Brown Teeth

[beast 1,884]

i have a three year old collie cross here, and although the incisors and canines are nice and white, the back teeth are going brown for some reason. she gets raw meat, and bones every day, plus a bit of veg,fish,eggs etc. the other dogs get the same feed and have lovely teeth.

question, do some dogs just have teeth which stain easily or something? issues with the enamel? and any advice as to how i can get them white again? Thanks!

[skycat 6,173]

I reckon it's down to the amount of saliva a dog produces. People with dry mouths tend to get more decay than those which produce a lot of saliva, so it must be the same for dogs. I've had dogs of 12 years old and I've never had to de-scale their teeth, and they've all had very wet mouths: yuck And you can tell just by opening the dog's mouth, feeling its gums and looking at its tongue, and it's got nothing to do with how much they drink.

 

I've always de-scaled their teeth using a fairly blunt small knife, like a butter knife. The dog needs to be completely trusting of you, and for me, the easiest way to do it is to sit with the dog on your lap, or its head on your lap, so you can exert enough pressure on the plaque to dislodge it, holding the knife against the gum and pushing away from the gum with the knife held at right angles to the tooth.

 

If the dog won't keep still you've got no chance and will have to take it to the vet to be done under anaesthetic. It's not something you can do by sitting on a dog and forcing it to keep still: it has to trust you completely, but I've never found any of my dogs try to struggle: it shouldn't hurt the dog at all, but you do have to exert quite a bit of very controlled pressure against the edge of the plaque to begin with, then it starts flaking off in chunks: always work away from the gum so as not to risk the knife slipping and cutting into the gum.

[neil cooney 10,416]

Skycat, your dogs are spoilt, simple as that, LOL.

[beast 1,884]

thanks skycat, i have had to remove plaque from dogs' teeth before, and you are exactly right in what you say, but this is different. no kind of scale or anything, just the actual teeth themselves becoming discoloured

 

i was thinking of taking her to one of those celebrity teeth-whitening places

[skycat 6,173]

If the teeth are becoming discoloured then they could be rotten inside. Once had a pup that developed brown stains on its teeth after having been vaccinated! The vet couldn't say why, and the teeth haven't rotted inside, just stained brown on the outside.

 

Neal: yup, I spoil my dogs rotten but I'd sooner look after their teeth throughout their lives rather than have them suffer from gum problems later on which could cost a fortune at the vets. Leave plaqued-up teeth in a state and they can lead to rotting gums (gingivitis) and the bacteria from this can migrate through the body and cause overall health problems.

[beast 1,884]

i dont think they are rotten skycat, they just look like the inside of an old teacup with the tannin discolouring it! rotten teeth tend to have that sort of greyish cloudy look about them. i think i'll get the vet to look just in case. thanks for your advice

[foxhound 9]

I've got exactly the same problem with a 3 year old GSP,his teeth seem healthy enough just discoloured,old teacup describes it perfectly,all my other dogs look like a toothpaste ad,i'd like to find a solution because he works near the public and if it gets worse it'll start to look like I don't take care of the dog

[skycat 6,173]

I seem to remember that illness can cause brown staining: if the dog was ill as a pup, even before the adult teeth came through. Certain antibiotics can also cause staining of the enamel.

[paulus 26]

Intrinsic discoloration

• Internal (trauma, injury)
  
• Localized red blood cell destruction in the tooth (trauma)
  
• Systemic infections
  
• Medications (tetracycline)
  
• Exposure to too much fluorine (ingestion of toothpaste containing fluoride)
  
• High levels of bilirubin in the blood (from bile, the liquid in the gallbladder that helps to dissolve food in the intestines)
  
• Amelogenesis imperfecta (a condition in which dental enamel does not calcify enough)
  
• Dentinogenesis imperfecta. (a condition in which the dentin does not develop correctly)
  

[foxhound 9]

Cheers Skycat and Paulus,i'll let you know if I find the cause

[beast 1,884]

thanks folks. i got the vet to have a look when he came for the cattle, he was baffled, said the teeth seemed perfectly healthy. said we could do further tests, but that would be costly