PetzLife oral care gel

[pinkspore]

I heard about PetzLife gel here and I'm wondering how anyone has convinced their dog that it won't kill them. It's an oral care gel and they're not supposed to be getting food at the same time, and mine are absolutely convinced the bottle contains the spawn of Satan.

Clearly it must taste nasty because I tried it on everybody once and now the cattledogs run to their crates and cower whenever I look at the bottle. I've resorted to keeping it by the door so I can use it when they're all leashed up for an outing and therefore can't escape.

Does every dog hate it this much? Or are mine just being sensitive little snowflakes about the taste?

 

[BostonBanker]

It was a no-go here. My dogs LOVE having their teeth brushed. We do it every night before bed, and after I go into the bathroom to brush mine and come out with their brushes, they are sitting alertly on the bed and licking their chops.

And then I thought I'd try Petzlife. Meg fled the room sneezing. It took a couple of days before Gusto was looking forward to having his teeth brushed again. So the bottle is still in my drawer, and the dogs happily get their teeth brushed with their usual poultry flavored enzyme toothpaste, and the vets still rave about how good their teeth are.

Unless there is some critical issue that involves needing that one toothpaste, I'm not having that fight with my dogs. I brought Meg from "holy crap she needs another dental?!" teeth to "Bring the techs in, I want them to see what an 10 year old dog's teeth look like when the owner actually keeps up with them" by just being very, very diligent about brushing.

I realized tiny dogs have other dental issues, and that may not be the case for all. But yeah. Not having the Petzlife fight in our house.

 

[Southpaw]

I've only ever needed to use it on Lucy and she didn't react any differently than she does to any other toothpaste. She doesn't like having her teeth brushed but it's doable.

In general mine just don't like anything that's not your usual meat flavored type toothpaste.

 

[Maxy24]

It was a complete no go with my cats. I could barely get it on before they started running, shaking their heads, and spitting/drooling. They acted like I'd poisoned them. Then they'd hide from me for a while. They started getting very hard to catch so I gave up. They were already past the point of helping really anyways.


Tucker has come around to it. At first he would run from me and seemed to really hate it. I'd have to herd him into the bathroom and corner him or catch him with a slip lead and he'd tense up and flinch when I went to apply it. I do not apply it with a toothbrush because I do not want to change his opinion of regular tooth brushing (which he is very good for). I actually do give him cheese right after though. I figure if I give him something he doesn't have to chew and doesn't smear off on teeth it can't interfere that much. Plus with him I'm only applying it to his canine teeth because they are the only ones with tartar. I just brush the rest of his teeth normally. So after a little while he stopped running off when I went to do it. He still looks a little deflated when I approach him but he doesn't run or act nearly as disgusted and he's pretty excited about his cheese. He does still go rub his face all over the carpet when I'm done though. He has a super sensitive nose so any odd smells send him off to wipe his nose.

 

[*blackrose]

Chloe hated it, but would (mostly) tolerate it. I believe I used the spray with her.

Abrams has a hate love relationship with it. He likes getting his teeth brushed and likes the CET vanilla mint toothpaste I have. I bought the gel because I'm lazy (and then the cats promptly broke the bottle) and he was so conflicted. He treated it like he treats orange peels ("I wamt to love you, why do you taste so bad?!"), so I imagine it has a very tart, sour taste. He'd come running over and submissive grin at me when he'd see me with the bottle and then not give me an easy time to put it along his gumline.

I'm having his teeth cleaned in about two weeks (along with his neuter) and we'll just start from scratch at that point, either with the gel or brushing (or both).

 

[Brattina88]

Wow I've never had these problems. My dogs, my parents dogs, and my friends one dog they all tolerate it fine. My friends dog will lick his lips a lot afterwards but the others just go on like nothing happened.

 

[JacksonsMom]

It was a complete no go with my cats. I could barely get it on before they started running, shaking their heads, and spitting/drooling. They acted like I'd poisoned them. Then they'd hide from me for a while. They started getting very hard to catch so I gave up. They were already past the point of helping really anyways.


Tucker has come around to it. At first he would run from me and seemed to really hate it. I'd have to herd him into the bathroom and corner him or catch him with a slip lead and he'd tense up and flinch when I went to apply it. I do not apply it with a toothbrush because I do not want to change his opinion of regular tooth brushing (which he is very good for). I actually do give him cheese right after though. I figure if I give him something he doesn't have to chew and doesn't smear off on teeth it can't interfere that much. Plus with him I'm only applying it to his canine teeth because they are the only ones with tartar. I just brush the rest of his teeth normally. So after a little while he stopped running off when I went to do it. He still looks a little deflated when I approach him but he doesn't run or act nearly as disgusted and he's pretty excited about his cheese. He does still go rub his face all over the carpet when I'm done though. He has a super sensitive nose so any odd smells send him off to wipe his nose.

I do the same thing with Jackson. He doesn't like regular tooth brushing either though, so the petzlife is sometimes easier (just squirt some gel on my finger and then rub around his teeth - I also mostly just use it for his canines), and I actually find that it works really well when go a while without brushing and a lot of plaque builds up, the petzlife clears a lot of it up in a few days of usage. So I will continue to use it. And I do give him a little piece of cheese too.

 

[Shai]

I give my dogs a small piece of hard FD liver after the PetZLife. This was enough to convince Mira, Webster, and Kim that it was bearable and they will line up for it, though they clearly don't care for the gel itself. Lodin on the other hand hates it so I don't force it.

All four of them are fine with a toothbrush and the C.E.T. toothpaste so I try to use that as often as I can. The gel is easier though.