Female domestic short haired cat. 8 years old, desexed, 4 kg. We are located in New Zealand. She is semi indoor/outdoor. No other medical history other than this issue. She has been with us since 8 weeks old.

When my cat was four I took her for her yearly check up and vaccinations. It was noted at that time that she had some mild gingivitis and was recommended to have a cleaning done. So we booked that in for a few weeks later. They also recommended starting dental biscuits, so we did that. I believe they were Royal Canin brand but I'm not too sure. We did notice they seemed to be very hard for her to chew.

So then we got to her dental cleaning appointment. After I dropped her off, I got a call from them saying that one of her canine teeth was split vertically, I'm not sure if it had actually already broken off or if it was just cracked. They removed that tooth at the same time as the cleaning.

But basically, we really weren't sure how she could have split it. She hadn't had any trauma that we are aware of, but of course I don't have eyes on her all the time. She didn't show any signs of trauma or change in eating habits prior to her cleaning, and the vet at the checkuo prior also didn't notice anything off with her teeth.

So we wondered if the dental biscuits were so hard that it could have possibly caused her tooth to split? I did ask the vet nurse at the time when I picked her up, but she just said she didn't think that would cause it. Which I didn't think so either but I'm just curious because we stopped the dental biscuits, but we now want to try starting them again as she's getting a bit of gingivitis again. Currently we give her just regular biscuits most of the time, wet food twice a week, and then Greenies dental treats (which don't seem as hard as the dental biscuits) , as well as using CareFresh in her water. Sorry if this is a dumb question, I suppose I just want to be reassured about putting her on dental biscuits again!