Podenco Health & Training - Maintaining Healthy Teeth & Nails
The Podenco smile, Scooby showing off his pearly white teeth!
The next in our blog series for Podenco Health is maintaining healthy teeth and nails, something we get asked about frequently!
As always, please do consult your vet where necessary, there is no substitute for a hands on examination of your dog by a trained professional.
Teeth
It has been said that you can tell how old a dog is by looking at the condition of their teeth. That may well have been true in years gone by, but with tooth maintenance more widely available than ever before, dogs can reach a good age and still have perfect pearly whites!
If you adopt a puppy, it’s a great idea to start off as you mean to go on, with regular (ideally daily!) tooth brushing. This is your best chance of your dog maintaining their picture perfect smile. But we know with Podencos, depending on the age they were rescued, there could have been many years of poor diet and living conditions (which almost certainly wouldn’t have involved any tooth cleaning!) that can mean that when they arrive on the Happy Bus, their teeth might not be as good as they could be. Depending on how anxious your dog is, or how much time they need to adjust to their new lifestyle will depend on when you might want to introduce the toothbrush, or other tooth cleaning tools and toys, but we would recommend doing so as soon as is reasonably possible. You may well need to follow some desensitisation guidance, so you can do this without any additional stress for your dog. Once your dog is comfortable around the toothbrush and toothpaste, there is lots of advice here, on how to brush them: Dog dental care | Caring for your dog's teeth | Blue Cross
There are lots of toys, chews and supplements on the market that claim to help clean teeth. Its difficult to say with any certainty whether or not these work, but even if you choose to use these, they should be used alongside tooth brushing rather than as a substitute.
Checking inside your dogs mouth regularly, is also important. This allows you to notice any changes that might require a vet visit or further exploration. For dogs that arrive with teeth in less than ideal condition, or those dogs that develop tartar on their teeth, visiting your vet and discussing the appropriate treatment is important. If teeth are left too long with tartar on them, dogs can develop periodontal disease which not only is often uncomfortable, but can also lead to infections in organs like the heart, kidneys and liver.
Podenco happily showing off their manicured nails!
Nails
Similarly to teeth, poorly maintained nails can also cause discomfort and knock on implications. Nails that are too long and touch the floor, cause unnecessary pressure on the feet and can affect the shape and confirmation of the toes, which in turn can affect a dogs legs and posture.
Some people say that if you walk dogs on hard surfaces their nails will wear down and won’t need cutting, but that is not always the case. Weekly or bi weekly nail trims are probably about right in order to keep on top of it.
Firstly, you’ll need to desensitise/counter condition your dogs to having their feet touched and the nail clippers, or Dremel/file if you’d prefer to use one of those. Take your time and use lots of positive reinforcement. You can use a similar technique to the toothbrush one we shared (insert link).
Many people think that if the quick (the blood supply inside the dogs nail) is long, there is no hope of reducing the length of the dogs nails, but that’s a myth. Even vets and groomers won’t always know this and will say your dogs nails are fine because they have taken the nail back as far as they can without cutting the quick. However, you can actually recede the quick, allowing the nails to be taken shorter and whilst it does take time and consistency, it can make a big difference to them! When cutting your dogs nails, whether you need to recede the quick or not, we’d recommend that you cut along the ‘alternate cut line’ as well as the traditional cut line. Make the traditional cut first and then cut slivers off the top of the nail so you don’t accidentally ‘quick’ the dog (cut the quick so it bleeds).
Even if your dog has black nails, you can learn to ‘read’ the nail. This video: Layers of a dogs nail - YouTube shows the different layers of a dogs nail, and means you can even see on a dog with black nails, when you are reaching the quick. The photos below also demonstrate when to continue and stop cutting. A Dremel or other nail grinder might also be useful as it allows you to take length of the nail without the use of a sharp blade, meaning you are less likely to quick the dog. Just make sure your dog is comfortable with the grinder before you try to use it.
For the most comprehensive guidance on cutting your dogs nails, we would recommend a facebook group called ‘Nail Maintenance for Dogs’. It’s no longer an ‘active’ facebook group, but is now a resource, where there are lots of guides you can look at, as well as searching historic posts. It covers what we’ve covered in this blog but in much more detail.
We’d love to hear if you are enjoying this blog series, and if you’ve made any progress with either your dogs weight, teeth or nails – please do get in touch! Our next blog will focus on specific health conditions to look out for in Podencos.
Mit viel Liebe! Das HFP-Team xxx
Artikel verfasst von Gemma Eley
If you would like to adopt a Podenco you can see our available dogs here!