My dog’s breath is so bad

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So I'm thinking it's his food, but it's a two-fold process of fixing the immediate problem while fixing the diet.

You can get someone to brush and scale his teeth. You do not need to go to a vet and have him put to sleep for this. I do this with my dog every three months (although I could do six, but I started with three to fix it, and I like the person so much that I haven't gone to "maintenance mode.")

Second, honestly it's the food. What are you feeding your dog? If any kind of kibble, consider supplementing with DinoVite.

However; my dog truly benefited from switching to a raw meat/veggie diet. The teeth cleaner recommended this. we use Darwin's and it gets shipped to the house. Darwinspet.com.

I resisted at first because I didn't like the idea of handling raw food....totally unfounded; you don't need to touch the food, the way they package it. She eats beef, lamb, duck, chicken, and turkey. All with some veggies (bc wolves actually do eat some vegetables/grasses; that's a longer story)

The breath smell, tarter and inflamed gums stopped. She had an itch and it stopped. Her coat became beautiful. And she stopped being uptight/nervous. Finally, her poop was as it should be--hard, so it naturally expresses the anal gland (an organ that dogs have that we don't have). So you never have to take her to the vet to get that expressed. After you see a healthy poop, it's hard to watch poor dogs squirt out some soft gooey thing. You instinctively know it's wrong and they are not eating well.

OP here- wow, it sounds like you’re describing my dog! If I let him eat regular dog food and treats or if anyone slips him table food, he gets sooo itchy and gets ear infections. So the vet has him on a very strict diet of prescription dog food. So expensive and sad for him. His anal glands stink so bad all of the time, and he’s a nervous/anxious mess. Although, his poops seem normal. Maybe I should talk to the vet about the raw diet that you explained. Can’t be that much more than this stupid prescription food he’s on!

I agree that better quality food will help make his stools firmer. There are some limited ingredient, high quality food options that could work for your dog (food with a single protein). Choose something other than chicken because that’s a common allergen. You can also add pumpkin to his food if he can handle that.

[Anonymous]

Please do stay on top of this. If the fishy breath is caused by tooth decay, it could have already affected the gums. Sadly, I think we lost our little dog too early as he developed gum disease at a busy time in our lives which the vet thinks lead to him developing heart disease.