That I would spend twenty minutes on the floor using my finger to rub chicken flavored tooth paste on my dog’s teeth.
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by John Cole| 53 Comments
This post is in: Dog Blogging
That I would spend twenty minutes on the floor using my finger to rub chicken flavored tooth paste on my dog’s teeth.
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sab
How many fingers did she eat?
Jay in Oregon
Did you not get the updated owner’s manual? (Her owner’s manual for you, not the other way around.) I’m pretty sure it’s in there.
I’m so glad you and Lily found each other. :) I miss my dogs right now.
Emily's Forests
I personally prefer the liver-flavored toothpaste. Or rather, my dog does . . .
James F. Elliott
Wait until it’s time to trim her nails!
Throwin Stones
Crap. Reposting cause just after I bitch and post an OT, you throw up a dog blogging thread.
OT:
Cause I’ve been waiting for the elusive open thread and need something a bit lighter:
Dogs in the park helped the Reds pull off a win last night.
http://twitpic.com/hxhzv
schrodinger's cat
When are you going to brush Tunch’s teeth?
demkat620
You are such a good doggy daddy!
alhutch
Oh, that’s nothing. How about examining poop like it’s some type of valuable archeological find or digitally pulling a string or extra long blade of grass out (both ends)? Or running around the house like a jackass because someone wants to play ‘chase’ just a little bit more.
Every day my dog makes me act dumb. I’d say it was a evil plot, but I seem to be a willing participant.
Laura W
This from the man whose own dental hygiene routine requires 2 electric appliances, arugula-flavored floss, a reverse osmosis water filter, and four hours to execute.
No one could have foreseen this.
General Winfield Stuck
I can honestly say I have never brushed a dogs teeth. But when I think about it, maybe I should have. It’s not like they can do it themselves.
Libertini
@Laura W: OMD! I don’t even know John Cole, but somehow I know you are right and I found it ROTFL funny!
BombIranForChrist
awww, reminds me of my wedding night …
Uncle Glenny
The two dogs I had were old enough that I never got going with that sort of thing. I was given just an oral riinse once, but it still was too much effort. (I later found out about an additive for the water bowl but never investigated.)
However, the cleaning procedure at the vet is non-trivial and requires general anesthesia, so the maintenance should be worth it, especially if she is used to it and likes the attention. My pit bull of some years ago quite likely developed endocarditis due to veterinary teeth cleaning (it was done on a casual suggestion since the dog would be out due to having a growth removed and biopsied) and nearly died of heart failure. (I’d been vet shopping due to a move and never went back to that vet, and only later put two and two together as to the condition of his heart after some very expensive hospital workup.) He lived a few years longer on heart medication.
RedKitten
…or express her anal glands.
@Laura W: That’s right — I’d forgotten about John’s impressive dental hygiene habits. Your description, however, had me almost shooting wine out my nose.
Litlebritdifrnt
I can’t believe you guys have not seen and commented on this
http://ia311028.us.archive.org/1/items/gov.uscourts.gamd.77605/gov.uscourts.gamd.77605.13.0.pdf
A Georgia Judge smacks the treacle out of Oily Titz. The opinion is a thing of beauty, it is snark, wrapped up in rainbows, with cherries and sprinkles on top, and makes Titz look like the total and utter birfoon that she is. I want to have Judge Land’s babies.
LD50
Silly! If they’d *told* you that, you wouldn’t have adopted one!
JK
OT
WWE CEO Linda McMahon is running for CT Senate seat
Little Macayla's Friend
@James F. Elliott:
Someone I know with a sweet and hypersensitive Brittany accidentally clipped a nail too close and the poor pooch wouldn’t let the poor owner touch her for a couple of days.
OT (unless your health insurance is keeping you from getting a dog, etc.?). News release here on rate of increase in premiums vs. rate of increase in earnings for fifteen more states, 2000 – 2009:
http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/newsroom/archives/
No picture of Lily’s teeth?
bey
When I adopted Miss Tina Bobeanabutt, she freaked out every time I tried to brush her teeth. The vet was concerned that the wrestling would interfere with our bonding. I was too. He recommended that I give her a natural pig ear to gnaw on as a substitute. Since she’s only 11 lbs and pig ears are really high in calories, I only give her one on Saturday mornings.
So now my dog knows when it’s Saturday and her teeth are (almost) tartar free. She’ll probably need to have a dental every 3 or 4 years, so it’s not a perfect solution. But it’s better than nothing.
John Cole
@Laura W: Hey! I don’t like it when my teeth don’t feel smooth.
@LD50: I’m already planning a move to a bigger place next year so I can get another dog.
JoyceH
John, ask your vet about Hill’s t/d. It’s a prescription dog food that I got recently at my vet’s recommendation because my dog had a lot of plaque buildup. They’re nuggets a little smaller than a golf ball – I give my dog three per evening and she loves them, and the improvement in her teeth already is just incredible.
bey
I don’t even try to do her nails. $11 at PetSmart and worth every penny. Last visit the groomer said “She was….not very cooperative.”
Bad Horse's Filly
@Laura W: FTW!
Steve V
Yup, it’s a freaking drag. I put the toothpaste on a washcloth and use that as a sort of brush … the doggie toothbrushes I’ve seen are all too awkward to really use on either of my dogs. I swear I recall at some point someone told me to use steel wool.
John Cole
Lily is completely cooperative with nail trimming. The vet said she is perfectly behaved.
Tunch, on the other hand, is the spawn of Satan at the vets. The last time we went, it took two people to hold him down with towels while the vet checked him. He drew blood.
oh really
I don’t care about Lily, I want to see the video of you doing that to Tunch.
bey
Hah! That’s the problem with cats: they have 6 ends and 5 are sharp.
RedKitten
@JoyceH: I second the recommendation for the t/d biscuits. My in-laws gave them to their (now deceased) Airedale for his entire life, and at eleven years old, his teeth were just as white and healthy as a pup’s.
LD50
Well sure, they give you the first one for nothing to get you hooked!
Uncle Glenny
@JoyceH: John, ask your vet about Hill’s t/d.
Have you looked at the ingredients on that stuff?
I used it for a while half-and-half with regular food, because my dog found it so yummy that I had to save it for “dessert.”
One of the cats thought it smelled so good she ripped into the bag but couldn’t figure out what to do with the huge nuggets.
LD50
@bey: And the 6th one’s really gross.
Litlebritdifrnt
@John Cole:
I’ve got one like that, when I take her in they say “oh its her” and everyone gets out the radioactive suits and gloves. It is really quite embarrassing. When I picked her up after she was fixed I had her in a catbox in my office prior to going home. I kept hearing this “thud” sound from the box. Within 30 minutes of leaving the vets (and she was still groggy from the drugs) she had removed EVERY SINGLE STITCH from her incision and her belly was gaping open and she was already working on the second, internal set of stitches (the thud sound was her head hitting the top of the box after she had removed another stitch). I had to take her back to the vets (where they heavily sedated her again) put in STEEL staples, and wrapped her up like a leaky pipe with duct tape. When I take her in now the receptionist says to me “and who are we seeing today” I reply “Peaches” she then looks at the card, panics, and runs to the back. I tell you it is really embarrassing.
Litlebritdifrnt
@bey:
Ha Ha Get Fuzzy line, I love it!
Bad Horse's Filly
@Litlebritdifrnt: OMG, that made my night. Had not seen that before. I didn’t think I’d wade through all 14 pages, but it got better as each page went on. Lovely.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Bad Horse’s Filly:
It really is a thing of beauty is it not? I think I have to say that “The president is a wandering nomad” was my favorite bit, but you know there are so many favorite bits.
General Winfield Stuck
@John Cole:
You don’t roll in piles of nasty whatever as soon as possible either. Probably not, also.
Grant to Caesar what is Caesar’s
Grant to Dog what is Dog/
Bad Horse's Filly
@Litlebritdifrnt: That was great, as was talking about ‘any middle school student’ would know better than to file the crap she filed.
General Winfield Stuck
That should be “render” not that anyone cares.
The next-to-last samurai
Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, render unto Lily dog toothpaste. And don’t get the tubes mixed up.
Anne Laurie
@Uncle Glenny:
If the poor dog had that kind of crap lurking in his mouth, a good professional teeth cleaning was certainly the right idea! I’m sorry if I’ve misunderstood your post, but untreated chronic low-grade dental infections do lead to heart problems, not only for dogs but for people. Dogs usually don’t let us know when their teeth ache, but I’ve known many, many “geriatric” dogs who acted as though a dental cleaning had given them a second puppyhood — they immediately had more energy, less joint pain, and generally a much improved attitude about everything. In fact, watching beloved companions recover precious extra months & years of life has done a great deal to reconcile me with my own dentist… I’m still rabidly dental-phobic, but I can no longer assume that the dental-industrial complex has invented the concept of bi-annual cleanings just to torture innocent people for fun & profit.
Many thanks to those who suggested the t/d biscuits — I’ll have to try them with our three current dogs, all of whom are rescues with “issues” that make me unwilling to force my hand into their mouths on a regular basis. And I second Petco’s nail service — our guys are Lily-sized, around 15lbs each, and it amazes me that the professional groomers can achieve in 5 minutes a task that would take me half an hour of strenuous wrestling & probably involve bloodshed, from their nails or my hands or both!
General Winfield Stuck
@The next-to-last samurai:
Well Ok! but then Cole should use some doggie mouthwash cause I always do. Maybe the Road Kill Flavored kind. If they still make it.
Katherine Thweatt
You rock. I always knew you had this in you.
Jon
three phrases, two words each:
knee pads; Good CDs; good luck!
Uncle Glenny
@Anne Laurie:
Most likely he had a low-grade heart murmur, it wasn’t noticed (and if I’d ever heard about it – new vet, remember? – I didn’t think of it), and he didn’t receive prophylactic antibiotics.
kuvasz
Nothing, nothing is as hard as holding your dog in your arms as it is put to sleep.
Tattoosydney
@Litlebritdifrnt:
That has so much win…
“Captain Rhodes does not seek a discharge from the Army; nor does she wish to be relieved entirely from her two year active service obligation. She has not previously made any official complaints regarding any orders or assignments that she has received, including orders that have been issued since President Obama became Commander in Chief. But she does not want to go to Iraq (or to any other
destination where she may be in harm’s way, for that matter). Her “conscientious objections” to serving under the current Commander in Chief apparently can be accommodated as long as she is permitted to remain on American soil.”
“Thus, Plaintiff’s counsel, who champions herself as a defender of liberty and freedom, seeks to use the power of the judiciary to compel a citizen, albeit the President of the United States, to “prove his innocence” to “charges” that are based upon conjecture and speculation. Any middle school civics student would readily recognize the irony of abandoning fundamental principles upon which
our Country was founded in order to purportedly “protect and preserve” those very principles.”
Kevin
Bah, you just use your finger to work the poultry-flavored shite down into the bristles of an ordinary toothbrush and hand it over. The dog will canvas every nook and cranny of its little doggy mouth working the stuff back out. Works like a charm.
Anne Laurie
@Uncle Glenny:
Okay, that was criminal negligence on your ex-vet’s part. From your initial comment, I though you were suggesting that the dental cleaning somehow introduced an infection that wasn’t already in your dog’s mouth.
ruemara
Wait until you have to pull the worms out of her tuckus. No, I’m not kidding.
Wish someone would have told me about having to hydrate my silly cat with a saline drip. I’m not into needles.
DPirate
I don’t understand why someone would take their pet to a dentist unless there was a serious problem. I can see brushing their teeth if they are in the habit of eatting shit alot or something. I suppose if one can afford it, it is nice for the dog, but preventing periodontal disease shouldn’t be a concern for a creature that is only going to live a decade or two?
Anyhow, what exactly is toothpaste for? Subtract the abrasives and the scents and you aren’t left with anything useful are you? Fluoride, but the animal is likely getting plenty of that in it’s water.
Question: Do you floss your dog?
Ole
@Red Kitten
Good ppl your in-laws. I’ve had an airedale around basically my whole life since I was 4 … they’re the best.
And somewhat catty in all their “I’ll do damn well just as I please so you might as well stop that hollering sooner rather than later” attitude.
Never brushed a single tooth on a dog though …
serge
My dogs will get NOTHING, and like it…last thing I want is for them to get hooked on some new form of doggie crack.
Dog is My Copilot
Was listening to a story on NPR recently about a book that someone put together called, “Letters to the President.” One little girl wrote, “Don’t get a beagle. They eat their own poop.” I about had coffee shooting out my nose. I don’t have beagles but they do eat poop, which absolutely grosses me out. I had one of the dog’s teeth cleaned at the vet recently and spend about $250. Only to bring him home and see him eating poop. Not gonna spend that kind of money again. I think I’ll try those t/d biscuits that someone recommended.