Thread: Weight problem?

Originally Posted by Scrapdragon

this has made me think.... should we be cleaning our cats teeth???

Not at 4 mos. But probably later.

My impression is that quite a few MCs end up having gingivitis and other tooth problems. I know that our three older cats have all had various levels of gingivitis. As I noted, the vet dental specialist stated that brushing the best thing you can do for their teeth. We had been using the chlorhexidine rinses, but the cats hated them and they definitely had not helped as much as the brushing. It sounds hard, but you really don't have to do that good job brushing as the pet toothpastes are enzymatic, so you just need to get it onto their teeth and it helps a lot still. The best part is that they actually like the flavors of the toothpaste, so are not too uncooperative.

The best brush we have found for cats is this one:
Virbac Animal Health | C.E.T.

Brush is somewhat hard to see in the above page, but you can see it in this video:
Play Entire Video | Partners in Animal Health

We had tried several different toothbrushes on the cats but this is by far the best. First saw it in the above video, then had to hunt it down on the 'net and order. We have four, labeled for each cat!

We also prefer the CET toothpaste such as:
Virbac Animal Health | C.E.T.

Our cats love the poultry and seafood flavors, but refused the mint. One of the vet assistants told me though that her cats love the mint, so it is a preference. We buy the toothpaste online now as it is a lot cheaper than at the vet and we go through a couple of tubes a month doing all four MCs most nights.

Our breeder has been using the water additive and has said it made a big difference in her cats. Ours all refused to drink from the water dishes that had it added, however, so we gave up. There have been a couple of studies that showed significant reductions in tarter in most cats when using it. I was a bit concerned about one of the ingredients however.

Originally Posted by NCarver

We also prefer the CET toothpaste such as:
Virbac Animal Health | C.E.T.

The toothpaste is called Enzymatic in the UK.

Originally Posted by NCarver

Our breeder has been using the water additive and has said it made a big difference in her cats. Ours all refused to drink from the water dishes that had it added, however, so we gave up. There have been a couple of studies that showed significant reductions in tarter in most cats when using it. I was a bit concerned about one of the ingredients however.

I know the ingredient but can not think of the name! But I do know that Dentagen Aqua made by Genitrix does not have the ingredient

I know the ingredient but can not think of the name! But I do know that Dentagen Aqua made by Genitrix does not have the ingredient

I think the original brand was BreathaLyser:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/BreathaLyser-Plus-Drinking-Water-Additive/dp/B000FUJDA8"]Amazon.com: BreathaLyser Plus Drinking Water Additive for Dogs and Cats, 16.9 oz.: Kitchen &…@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21Fyxoo-P5L.@@AMEPARAM@@21Fyxoo-P5L[/ame]

The active ingredient is the xylitol. You can find Breathalyser's study results on the web, and it does appear to work for most pets. A water additive without the xylitol would have to have some proof that it worked. Here is the first link I found to the xylitol additive study:
Breathalyser PLUS Water Additive (500 mL)

Is xylitol actually safe though? It clearly is poisonous to dogs, but its effect on cats appears not to be fully known.

We gave it a try anyway before we knew about the xylitol issue, but none of our cats would drink it over the several day period we tried it out.