumsy paws. It just ends up being sort of awkward.

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

So when my friends over at Chewy.com sent me some of these TropiClean Fresh Breath +Plus Advanced Cleaning System Dental Dog Treats I was excited to try something yummy to clean my teeth instead.

Since mom always checks the ingredients on my treats first she was glad to see they were safe: Potato Starch, Tapioca Starch, Glycerin, Dried Beet Pulp, Natural Chicken Flavor, Cane Molasses, Chicken, Gelatin, Ground Flaxseed, Water, Poultry Fat (Preserved with mix tocopherols) Sodium Bicarbonate, Lecithin, Parsley Flakes, Green Tea Extract, Sorbic Aced (preservative), Blueberry Powder, Vitamin E Supplement, Zinc Proteinate, Rosemary Extract.

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

So, let’s give these treats a whirl, and get my lovely smile back to pearly white!

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

Only time will tell if these chews will help to clean up my teeth, but I’m going to try my hardest to keep up with the regime, especially since it tastes so good!

Clean Teeth // Ammo the Dachshund

To help aide in my new adventure towards whiter teeth, mom also purchased me some of this Clean Teeth Gel made by Tropiclean.

Key Benefits

Removes plaque and tartar
Soothes irritated gums
Reduces risk of periodontal disease
Safe for cats and dogs
No toothbrush required

No toothbrush required is my favorite benefit, and mom says the ingredients aren’t so bad either: Purified Water, Natural Derived Alcohol, Natural Mint, Glycerin, Natural Cleanser, Carbopol, Chlorophyllin, Green Tea Leaf Extract.

I’ll be sure to give you all an update next month on if my teeth are any whiter and brighter!

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post by Chewy.com, but all opinions are my own. And while they did send me a package of Tropiclean dental chews, I did purchase the clean teeth gel on my own.