*spoiler* This is going to be kind of gross...
Ok, I have this lovely 5-year-old beagle. You can see her picture to your immediate left.
She has some pretty bad tartar on her teeth and I need to get it off. This is not about PREVENTING tartar--it's already there. It's about getting rid of what's already there.
And I'm thinking it can't be all that bad. I went in there with my just-filed thumbnail this morning and flicked off several large chunks from one of her molars--it was really easy to get off--except for the fact that she had a freak fit as I attempted this procedure.
I have a reduced-price vet in my city that only does surgeries and I can take her over there and get the teeth scaled for only $155. However, I just don't want to put her under anesthesia if it's not necessary.
I have sporadically been using Petzine (cheaper version of Plaque Attack) but there's no difference and I haven't used it consistently enough to really make a fair judgement. When I research both PZ and PA, there is NOTHING on the Internet that indicates how scientifically these products would work anyway--so of course I'm thinking, snake oil.
I have heard that Dentabones (I think that's the name--[they're advertised by the guy who used to be the brooding one on X-Files]) work, but I haven't tried them. I would think that almost anything that's particularly abrasive would work as it took almost no effort to chip that massive chunk off with my fingernails.
Does anyone have any frugal (and safe) suggestions? I can't imagine I can't get this tartar off her teeth. It's not cemented on. But there's nothing on the internet really that is a good suggestion.