Dr. Doug - Putrid, stinky dog breath question

[Crowe]

Dr. Doug (or anyone else), Jake has the worst dog breath I've ever smelled. He had his teeth cleaned a few months ago and had no signs of anything like gum disease and we can't see anything wrong. This really bad breath (smells like bad gums) just started about two weeks ago. Thoughts on other causes?

[Crowe]

Thanks all. We did change from salmon-based back to lamb-based food. There's no other indication of anything being wrong-he's eating, drinking, playing, walking, etc., with no issue. Will take him to the vet just to be sure we aren't missing anything.

[Pawz4me]

Kidney issues?

[dturm]

Often times bad breath can signal other problems in the body. Sometimes food can be a contributing factor (have you changed diet recently). Dental disease is a common occurrence in some breeds and is a life-long ongoing problem.

Pretty wishy washy answer...

Our Kaylee has chronic dental disease. Her last dental - about a year ago had results (clean teeth and "sweet" breath) for about 3 months. She's back to her bad breath.

I've had cases where the chronic infection was successfully treated with pulse antibiotic therapy, oral rinses. There are new dental treatments where application to the teeth is supposed to reduce plaque and gingivitis.

Bottom line, probably best to check with your vet. They are best at evaluating and isolating then treating problems. There are situations where managing the situation is about the best we can do, no cure.

[timmac]

My wife's dog has death breath had the vet check it out and they said everything was fine, even had the teeth cleaned and he still has death breath, maybe its something in the gut..


To much human food I guess..

[azdryheat]

Our dog had an infection with terrible breath. Fixed by vet.

[doxiemom11]

Our dog is currently going thru dental issues and I can tell you that prior to her abcessed tooth, her breath was horrible. They try to hide their pain, so we were unaware until her face swelled.( She ate normally) A tooth could have cracked from chewing something hard ( a rock or who knows) which allowed bacteria in. Maybe a re-check of the teeth to see if their is anything obvious like that.