Smelly Breath

[luv mini schnauzers]

Hi all , just booked my girl in to have her teeth cleaned as she is a bit on the nose when she kisses you. I do brush her teeth when its bath time,she has a denta bone every day and chicken wings . Any other ideas???? Vet said if we start now as she has only mild tatar it will keep nasties at bay. Hope Im doing the right thing..

[silentchild]

My dog used to get Greenies and various other chews to keep her teeth clean but after we tried giving her deer antlers, her teeth have turned amazingly clean... I've never seen them so clean in my life! I love to just look at them, almost all her tartar is gone.

Bones are also good for cleaning, also things like chicken carcass are great.

[Guest Panzer Attack!]

There is the slight chance that it's something else, too. After years of bones, Greenies, raw food, heaps of dry etc, our 7 year old dog still had rank breath, and since we had a vet at work (discount! LOL) I decided to pull my finger out and do something about it. Our vet was also surprised that his breath was so bad as for his age his teeth were actually quite good.

We got the dental done since he was having some other surgery and needed to go under regardless, and it turned out he had a feral rank grass seed stuck between two of his teeth at the back and it had got all disgusting and rotten and that's where the smell was coming from! He wasn't in any immediate danger, but it was still quite a surprise! He was also immediately cured of scratching his nose (we think it was his way of trying to relieve the yucky feeling, poor darling).

I checked his teeth every day and had no idea.

[Everythings Shiny]

An additive to the water like Aquadent or similar may also help IF used with other things like bones, raw hide chews etc.

[Staranais]

When you say you clean her teeth at bath time, how often do you bathe her? Teeth cleaning really does need to be at least once or twice a week to be helpful, and more often is better if the dog seems to be predisposed to accumulating tartar.

Bones help, chews help, dental kibble helps. Some dogs just seem to be predisposed to tooth issues, though.

Agree with the others that if he still has stinky breath after his teeth are cleaned, then something else could be causing the issue.

Edited May 13, 2011 by Staranais

[persephone]

yep- smelly breath can also be caused by - tonsils- tummy probs- eating cat poo (ask my dog ) food/foreign body caught in mouth/teeth - all sorts of things .

IMO, the cheapest way of cleaning teeth is to let the dog gnaw (not 'crunch') his meat /bones. Anything that takes less than 10 minutes to eat probably isn't doing the job ;)

[Skruffy n Flea]

i've been using petbarn's label beef tendons --- they are really a good hard chew and it takes several days for my two swfs to get thru one. i've found it quite difficult to get a good supply of bones so, apart from lamb ribs, my two get beef tendons every few days and i have to say, i'm impressed with the results

[Mum to Emma]

Any suggestions for keeping the canine's clean? Crunching bones, rawhide etc works on the molars and smaller teeth, but the canine are used for tearing (not chewing) so tartar accumuates along he gumline. Large bones are out of the question (one of my whippets has broken teeth and is also a voracious chewer so is likely to do more damage).

[anniek]

Any suggestions for keeping the canine's clean? Crunching bones, rawhide etc works on the molars and smaller teeth, but the canine are used for tearing (not chewing) so tartar accumuates along he gumline. Large bones are out of the question (one of my whippets has broken teeth and is also a voracious chewer so is likely to do more damage).

Turkey drumsticks are a big help - they have to tear the meat off.

Basically unless they are tearing at a whole animal there isn't much you can do other than brush daily.

[becks]

i just use a dental scraper on the canines