I've written these notes on dental hygiene to give people the benefit of our 13 yrs experience of owning greyhounds in the hope they will not start the dental hygiene regime too late.
Dental disease often starts a long time before a greyhound is adopted
Chews and toys or bones etc, might clean the enamel surfaces of teeth on the ends,but there is still an unhealthy biofilm of food and bacteria collecting near the gum. Gums become inflamed (gingivitis) and bleed. Eventually with gum disease, the gum shrinks back from the tooth exposing part of the root of the tooth. It's here that a pocket might form. Advanced pockets will show a darker, brown patch or even go grey and black. The root of the tooth doesn't have thick enamel on, chewing bones or chew toys, etc don't help here and can cause further impaction or injury to gums. Bacteria on the softer tooth root eat away and can cause infection in the bone. The bacteria that collect on hounds' teeth can cause cardiovascular disease too, especially in heart valves, and can lead to death. You can't always see pockets or infections clearly unless you peel back lips, look at the back teeth with the mouth open as back teeth fit together like scissors and hide some surfaces. These pockets are definitely preventable if you have a dog young enough or start your regime right away and remember there are no shortcuts. We've had 5 dogs and Zero extractions on teeth we've kept clean. Our Harry was 2 when he retired, 5 when we fostered him and noticed a horrid smell and I think some adopters might've been put off. I recognised the smell as Staphylococcus as my arm had been previously rotted down to the bone by Staph. A. But we could only maintain hygiene and slow down existing pocket development and we adopted too late to get rid of it.
So why do greyhounds get bad teeth so easily? Some people say neglect, or the type of food given in the racing industry is to blame, but plenty of other rescue breeds don't get bad teeth like greyhounds. But that isn't the whole answer. However, trainers with big kennels do feed dogs chews and pigs ears but don't usually brush greyhound teeth often enough to get rid of food particles (some don't bother at all) or notice the gums that high up or back in the mouth if they've got a lot of dogs. My dogs' previous owners relied on full dental hygiene being done once retired. However, RGT haven't got resources to clean teeth as often as I do. The best reasons I've heard from my vet. He knows customers like to point to one clear reason to simplify matters but it's a bit more complex. These things can affect teeth:
When we first got Harry his teeth had been neglected with a dental pocket, terrible dark brown plaque, so the RGT cleaned them, and we had a dental every 18 mths and used antibacterial gel on his pocketed area. However, even with all that, he still lost a couple of teefies today where the pocket was and had to have some bone removed. The vet said for a 12 yr old, we've done an amazing job as all his other teeth apart from the pocket we inherited are great and he thinks we are the, ost the meticulous customers in his practice. Sometimes greyhounds have 30+ teeth upwards removed and its not the adopters' fault but it is important to minimise further damage. We have had 4 greyhounds and today, this was our first extraction and root canal debridement. Our other 3 greyhounds have had zero teeth removed in their lifetime. We are proud of that but ts difficult to get other dog owners of sighthounds to listen to our lengthy description of a multi-approach when most are wanting to find, and often do find, a one word tip.
Today, the teeth were fine, no decay at all, but his gum was soft and a hollow pocket allowed food to get in near his jawbone. In case you think your dogs teeth look clean, so don't clean regularly because of that, and haven't heard of periodontal disease here are the facts.
Chews, toys, bones, animal parts are unlikely to eradicate all dental plaque
Chews and toys or bones etc, might clean the enamel surfaces of teeth on the ends,but there is still an unhealthy biofilm of food and bacteria collecting near the gum. Gums become inflamed (gingivitis) and bleed. Eventually with gum disease, the gum shrinks back from the tooth exposing part of the root of the tooth. It's here that a pocket might form. Advanced pockets will show a darker, brown patch or even go grey and black. The root of the tooth doesn't have thick enamel on, chewing bones or chew toys, etc don't help here and can cause further impaction or injury to gums. Bacteria on the softer tooth root eat away and can cause infection in the bone. The bacteria that collect on hounds' teeth can cause cardiovascular disease too, especially in heart valves, and can lead to death. You can't always see pockets or infections clearly unless you peel back lips, look at the back teeth with the mouth open as back teeth fit together like scissors and hide some surfaces. These pockets are definitely preventable if you have a dog young enough or start your regime right away and remember there are no shortcuts. We've had 5 dogs and Zero extractions on teeth we've kept clean. Our Harry was 2 when he retired, 5 when we fostered him and noticed a horrid smell and I think some adopters might've been put off. I recognised the smell as Staphylococcus as my arm had been previously rotted down to the bone by Staph. A. But we could only maintain hygiene and slow down existing pocket development and we adopted too late to get rid of it.
Greyhounds have notoriously poor dental health. But why is that?
So why do greyhounds get bad teeth so easily? Some people say neglect, or the type of food given in the racing industry is to blame, but plenty of other rescue breeds don't get bad teeth like greyhounds. But that isn't the whole answer. However, trainers with big kennels do feed dogs chews and pigs ears but don't usually brush greyhound teeth often enough to get rid of food particles (some don't bother at all) or notice the gums that high up or back in the mouth if they've got a lot of dogs. My dogs' previous owners relied on full dental hygiene being done once retired. However, RGT haven't got resources to clean teeth as often as I do. The best reasons I've heard from my vet. He knows customers like to point to one clear reason to simplify matters but it's a bit more complex. These things can affect teeth:
- Sticky or sweet food as young adults can cause plaque and bacteria to stick to teeth and gums. Of course we let ours have the odd bit of sweet potato mash and other human food. They like those foods but if they are messy, they squeeze up into spaces between teeth, onto gums and can sit in cheek pouches and so chews like dental sticks, chicken feet,bones or toys just aren't reaching those areas.
- Acidic foods (like tomato sauce) and acid from sugar being acted on by bacteria eat away enamel coating on teeth. It is vile but bacteria love eating sugar but bacteria poop out acid and its often that which is pathological in biology. The root and higher part of the tooth has little or no enamel and bacteria eat at the surface which becomes rough, pitted, and even easier for dental plaque to sit on it.
- Anatomy. Greyhounds have long, narrow jaws and after eating a meal, they can't quite reach all areas with their own tongue to lick clean and when they drink, they tend to throw water right back to the back of the throat not touching teeth. The teeth worse affected are the ones at the top back, and where they overlap the bottom back.
- No brushing at all. No attempts by their people to brush food particles out of teeth and plaque off surfaces daily. Ideally it should be done about 1 hour after each meal (so that their enamel hardens a bit and remineralises)
- Not brushing frequently enough. We brush thoroughly once or even twice daily, we also wipe off teeth and gums with dental wipes once daily (or after sugary food... Veggies, or starchy food like potatoes, peas, beans or fruits like tomatoes can have sugars even if natural) and we add vet dentisept, an oral antiseptic containing Chlorhexadine (like Corsadyl for humans but much more dilute ) inside back teeth and rub along gums to keep mouth healthy at night when they might get dry mouth.
WARNING ⚠ NEVER USE HUMAN OR OTHER DENTAL PRODUCTS NOT MEANT FOR DOGS. THEY MAY CONTAIN XYLITOL OR OTHER CHEMICALS TOXIC TO DOGS. IN FACT, EVEN IF WE DON'T BUY STUFF FROM OUR VET WE NEVER USE ANYTHING WITHOUT ASKING OUR VET WHO KNOWS OUR ANIMAL THOROUGHLY (NOT A VET NURSE OR VET RECEPTIONIST IF THEY DON'T KNOW OUR HOUNDS) IF IT IS OK TO USE A PRODUCT
- Not using a good quality enzymatic anti-plaque tooth gel. You do get what you pay for and the more costly tooth gels like Logic have enzymes that dissolve plaque or tartar (gardened plaque). We use Logic gel (currently around £8.28 to £14 per 70g). And we also use Dentisept gel with Chlorhexadine at around £13 for 20g
- Not sufficiently training a dog to accept brushing. I've had greyhounds who really don't like the brushing but they learn. Two of my dogs didn't like any touch, not even a pat. They would've had my hand off just for a pat or stroke at times or putting a collar on. However from the moment they arrive here training starts and involves daily handling including mouth. If I have a bitey dog, a muzzle goes on, then a glove on me and for the first week I let a new hound lick an inch of Logic off my finger through a muzzle. As they get used to handling, I train dogs to "open up" meaning mouth, then have a pretend inspection and reward. Just a 1 second look is a huge deal on a bitey dog and doesn't happen right away and takes trust so we don't force it, but build up gradually . Eventually they'll let you hold the jaw, and pull back lips to inspect gums. That is really important because a lot of the nasty dental disease happens to teeth in their cheeks or high up where gums start. Practice just putting something nice and tasty like a small treat, with Logic on, into various places in the mouth. After this,we start putting Logic on a finger brush and build up to moving it up and down and in circles slowly. You can then move on to a longer brush with a small head if you find it easier. Whether it takes weeks, months or several years we keep up this progressive training because getting the Logic and Dentisept into the mouth helps even without brushing.
- Not giving dogs routine dental scrapes. We get a dog in for a dental usually within 6 mths of adoption. We let them settle first but what we don't do is wait until teeth are bad then have them scraped under anaesthesia because that takes longer with a higher probability of extractions. It's a false economy to wait. Speak to your vet because if you agree to do a dental scrape on a regular basis longterm, with no other work, they will sometimes offer a discount. Prevention is a lot cheaper than curative surgery once there is extraction, and jawbone involvement. My Harry had root canal treatment to treat a pocket (he developed it long before we fostered him and started dental care) it has cost £1,100 so far, with 2 more vets visits, painkillers and antibiotics next visit. Once a dental pocket has formed its much harder to keep clean and normal brushing can't brush into the pocket and it does finally rot the jawbone.
A word about anaesthetics
A lot of people do worry about putting a Hound under anaesthesia because greyhounds are "different". This used to be especially true many years ago because greyhounds reacted badly to barbiturates based anaesthetics and ketamine based vet meds. However, for at least a decade modern vets choose to use human based anaesthesia which is a lot safer, more effective and clears the system a lot faster. If you had a Hound years ago you'll remember that dogs used to be really wobbly and out of it post surgery for about 24 hrs. These days my dogs have had a number of surgeries and procedures and we've been quite surprised the greyhounds are quite lively when we pick them up. They might be tired and sleep more ftom painkillers or just the emotional strain but when they stand up they aren't wobbly or drunk.
Greyhounds on modern anaesthetics will have some risk, just like othe larger dogs, and those risks can increase with age but don't let it put you off having regular scrapes. If your dog needs a scrape with no extractions, then he will be under anaesthesia for less time and so risk is lessened. You can choose to prevent tartar build up at a younger age and its best not to keep putting it off and then need something big done when they are elderly. My Harry is 12 this year and still coped with surgery very well. There are things you can do to minimise the risk as well. If it's not emergency surgery and you get to choose when it's fine, choose surgery for a cooler time of year as many UK surgeries do not have air conditioning available for every Kennel and dogs might not recover so well if dehydrated too. A few weeks ago it was hot and Harry was panting a lot and had been NIL BY MOUTH so wouldn't have coped as well after surgery during a heatwave. So we deferred it until this week. If a vet won't allow you to change the day, and its not an emergency, then I'd question whether that vet has your dog's best interests at heart. Also, I'd talk your worries over with a vet. We did and we told them what to look out for in Harry's behaviour that showed he was struggling with heat or dehydration. And we gave them permisdion in advance to stabilise him with IV fluids if needed. Some vets might try to avoid it as it's an extra cost but we made it clear if in doubt, we're happy to pay a bit more. We are also careful about not choosing very cold weather for procedures if we can as hounds have little body fat and might get clinically cold post surgery and it's just better for them to have a cool, temperate day. They burn up a lot of energy keeping warm and will have had little food that day.
Even when we do all of the above, we can still get trouble with our hounds' teeth. But if we try as best we can we'll have minimised trouble with them. Sometimes despite all this you can find gum shrinkage, loose teeth and plaque bacteria getting into the jaw. We've had two dogs with no extractions, one dog with about 5 and our latest has had 10 with another 9 borderline teeth.
Even when we do all of the above, we can still get trouble with our hounds' teeth. But if we try as best we can we'll have minimised trouble with them. Sometimes despite all this you can find gum shrinkage, loose teeth and plaque bacteria getting into the jaw. We've had two dogs with no extractions, one dog with about 5 and our latest has had 10 with another 9 borderline teeth.
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