You must be kidding me...I was reading the Fanny Syufy article Clean Your Cat's Teeth and thought it would be better to reproduce it here for my reference as I know I would need to read it several times over.
Dental health is every bit as important to cats as it is to humans. A regular program of teeth cleaning will ensure your cat will enjoy his senior years with all his teeth intact
Difficulty: Average (Hmmm..maybe for me not so average but not insurmountable)
Time Required: 5 minutes (plus 20 - first to persuade Toro that he can trust me, to get him to open his mouth long enough for the whole operation, to cope with his struggles as he is rather strong and can be stubborn)
Assemble supplies: sterile gauze, scissors, cat toothpaste (available at pet stores) or a weak sterile solution recommended by your veterinarian.
Directions:
1. Wrap a strip of gauze around the index finger of your dominant hand and either dip it in the sterile solution, or apply a small amount of toothpaste to your fingertip.
3. Gently rub your 'finger brush' in a circular motion on his teeth, concentrating on the area next to the gums. Gently massage the gums at the same time. It's not necessary to do the back sides of the teeth.
4. Once your cat will tolerate this procedure, you can graduate to a small child's toothbrush.
Give kitty a few loving pats and kind words, along with a little treat to polish off with his shiny clean teeth.
Tips:
- You might want to experiment with flavored toothpaste for cats. There is a fish-flavored one that is quite tasty.
- If you start practicing examining your cats teeth at a very young age, this process will be much easier. See 'How To Gentle a Kitten' for suggestions.
- Bleeding of the gums is a sign your cat needs professional dental scaling by your veterinarian, so attend to that as soon as possible.
- What You Need:
Sterile gauze
Cat toothpaste / solution
Opt: small toothbrush
Scissors
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