How to Use Dog Dental Chews Safely

1 The Main Types

There are three common kinds of chew.

1) Raw bone or rawhide rolls — a snack that also builds appetite, adds nutrition, and firms the teeth.

2) Dental chew bones and similar — meant mainly to clean and strengthen teeth, with snacking secondary; they comfort a puppy through teething and help oral hygiene.

3) Rope toys and plastic toys — these are toys, not food.

2 Safe-Use Tips

1) Size it right. Too large is hard to gnaw; too small is easily swallowed whole. Hardness should not be excessive either, or it can damage the teeth.

2) Stay involved. Do not let the dog chew for too long at a stretch — give it a break after a while, since prolonged gnawing can harm the gums and teeth.

3) For light-coated dogs, skip colored chews. The dye can rub off onto the fur on the paws — a real nuisance to clean on white breeds like bichons, Pekingese, or Samoyeds.

4) Replace them regularly. A chew used many times picks up contamination; chewing one uncleaned stick for long lets bacteria reach the gut and bring on diarrhea and other stomach trouble.

3 If a Chew Upsets the Stomach

When a chew causes gastroenteritis, traditional herbal formulas are used. An early formula: Pinellia (Ban xia) 6 g, Lindera (Wu yao) 6 g, radish seed (Lai fu zi) 6 g, Terminalia (He zi) 9 g, turmeric (Yu jin) 9 g, Coptis (Huang lian) 3 g, medicated leaven (Liu qu) 3 g, licorice (Gan cao) 3 g, decocted in water and given by mouth.

Later, with poor appetite and occasional vomiting, a ‘strengthen-the-spleen, regulate-qi’ powder is used: Atractylodes (Bai zhu) 6 g, Codonopsis (Dang shen) 6 g, Poria (Fu ling) 6 g, Cyperus (Xiang fu) 3 g, costusroot (Mu xiang) 3 g, Lindera (Wu yao) 3 g, dried tangerine peel (Chen pi) 6 g, Forsythia (Lian qiao) 6 g, medicated leaven (Liu qu) 6 g, decocted and strained for oral use.

A Dahuang-Mudan decoction (rhubarb, moutan, Coptis, each 20 g; patrinia, dandelion, coix seed, red peony, gizzard lining, each 15 g; honeysuckle 30 g; licorice 10 g) is given as a tea. Add Pulsatilla (Bai tou weng) and boost honeysuckle and Coptis for bloody stool; cut or skip rhubarb when stool is loose and severely dehydrated; add gallnut powder or 50 g of charcoal powder when stool is loose without occult blood.