Dental problems in greyhounds

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Oh yes greyhounds are notorious for having bad teeth - one of my oldies had no teeth at all left, one just had his 4 canine teeth left. I’ve spent thousands of pounds on canine dentals over the years!

I know a lot of people who clean their dogs teeth and the dogs tolerate it very well. I’ve never done it with mine because the damage (literally) has always been done before I’ve adopted them! I don’t think you need to train them as such, just give it a go 😊
 

Clodagh

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A friend tells me that their lips are so streamlined and small against their teeth that they don't get as good a saliva wash as dogs with floppier mouth set ups.
 

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You get all sorts of reasons suggested to be honest - poor diet in training, it’s hereditary etc etc. It’s a shame nobody seems to have done a proper study, but that’s probably because the greyhound trainers don’t actually care
 

Clodagh

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You get all sorts of reasons suggested to be honest - poor diet in training, it’s hereditary etc etc. It’s a shame nobody seems to have done a proper study, but that’s probably because the greyhound trainers don’t actually care

I wonder if any greys are bred to be pets? I imagine not, so there is no pet dollar input to any problems.
 

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I don’t think you do really Clodagh, there are a very few registered as ‘show’ greyhounds but I don’t think I’ve ever seen any advertised as pets, they’ve always been from racing or coursing people? Probably a good job, there are enough of them around without that as well 😂😂
 

rabatsa

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I dont think that breeding as pets would improve the problem, you only have to see the other types of problems that many pet dogs have inherited. My greyhound has really bad teeth and needed 27 out last year. The vet reckons it is just greyhound bad luck and there is not much I can do. We have tried feeding bones and chewy things, cleaning his teeth with a finger brush and stuff in his water but nothing is keeping his gnashers pearly white or his gums healthy. At least at the moment his tongue stays inside his mouth.
 

GreyMane

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I read a bit today about extracts of seaweed which are supposed to be helpful in tackling plaque build-up; one of the horsey herb companies sells some seaweed/rosehip powder for dogs.
although a) the study I saw was funded by the manufacturer of one of the products and
b) relative's dog has always had a rather sensitive tum so might not take it too well...
Dental chews get swallowed in big pieces, never chewed!
 

CorvusCorax

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To follow on from the physical aspect mentioned by Levrier, it's probably the same reason as a lot of racehorses have bad feet. If you breed for a certain trait and ignore others (so say for instance a line which produces fast dogs but some in the pedigree throw poor dentition or mouth conformation, and they double up, etc etc) then it becomes a big problem.
If the dogs are never shown and don't really need to use their teeth in the sport that they are in, or weren't expected to be retained any longer than their working careers lasted, it wouldn't be something that some breeders would be looking at/for/worrying about.
 
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