Wrapping your finger with gauze used to be recommended when they believed in using hydrogen peroxide to clean off their teeth (a no-no now).

A liquid rinse is applied by using a medication syringe with a curved plastic tip. You just squirt the dose into the side "pouches" of the cat's cheek.

Gels and pastes are applied with a small toothbrush or a finger brush. A gauze wrapped finger makes an ok finger brush but the reusable ones release the product better and can simply be rinsed off.

You cannot predict what one cat will accept the taste of over another. Hopefully your cat will be one who accepts the minty flavor.

Your vet should be showing you how to do home care like this. I am surprised they didn't supply a syringe with the medication.

My cats hate mint! Good luck

Well catnip is similar to mint so some might like it. I have a gel I rub on my little dogs teeth to help break down plaque. It's minty, I use a finger toothbrush to apply it. After I do it she makes a face that I take to mean YUCK! lol

That's interesting that catnip is similar to mint. I did not know that. Both of my cats love catnip but hate mint

I'm so not looking forward to this. I start next Friday. He gets pills down his throat 2x/day now, and he will run from me when he sees me coming towards him. I alternate between pilling him, and putting them in his food. He eats around them no matter how I try to bury them in the food. So pilling, at least he gets them for sure.

So he'll hide from me all day after the first time I put this stuff on his teeth.

I bought some makeup applicators, q-tip style things today. No way would he stand a squirt of the liquid. He hated that when I had to give him anti-biotics prior and post his dental surgery.

They make a finger cot for brushing teeth. Has small bumps on the tip to hold liquids, paste. Maybe watch and Raven are also referring to it.

Yes it is.

This is clear liquid, just like water. Would the finger brush be any good with that?

No finger brush. The liquid would not stay on it. They are for pastes and gels. Get a syringe and squirt on each side in the cheek "pouch" area. The syringe is an irrigation syringe. Like this: http://www.kvsupply.com/disposable-syringe-with-tapered-curved-tip-12-cc
You can also use a child's medicine syringe. They also sell the above at Amazon. But really your vet should just give you one.

I'm just going to try the q-tip style applicators. I don't want to squirt a bad-tasting liquid in his mouth any more than I have to. As it was, with the anti-biotics, he was drooling, and foaming at the mouth.

The vet gave me single sided cotton swabs when I had to use Healthy Mouth on one of the cat's gums.

https://www.google.com/#q=cotton+tipped+applicators

These are what I bought and I think they'll work fine. They're makeup applicators.....wide applicator at one end and narrower one at the other.

Well it seems that most of the liquid will simply be absorbed by the cotton but hopefully enough medication will stick to the cat to do the job. If you don't want to do the rinse why not ask your vet for something in gel form? Good luck.

Jasdip, how did it go? After our dog's second dental (he has now had 3 - the third involving gum work (he is 12 1/2) we bought what is affectionately called the Green Slime (not its real name of course) - the cost being $90 Cdn! We were to apply it with Q-tips to his teeth twice daily.

Some people had a lot of luck with it, others did not. We fell into the latter group. Our dog tried to eat the Q-tip. This is a dog who loves everything.

The Green Slime also comes in liquid form that is added to water, but we were advised not to get it since he goes to socialization once a week and drinks from other bowls - then and when he is groomed or boarded.

I can see another dental in his future. The Collie-like shape of his face does not help, neither does the fact that his teeth are inclined to develop tartar. We have tried everything. As a morning appetizer he now gets a dental cookie with poultry toothpaste and dog tooth power spread over it.

He also likes to swallow things practically whole - including unflavoured medication - this part I find scary.

I hope that your were/are able to treat your cat with the dental liquid and that it works. After all, it is all about our pets.

Now this may be a total myth, but would a cat LICK the medication off their fur if it ended up there??

Many years ago, had a Dobie who had a litter of 7 pups. She was absolutely inseparable from them for about 3 weeks or so. She wouldn't even go do her thing out in the back yard. We had to walk her on leash to get her out of the house. We coulda walked her a mile from home and she would have been standing at the front door waiting to be let in. Doing all the things a momma dog does for puppies before they can start eating solid food gave her a MAJOR case of the poops! Vet suggested Kaopectate... same dosage as an adult person... something like 6-7 teaspoons a dose! Knowing a spoon would be ridiculous, I came up with a "brilliant" plan... after all I did graduate from college!!;) I measured the Kaopectate into a cup and sucked it all up with a turkey basket, slid it into the side of her mouth (whileI held it closed) and squeezed... genius, right?!? I sat and rubbed her throat a few times and figured she had swallowed. WRONG! The second I let go of her snout, she shook her head and me, the walls and most of the puppies got splattered with the stuff! BUT it worked out well... she licked it all off of them, so got most of the stuff in her. I was SO tempted to dip a few of the puppies in the stuff... but didn't!