I was discussing oral condition with friends last night, and one interjected that his cat is fed a great diet. I said “no, your cat benefits from being genetically superior”. I was able to satisfy his ego without getting into a big discussion. I don’t have time to argue, and you can feel that you contribute to your cat’s oral health depending on diet, whether kibble, canned, raw, dehydrated, freeze dried. I don’t really care, and I say that in jest. I know my way around a mouth.

Amalie’s teeth dissolve right out of her head. She has a disease that’s not curable, and we do cleanings and extractions. She is on the same diet as Yue. Yue does not have this condition.

Tommy and Stewart have the same diet as well. Tommy used to have me scale his teeth when he was younger with a dental tool. He just has a cruddy, sticky mouth that develops tartar easily. At ages 8, Yue and Tommy went in for a cleaning. Stewart is about to turn 8, and his mouth still looks fantastic at his age. You can see the rear teeth. Tom… *sigh*… this guy has so much tartar on this back teeth two years later, that you can’t see the tooth. He needs a dental cleaning, again. I’m going to try to stave off a visit for a few months by giving him some Zylkene tonight and try to scale his back teeth. He used to let me do it, but now it’s pretty built up, he’s uncomfortable, and we haven’t used the tool in some time.

We could have prevented this by brushing. We will be attempting to “teach an old dog new tricks” after his professional cleaning, with brushing. A proper dental cleaning requires general anesthesia and routinely includes the need for blood work. This starts out at $400. I know that the clinic we use will want to have a Senior Exam visit charge, full Senior blood work, then the dental. I’m looking at about $800, unless I go somewhere else. He hasn’t seen the vet since 2017 because that was the year he was traumatized with all the ER visits, the surgery, the follow ups. I should do the entire thing because he’s ten years old. They will likely also do x-rays to see below the gum line.

I need to find more work. It’s for the fur kids.