Pawrenting: Dealing with your dog’s bad breath

Some people assume that dogs naturally have bad breath, it is sometimes called doggie breath.

But bad breath in dogs is not normal and thus if your dog has a bad breath, you need to investigate the cause.
There are several reasons why dogs have bad breath, dental diseases being the main cause.

Other reasons could be injuries in the mouth, the presence of foreign bodies and sometimes the smell could be emanating from the body due to a metabolic issue.
Bad breath is often caused by tartar in the mouth. Just like a human being’s,  a dog’s teeth usually get a film of saliva, food particles and bacteria coating them. 

Oral injury

Another cause of bad breath is if the dog has an injury inside the mouth or if they have foreign things stuck between the teeth.

The teeth could have sticks, hair, pieces of cloth or even remains of food wedged in between.

All these usually gather bacteria leading to a bad odour. A dog might also have a wound in the mouth that becomes infected giving a bad odour.
Sometimes bad breath comes from the stomach. Dogs that are suffering from diabetes may have breaths that have a urine-like odour coming from the mouth.

Issues with the intestines and respiratory diseases can also cause bad breath.
Dogs that have bad breath usually also have other signs that point to an underlying cause.

In addition to the odour, you may notice they have red gums, bleeding gums, excessive drooling, reduced appetite or reluctance to chew on food and toys as well as weight loss.

Treating bad breath

Your vet will start by doing a physical exam on the mouth. If the problem is the teeth, then they will most likely recommend professional dental cleaning. While they are cleaning and polishing the teeth, they will check for any abnormalities to determine if there need for further treatment such as extracting some teeth.
If the problem is not the mouth, the vet may need to do lab tests to assess the overall health of the pet.

They might need to check for diabetes or kidney problems to determine what treatment to give.
If you want to do a check-up yourself before going to a vet, you can start by looking at the mouth and lifting the lips on the side of the mouth.

Look at the teeth as well and check for plaque build-up.

Check also for teeth that could be loose, broken, have exposed roots and any material wedged in between the teeth.
If you notice anything strange, then go to the vet and report the findings.