What Can Cause Bad Breath If Teeth Are Good?

[Chocolate]

Hi I have a 7 year old who has pretty shocking breath yet he eats raw meaty bones, has a natural diet and his teeth look pretty good. They haven't been cleaned for a few years but when I smell his teeth and gums they don't smell it is his actual breath I think. If the odour isn't from his mouth but from within his body I'm wondering whether it could be a sign of something else. Any ideas or experiences welcome.

[Cavandra]

What breed?

Does it have long hair which are going inside the mouth (in teh corners of the mouth especially??) That can get putrid smelling

Hows the tonsils?

If the breath smells like urine, it is kidney trouble.

I have had a client with putrid rotting breath, teeth & gums looked fine, but when I opened the mouth wide I saw he had a piece of string from a toy most likely caught between some back teeth, which had built up disgusting rotting things, and the string went down the back of his throat & was rotting too......absolutley gross I can tell you, once I got the string out, he recovered, and no more bad breath.

[piper]

Hi I have a 7 year old who has pretty shocking breath yet he eats raw meaty bones, has a natural diet and his teeth look pretty good. They haven't been cleaned for a few years but when I smell his teeth and gums they don't smell it is his actual breath I think. If the odour isn't from his mouth but from within his body I'm wondering whether it could be a sign of something else. Any ideas or experiences welcome.

My guys are fed a raw diet but 1 of mine used to at times get bad breath and it was usually when he was having tonsil problems. Sometimes I think he had just found something gross to chomp on When Reagan had problems with his tonsils we would get the bad breath, and he wouldn't go off his food as such but if you watched him he seemed to have a bit of trouble swallowing at times. Also the bad breath idn't go away after a few hours or a day as it did when he had consumed something vile.

[Poodle wrangler]

How are the ears? Skin?

Raw bones and natural diet sounds good.

Most common cause with my dogs is either them licking their own bums (smells like stuff from anal glands) or eating duck/ roo poo.

[Chocolate]

Thanks for all your replies guys. Oh I'm feeling like such a bad mummy at the moment. When I usually look at my boys teeth they look just fine but... I had a really good look right up the back molars the ones that you have to pull the corner of the mouth right back to see them and low and behold I found the problem on one side of his mouth only he has those upper and lower furthest back molars grey and bad looking. Oh I feel terrible. I did have his teeth cleaned a few years ago and I kind of regretted it because I found that it attracted tartar so much more quickly once they'd been cleaned. But as I say a quick glance around his mouth never showed up those two bad teeth. I can only assume that is the side he used to eat his biscuits on. He has been on a raw diet now for sometime but oh I feel awful as this must have been giving him some pain and discomfort for some time and he is such a good boy. I think he deserves a better mum than me. I'll take him straight to the vet to get them pulled out - I'm in shock. I can't wait until they come out now as he'll feel so much better.

Now I'm wondering what kind of damage this could have done to his body as I've read about bad teeth putting toxins into the blood. ;)

Edited December 8, 2007 by Chocolate

[Poodle wrangler]

You're doing the right taking him to the vet asap.

No-one's perfect.

Don't feel bad, my MIL chose not to do her dog's painful, inflamed teeth/ gums .

Good luck ;).