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Loving Your Pet’s Smile

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dog face

You Can Brush Your Pet’s Teeth!

My dog, Seba, loves giving kisses!  But sometimes they’re smelly, if I’ve forgotten to brush her teeth.  What?  Brush my dog’s teeth?  Yes!  Not only does she tolerate me brushing her teeth, she expects it and there are some things she seems to enjoy—such as the peanut butter flavored toothpaste!

Here’s a vid of me brushing Seba’s teeth.

Ok, so yes–you should brush your pet’s teeth.  But how do you know when?  Ideally, a pet’s teeth should be white (not yellow, brown or gray), their gums should be bubble gum pink—except in the case of pets whose gums are a different color naturally—and they should not have bad breath.

Pets do not usually develop cavities the way children do, but they can contract periodontal (gum) disease due to buildup of tartar.  Once the gums are infected and inflamed, they can lose their teeth.  But a long time before that happens, they may be having pain that they won’t show in the same way you would…

In addition, once infection sets in, their immune system becomes compromised, and this can lead to heart and other types of disease.

I was lucky with Seba, because greyhounds are quite used to being touched all over and handled with humans doing all kinds of strange things to them—including dressing them in racing silks, winning banners…and later, when they are adopted to a home, everything from fancy collars with dangly bling to coats to booties for their feet in the winter!  So it was an easy segue to start putting a toothbrush in her mouth.

canine dental

But HOW Do You Brush Your Pet’s Teeth?

But, if your pet isn’t used to this, the way to start is by using something on your finger that the pet loves—like tuna juice for cats or plain peanut butter for dogs (just be sure to avoid any peanut butter containing xylitol as a sweetener, since this is highly toxic to our canine friends).  You want to approach the pet from the side, not face to face.  A smaller dog or a cat you can place on your lap, with its face away from you.  Our cat lovers may want to try a Cat In The Bag as an easy way to brush your feline’s teeth, and it can be used in many other instances, as well.)

Seba knows when Momma is talking baby talk to her, she is safe and something good is coming in the way of treats and pets.  But any reassuring sound you make or praise you give throughout the process will create a pleasant association for your pet.  Start for short sessions on a regular basis and build up to a full mouth brushing, starting at the back  on the inside and using short, circular strokes with the brush.

cat roar

The Facts About Pet Gum Disease

You may have thought that gum disease only affects humans, but in fact pet gum disease is the leading dental problem vets see, and affects 80% of dogs and 70% of cats.  In general, pets are more susceptible as they grow older, but toy breeds are particularly so, because of tooth crowding.

Gum disease in pets is caused by the same things as in humans: bacteria from leftover food particles causes plaque along the gumline.  If not cleaned away, the plaque hardens into tartar, which clings strongly to the teeth.  This can happen in as little as 3 days.  Gingivitus, bad breath and inflammation of the gum follow which, if still untreated, can cause loosening of the teeth, abcesses and further infection.  All during this process, the pet is in pain–and, unlike you, will not be able to schedule an appointment for themselves!

Signs of periodontal disease in pets are:

  • Bad breath
  • Excessive Salivation
  • Loose or Missing Teeth
  • Loss of appetite
  • Obvious pain or difficulty while eating
  • Red, inflamed gums
  • Yellow brown tartar deposits

dog mouth

But What About The Dental Treats I Give My Pet?

Like a lot of other pet products on the market, these are well loved by owners–but keep in mind they do not replace a toothbrush or professional cleaning.  Treats should not be soft (or become soft as in the case of rawhides) as hard food and treats help remove built up plaque from the pet’s teeth.  You want a tough, chewy treat, but not extremely hard like cow hooves or pig ears.  Hard objects can chip and wear down teeth prematurely.  However, in general, providing your pet a chew toy is beneficial, even if you spot some bleeding of the gums, as in particular dog gingiva is more sensitive than that of humans.

Healthy gums should be bubble gum pink with no signs of redness or irritation.

cat teeth

At The Vet

As part of your pet’s routine, your vet should be checking their mouth, gums and teeth.  If they find your dog needs a cleaning, they will use one of two methods (generally, under anaesthesia): manual or mechanical scaling.

Manual scaling is used for mild cases of tartar buildup or as a followup to a mechanical scaling procedure.

Mechanical scaling uses ultrasonic scalers powered by compressed air.

After scaling off the tartar, the pet’s teeth are polished, just like a human’s.  This is a key process to ensure the natural nooks and crannies of the teeth are smooth, and less easily able to allow tartar to adhere.  Irrigation with a water based solution is the final step in the process, rinsing away any further debris.

Sometimes, your pet may need teeth removed–especially if they are extremely loose, broken beneath the gumline or split.  This ensures your pet can have comfortable meals after healing and that any infection cannot spread throughout the body.

So here’s the takeaway: yes, you can brush your pet’s teeth!  And you should.  It can lengthen their life considerably, not to mentione their enjoyment of it.  Plus–no smelly kisses!

Joy Jones

Joy Jones, Publisher, is also the Vice President of Your Pet Space, a cage free dog boarding facility serving the greater Las Cruces, NM area. She is also a syndicated columnist living with her husband Dave (below). When not working on Your Pet Space, she writes a metaphysical column, as well as urban fantasy and humor. You can e-mail her at joy@yourpetspace.info as well as send her a friend request on Facebook.

What Exactly Is A Red Panda?

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red panda in snow

Red Pandas at The Cincinnati Zoo

As winter bore down on the Midwest and Northeast, citizens weary of staving off yet another blizzard while reclaiming cars and homes buried under mountains of snow, finally had something to make them smile.  This small respite, from a winter that would make even Elsa and Olaf cringe, arrived as NBC News aired the story about two red pandas at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden romping in the snow with sheer joy and abandon.

The story was picked up by the wire services and was featured in a variety of news outlets including Wall Street Journal, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and the United Kingdom’s Daily Mail turning these charmers into international, Internet sensations.  The video has been making the rounds on Facebook, and, at last count, has garnered over 2.7 million views on YouTube!  In case you are one of the few who hasn’t seen this, or if you just need to add an additional dose of cute to your day, the YouTube link follows.

Red Pandas Like The Cold

Let’s find out more about these fascinating and cute animals.

What exactly is a Red Panda?

Well, that is the question that baffled scientists for decades. We can see that the Red Panda or “fire fox” is adorable, fuzzy, and entertaining, but what kind of animal is it? Do you think it might be a bear?  Nope, it’s not a bear.  It looks like a raccoon; could it be a raccoon?  Wrong again.  While the Red Panda was previously classified in the families of raccoons (scientific name: Procyonidae) and bears (scientific name:  Ursidae), within the past 15 years it was determined that the Red Panda is a unique species, unrelated to the others.  It has now been placed in its own scientific family:  Ailuridae.

The Red Panda is not even closely related to the Giant Panda. The Red Panda does have a few things in common with the Giant Panda, however.  Both species share part of the same habitat, although the Red Panda’s range is larger; they both have an extended wrist bone which acts almost like a thumb that helps them grip; and they both share an appetite for yummy bamboo.  That is pretty much where the similarities end.

giant pandared panda in tree

The Giant Panda resembles a bear and is about the size of an American black bear.  A male can weigh up to 250 pounds.  However, the Red Panda more closely resembles a raccoon and is about the size of a large house cat.  The average size of a Red Panda is 22 to 25 inches and its fluffy tail adds another 15 to 19 inches.  Its average weight is 7 to 14 pounds.

Where do they come from?

By now, it should come as no surprise that Red Pandas like the cold.  Their thick auburn fur insulates their bodies from the cold and when additional protection is required, they wrap their bushy tails around their bodies to ward off the chill.  The Red Panda prefers the temperate climates found in the forests in the foothills of the Himalayas.  The temperatures in this region are typically cool and remain that way most of the year.  Their range extends from Western Nepal to northern Myanmar.  They can also be found in southwestern China in elevations between 4,900 and 13,000 feet. Like Tarzan, the Red Panda spends most if its time in trees.  It is very agile and can easily traverse among the limbs.  When it time for a snooze, you’ll find the Red Panda dozing high up in the branches.  The Red Panda is most active at night where it can forage for food under the protection of darkness.

region of the red panda

While Red Pandas are for the most part solitary, they often have overlapping ranges. The home range of a female red panda is often one square mile of area.  Males generally live in an area twice that size and sometimes larger during breeding season – usually January through March.

bamboo forest

What do they eat?

Red pandas are technically carnivores.   They will eat a variety of different foods including eggs, fruit, nuts, and roots. On rare occasions a bird or small rodent may supplement the red panda diet.  However, the red panda is primarily an herbivore with a diet consisting mostly of bamboo shoots and leaves.

red panda eating bamboo

The Red Panda does not eat all parts of the bamboo.  The Red Panda seeks out only the young and tender bamboo shoots and leaves.  Bamboo is not easily digestible; therefore the Red Panda has to eat a lot of bamboo to maintain its daily nutritional intake.  Surprisingly a Red Panda can eat around 20,000 bamboo leaves in a day.

How cute are those babies?

The answer is – “Very Cute!”  After breeding during the winter, mom prepares for an early summer birth of her babies.  Before giving birth, mom builds a nest in a hollow tree or bamboo thicket and lines it with moss, leaves and other natural material to make it soft and warm.   The Red Panda gestation is about 135 days, which is a really long time for a mammal of its size.  Typically they have an only one to 4 cubs in a litter. Babies remain in their nest for about 90 days under the constant care and supervision of their doting mother.  (Males take little or no interest in their offspring.)  Red Panda cubs stay with their mother for about a year.   As the cubs transition to solid foods they eat only bamboo until they are old enough to digest other foods.  The cubs grow slowly and reach adult size at about a year old.  They reach sexual maturity at around 18 months.  There is a very high mortality rate among newborns – estimated to be as high as 80% — since the vulnerable cubs are targets for prey animals.  These factors impact population growth.  Once the population is threatened, it is difficult for it to bounce back after a period of decline.

baby red panda

What is happening to the Red Panda population?

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Version 2014.3 lists the Red Panda as “Vulnerable” which means the population is decreasing, in danger of becoming endangered and threatened by extinction.

red panda population

Once Again, Humans Encroaching On Precious Natural Habitats Are To Blame

The Red Panda has a few natural predators such as the snow leopard and marten.  In addition a number of predatory birds and small carnivores prey on the more vulnerable cubs.  However, humans encroaching on precious natural habitats appear to be the primary cause of the Red Panda population decline.  A major threat is the loss of habitat due to deforestation for timber, fuel and agriculture. The increasing human populations have affected land that once provided trees for nesting sites and areas of bamboo forests. There is more competition for food and land from domestic livestock. Dogs used to protect herds are threatening the Red Panda nests. Poaching for the pet and fur trades continues to be a problem.  I think it’s safe to say that humans are the biggest threat to the Red Panda survival.

Fortunately many of our zoos have taken up the challenge to preserve the Red Panda.  Eighty zoos are working with the Species Survival Plan (SSP) and are successfully breeding captive populations.  The Red Panda Network works with zoos, local communities and the general public to promote Red Panda conservation.  If you are interested in more information about the Red Panda, or would like to find out where you can see a Red Panda near you, check out their website.

Photo Credits:

Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden

Smithsonian, National Zoo

World Wildlife Fund

Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden

IUCN

Karen Borejka

Karen Borejka, our Wildlife Editor, is a Volunteer Educator for the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, and is a member of the Association of Zoo and Aquarium Docents and Volunteers (AZADV). She and her husband Vic are “bi-coastal” with a daughter on the east coast and a son on the west coast. Karen and her husband live in Cincinnati, OH with her mom Helen, and their 5 “fur-children” –2 dogs and 3 cats – all rescues. Karen can be reached through Facebook.

Product Review: Cat In The Bag

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two cats travelling

Cash (the cat in black) and Little Dingle saying, “We be trippin!”

A Cross Country Trip With Cats

My wife and I drove 1600 miles across the country – a twenty four hour trip – with three dogs and two cats.  The plan was to drive three or four hours, take a break to give the dogs a chance to run, then back on the road for another three or four hours before stopping for the night.  Managing the dogs seemed like an easy task.  They would ride just behind the front seats of the Honda Pilot in the cargo area.  Getting the dogs in and out of the vehicle without losing one seemed pretty easy, too; we would simply put them on a leash before opening the door.

But What About Cat Travel Safety?

The cats were another story.  They would be in a 24 x 36 dog crate for the journey.  This would give them enough room to lay about and still fit a litter box in the same crate.   Getting them from the vehicle to the hotel room would be a challenge, though.  They might dash when the crate door opened, or squirm out of our arms while being carried to the hotel room.  This is where Cat in the Bag came in handy for a cat travelling in a car.

Cat in the Bag is a fabric bag with a large opening at one end that can be zippered closed, and a smaller opening at the other end for the cat’s head.  Using it is a snap!  With the zippered end wide open the cat walks into the bag and puts his head through the smaller opening at the other end.  You zip up the large opening, then tighten the Velcro around the cat’s neck so he can’t slip out.  The Velcro acts as a collar and you adjust it as such.  That is, leave room for one finger so it isn’t too tight around the cat’s neck.  Once the cat is in the bag you can pick the bag up by the convenient sewn-in handle and away you go.  Viola!  It is just that easy.

Okay, maybe not that easy.  When we tested it on Cash, (our “cat in black”), he did not want to go in.  It was a bit of a struggle and he was scared until he realized his feet were under him and his head was free.  After that he did not mind going into the bag.  Our other boy, Dingle, was another story.  It wasn’t until his very last trip in the bag that he went in willingly.

A Cat Travelling In A Car Is Like…Well, Nothing Else You’ve Tried!

You may be asking why we didn’t use a traditional cat carrier.  There are two reasons.  One reason was  where to put it?  We knew that storage space would be limited.  Cat carriers would never fit in the Pilot with the dog crate and the dogs.  And our moving truck was full to bursting!  The biggest reason we did not want to use a traditional crate style cat carrier, though, was comfort.  This trip would be stressful on the cats as it was.  Can you imagine trying to get them in a cat carrier twice a day?  My cats, like most cats, hate carriers because they have a fear of forced confinement. They will brace, struggle and scratch in a desperate attempt to avoid being put in a crate.  I didn’t need that stress any more than they did. Getting the cats from the house to the car, then car to hotel, hotel to car, until at last car to house would have been a total of eight trips.  Can you imagine putting a squirming cat into a cat carrier eight times in four days?  Torture for both man and beast!

cat in the bag

The Cat in the Bag took the stress out of the equation of cat travel safety.  A cat does not fight the bag carrier like he fights a crate. When your cat is in his Cozy Comfort Carrier, his head stays outside the bag so you can hold him, pet him and calm him. He doesn’t feel isolated or trapped. The loose, soft cotton bag gives him plenty of room to stretch, sit up, stand up, lay down and curl up.  And with his head outside of the bag he does not feel confined.

But, once you have properly fastened the adjustable Velcro collar around his neck, he is secured in the bag and it is safe to take him outside. You will be able to carry him without him scratching you or getting away and getting hurt.

I mentioned earlier that Cash went into the bag with no problem, but Dingle resisted. So how do you get the cat into the bag?  Start by seeing that the small opening with the Velcro is fully opened.  You need enough room at that end for the cat to easily stick its head through the opening.  Unzip the other end so that the bag is fully open.  Gather the material together and slip the cat’s head through the small opening.  He may able to get a paw out but there is no getting its whole body through that hole.  Pull the bag over the cat’s body and zip shut.  (watch the tail!)   It is just that easy. At least it was with Cash.  Dingle wasn’t so willing.  To get Dingle into the bag I had to kneel, and hold him against my legs.  Using my forearms to hold him in place, I put the bag over his head and he quickly stuck his head through the small hole.  He thought it was a way out and kept going which helped me to draw the rest of the bag over him and zip it up.  You would think he would figure that out, but it worked this way every time I needed him in the Cat in the Bag.  Eight times!  So it really wasn’t all that hard after all.  And as corny as it is, once you arrive at your destination you will not be able to resist letting the cat out of the bag.

Dave Jones, the cat man

Dogfather…or Catman?

The bag is made of tightly woven cotton, is soft on the cat, and it will not rip or tear.  The cloth handle attached to the bag is solid and long enough to put over your shoulder.  This made carrying multiple cats easy for me. The bag carrier does not add any weight to the cat and is not as awkward to carry as the crate. The cat does not slide or scrabble back and forth like he would in a crate — the hammock-like bag keeps him in one spot-which made it easy for me.

A Cross Country Trip With Cats Can Be A Snap

The Cat in the Bag is a great way to move cats without the stress of a traditional cat carrier, and the Cat in the Bag can be used for so much more.  Giving your cat medicine, dental care, nail trimming, and even baths are much easier when the cat is in the bag.  Have you ever given a cat a bath?  In my experience – they don’t like it.  Cat in the Bag makes the process easy.  You can soap them up, wash them, and rinse them thoroughly while they are in the bag.  And you get the job done without getting scratched!


Go to the Cat In The Bag website for more detailed information on the product.

I am Cash, and I approve this message. Cash 300

dave-with-castle 300

Dave Jones, our Video Editor, is president of Your Pet Space by day and a professional magician by night. He lives with his wife Joy in Las Cruces, New Mexico, but grew up on a farm with pigs, chickens and cows as well as dogs and cats in Ohio. You can e-mail Dave at dave@yourpetspace.info as well as follow him on Facebook.