Tartar

Question
I just adopted a 1 year old Chihuahua (female) the lady I got her from told me she was 9 months old.  Upon reading the Veterinarian papers, I found she was infact over 1 year old (march 26th 2006 D.O.B) Her teeth are covered in thick Tartar, calls to vets had me in the whole 200 bucks.  Is there any ways I can treat this myself? She also has dry, flaky skin. I believe she was very mis-treated, her nails were long and split at the ends.  Can you help me with my tartar and skin problem?  Thanks!

Answer
Kim,

If her teeth are really in bad shape, she will need a dental cleaning. Unfortuantely, with dogs this is a surgical procedure that will run you around $200 almost anywhere you go. I do recommend you schedule a dental for her while you are able to. If you need time to save some money, there are definately things you can do to help her in the meantime. Greenies can be found at your local Petsco or Petsmart, and Nutri-Dent chews can be found at your local Wal-Mart. If you can't find them locally, you could order them online. Either of these treats will help clean your dog's teeth and reduce the tartar buildup. They are a little more expensive than your average dog treat, but they work wonders and are still cheaper than a dental! If you can't get either of those, any rawhide (as long as it doesn't hurt her to chew on them) or tough chew toy will help her.

Also, quality nutrition will help with your dog's teeth AND her skin. My favorite foods are Eagle Pack Holistic and Bil Jac. They are both expensive, however, and as a college student with 3 dogs I can appreciate the need to find an affordable dog food. If those are both out of your reach, you might try Purina One dry adult dog food, which can be found at Wal-Mart, or Diamond Maintenance dry adult dog food, which can be found in stores like Atwoods (if you have one where you are) and milling companies. Diamond is probably the highest quality food for the lowest price that you will ever be able to find. There are other foods I ALWAYS tell people to stay away from - these are Ol' Roy and any other dog food you can buy in bulk for rediculously low prices (you get what you pay for), Science Diet, Iams, and the list goes on... if you stick with one of the foods I recommended, she'll be on a good diet. I provided you with some links at the bottom.

You might also try a deep conditioning shampoo for her skin. You can find good shampoos at www.drsfostersmith.com, or you could call a local groomer and see what they think they could do to improve the condition of your dog's skin. Baths will help as long as you don't bathe her too often - once a monthis probably sufficient. If proper nutrition and grooming don't correct the problem, however, you'll want to consult a veterinarian to be sure it isn't the result of a medical condition. And as for the toenials, she just needs to go to a groomer and have them trimmed! If she is able to run around and play outside much, this will help keep them filed down so you won't have to keep having them cut.

Good luck with this and good for you for caring about this dog!

Ashley

www.diamondpet.com
www.bil-jac.com
www.purinaone.com
www.eaglepack.com