Owners who believe smelly breath in pets is common are missing that it is a sign of poor oral health or potential dental disease. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), 80% of dogs show signs of oral disease by age three, and oral disease is linked to systemic disease of the heart, kidney and lungs.
According to Dr. Brook Niemiec, president of the Academy of Veterinary Dentistry, the best way to catch potential dental disease early is to look at the color of your dogs gums. If you flip up the dogs lips and look at his gums your looking for any redness. The other thing is smell your dog’s breath. If you don’t want a kiss from your dog, he probably has a good amount of gum disease going on.
Just as we brush daily your dogs should too. Unfortunately, a lot of pet-parents can’t commit to that so there are a lot of pet specialty dental chews that can help. However, you need to be sure that they have the Veterinary Oral Health Council(VHOC) seal of approval. If it doesn’t have that it probably doesn’t work. A product like Greenies that has the seal has been show to meet or exceeded the pre-set VOHC standards of efficacy in reducing dental plaque and/or tartar.
Additionally,The GREENIES Brand and the American Veterinary Dental College (AVDC) is launching a program to provide grants to fund the cost of vital dental care procedures for service dogs. The GREENIES Brand has pledged a $20,000 grant to support dental care for service dogs.
Through the remainder of October they are asking people to spread the word on Facebook and Twitter or to post online. Each tweet that uses #greeniesgives on Twitter and each new like on The GREENIES Brand’s page on Facebook will activate a $1 donation. For every blog post written about the importance of pet oral health and how GREENIES Dental Chews and Treats help to keep pets healthy and happy, The GREENIES Brand will donate $100 to the Oral Care for Service Dogs program.
In this video I discussed oral health for dogs and the service dog campaign with Dr. Niemiec. To help service dogs, and/or to download a pet oral health infographic, visit www.facebook.com/greenies you can also visit Dr. Niemiec’s site at www.dogbeachvet.com.
Disclosure I received compensation in exchange for this post and video Regardless, I only recommend products or services I personally believe will be good for my readers.
I love when comapnies give back! I have no pets but looking to get a service/therapy dog for Z. 🙂
Me too. It’s always wonderful to see that.
This is great information to know as many people do not know the proper way or how to tell if their dogs gums are diseased. I will share this information with my mom and sister.
Yes it is. I need to buy this product more often for Roscoe.
Wow, I am going to share this post with my daughter. I agree oral care is just as important for our doggies as it is for us . I think GREENIES is a good product for our doggies and I like that they donate to oral care for service dogs.
Thank you so much and I agree.