Chill With All that Teething

Greetings Readers with Teethers, 

Teething is something I'm sure were all very familiar with, and although its normally seen in babies and toddlers, its also experienced by kittens and pups as well.  First time puppy owners may not know exactly how to soothe their pet's pain during this stage, and attempts to help may include a hard rawhide bone or a hard rubber toy both of which cost about $4.99 at a local pet store. It appears these items would give puppy something to chew on, perhaps save the life of your favorite pair of pumps or a wallet. In reality though your pup will never chew these things, at least not in the teething stage.  

Just like babies when pets are teething they prefer to chew on soft things that give easily. Think about it.  Why would a puppy who has newly erupted teeth, in some places nothing but gums, want to gnaw on hard things like rawhide or rubber? Back to my puppy example, contrary to the new owner's intentions the $10 worth of toys have actually hurt the pup's mouth, so now he won't even go near them. I stumbled across this post that highlights a number of teething remedies used for dogs. One of which states that to soothe your pet's pain, you can simply take an old used wash cloth and drench it in water.  After it's fully submerged wring it out lightly just so it's not dripping, and stick it in the freezer (still twisted up from the wring out).  Sounds like ten dollars saved to me. After about an hour give this to your pup by placing it in his mouth, so he's fully aware of how cold it is. Once he starts to chew the cloth it will defrost rather quickly and become soft and moist. A key component to this trick is the temperature of the cloth.  Just like freezer rings for babies the cloth will ease pain with the coolness. This coolness is released by gnawing on a soft cotton which also works to soothe pain.  After practicing this routine our new owner may realize that the coldness of the rag dies after about five to ten minutes; of course this depends on how rapid or slobbery your pup is while chewing.  An easy way to fix this potential problem is to freeze multiple rags at once.  When one of them is no longer cold you can pull a second or third out of the freezer until he's tired of chewing.  I figure at least four cloths can keep a puppy busy for 25-35 minutes.  Another warning to note with this exercise is miniature dogs may freeze if the rag is bigger than their bodies.  If you have a small breed dog I would suggest cutting one regular sized cloth into four equal parts, and then following the same procedure from above.  

If you find that the washcloths defrost too fast for your liking, you can also try mixing 1cup of low fat/fat free chicken/beef broth with 1.5cups of water, and pouring this mixture into an ice cube tray.  After the cubes have frozen, give them to your pup.  I would suggest giving them to your pet outdoors, since ice cubes on the floor tend to be a bit messy.  The coolness of the ice cube should soothe the teething dog. Although he may resort to simply licking the cube rather than chewing, the yummy broth flavor cube will help ease some pain. Note that the broth cubes should not be left for long periods of time like normal ice cubes, because we don't want them super hard. About 3-4 hrs should be plenty freezer time.