Care · · 7 min
Senior dogs and hard chews
When to stop giving a hard bar, how to read tooth wear, and what to give instead.
A hard bar is the wrong object for a fourteen-year-old mouth, and it takes an owner about two weeks to notice why.
What to look for
Wear flattening the back molars rather than pointing them.
Chewing on one side, or dropping the chew and starting again.
Any bleeding at the gum line: stop, and see a vet.
Puff bites exist for this. They are the same cheese, puffed until it crumbles under a thumb, so an old dog gets the ritual without the load.
The chew is for the dog's afternoon, not for your sense of value.
Puppies are the same problem in reverse: soft teeth, enormous enthusiasm. Puffed until eight months, then the smallest bar.
Dr. Anke Reijnders
Veterinary dentist in Utrecht. Advises us on chew hardness, unpaid and unimpressed.
Mentioned in this post
Next in the journal
Why a chew should be boring