This week Metro’s resident vet Joe Inglis advises on ways to treat a Sphynx cat with stained teeth and explains how to reduce the risk of a Dalmatian developing urate bladder crystals.
My boyfriend and his Sphynx cat, Oscar, recently moved in with me. I know that Sphynx cats are prone to stained teeth because of the oils in their skin but Oscar’s ‘fang’ teeth are completely brown. I’ve tried brushing them with a soft toothbrush and he’s very good-natured so he doesn’t mind too much but it doesn’t seem to make any difference. Is the oil that is staining his teeth doing them any damage or is it just an aesthetic problem? My vet thinks we should invest in a £200 scrub every month but that seems a lot of stress for Oscar – as well as on our pockets. Lis, Kew Staining of the teeth is a common issue for many cats and is usually caused by the build-up of dental plaque but can also indicate more serious damage to the root of the tooth. However, the Sphynx breed does seem particularly susceptible to brown staining unrelated to the normal build-up of bacterial plaques or root damage. There are several reasons for this, including the oiliness of the skin causing staining when cats groom themselves, and a possible link between the gene that causes hairlessness in Sphynx cats and brown teeth. The other possible cause is the use of tetracycline antibiotics in young cats. It is not unknown for some breeders to routinely use antibiotics for their kittens to try and reduce the impact of respiratory diseases, which can lead to kittens with discoloured teeth, although these are usually only their baby teeth.
In Oscar’s case, I would want to check this is not just a case of plaque build-up before considering more breed-specific problems, so I would suggest having his teeth cleaned and polished by your vet, who can check to make sure his teeth are healthy. You can then try to keep them clean through regular brushing with a good-quality enzymatic pet toothpaste. You shouldn’t need monthly cleaning by your vet because if the staining is returning quickly it is only going to be an aesthetic problem and not likely to lead to any other dental issues. Annual cleaning should be more than sufficient. We recently adopted Daisy, a seven-week-old liver-and-white Dalmatian. She is deaf. Our last Dalmatian, Luke, developed urate bladder crystals at the age of five years and, sadly, recently died aged ten with a brain tumour. Should we start Daisy on a low-protein diet to reduce the risk of her developing urate crystals or is there less of a risk because she is female? Sue Lee Dalmatians have a genetic predisposition to the build-up of protein by-products in the urine that can lead to urate crystals developing and potentially serious urinary problems. Not all Dalmatians suffer from this problem and of those who do, the vast majority are male, which is probably due to both genetic and physical factors. Low-protein diets are often used to control this problem but I wouldn’t recommend feeding a low-protein diet to a growing puppy without a definite diagnosis as they need a good level of dietary protein for growth. It’s also worth noting the average age for urate crystal diagnosis in Dalmatians is four-and-a-half years, so problems are very unlikely in the first few years. Instead of starting the specialist diet, I would suggest monitoring her over the next few years with periodic urine tests and only if problems are seen consider using a specialist diet.
Source: Metro.co.uk
