Is Bad Breath in Dogs A Sign of Illness? Bad Dog Breath Solutions

Introduction

Many pet owners do not find that their dog's breath is very heavy, why is the dog's bad breath so serious? In fact, there is a reason, today we will find out what exactly is the cause of severe dog bad breath!

Cause of Severe Dog Bad Breath

Gum Disease

When your dog opens his mouth, is there an unbearable stench that hits him? In fact, gum disease can be a major culprit in your dog's bad breath. When you look closely at your dog's teeth, if you find that the surface of the teeth or around the teeth, accumulated a layer of yellowish, brown or even greenish deposits, then you should pay attention to it! This dirt is like a small source of odor, emitting a bad smell, which is actually the early symptoms of gingivitis. Imagine, if we humans have unclean teeth, we will also have breath problems, and the same is true for dogs.

If you ignore these early symptoms, the situation can get worse. Gingivitis is likely to slowly progress to periodontal disease. At this stage, your dog's mouth will smell even worse, like a biological weapon. This is because periodontal disease can cause the gums to become red and inflamed, and abscesses can develop around the teeth, and all of this inflammation and lesions can exacerbate the bad breath.

So, once you notice these symptoms in your dog, don't delay, and take your dog to the hospital right away. The doctor will be able to accurately determine the severity of your dog's gum disease through a professional examination, and then provide the most appropriate treatment plan. Maybe you just need to give your dog a deep cleaning to remove those stubborn calculus; or maybe you have to cooperate with medication to help your dog eliminate gum inflammation. In short, early detection and treatment is the only way to get your dog rid of bad breath and back to having fresh breath that will no longer turn you off when interacting with you intimately.

Vitamin Deficiencies

We all know that a dog with bad breath can be a real headache. Have you ever thought that this bad breath may be related to the dog's lack of vitamins? Some pet owners ah, especially love their own dogs, they give it a meat, or always feed some easy to fire food, but seldom give the dog to eat vegetables. As time passes, the problem arises. If the dog's body lacks vitamins, the mouth will easily stink. Just like us, if we do not eat a balanced diet, our body will also have a variety of small conditions.

Vitamins are very important for dogs, just like the key parts that make a small machine run. When a dog is deficient in vitamins, its metabolism will be affected and its oral environment will become bad, and the odor will come out of its mouth. This is the time when we, as pet owners, have to act quickly. Usually pay more attention to give the dog to eat some vegetables, fruits. Don't underestimate these seemingly ordinary food, they are rich in vitamins, can bring big help to the dog's body. For example, carrots, broccoli, these vegetables are full of nutrition, the dog ate not only can supplement vitamins, their eyes, hair are also good. For fruits, apples and bananas cut into small pieces and fed to your dog are also good choices. 

In addition to fruits and vegetables, it's also important to give your dog a vitamin B supplement. Vitamin B helps your dog maintain healthy oral mucosa and reduces bad breath. You can choose the right vitamin B supplement for your dog after consulting your veterinarian. As long as we put more effort into making our dog's diet well-balanced, our dog won't be plagued by bad breath as often, and we'll be able to have more fun with our dog and enjoy the time we spend interacting with them without having to worry about the unpleasant odor.

Problems with the Gastrointestinal Tract

If your dog opens its mouth, the odor can be so bad that it can make people dizzy, which makes us pet owners worry a lot. In fact, the dog bad breath, gastrointestinal problems may be a key factor. You pay attention to observe will find that some dogs' stomach and intestines are naturally more delicate, digestive ability is not so strong. Just like people, some people have a good stomach and eat well, while others have a weak stomach and have trouble eating properly. The same is true for dogs. Dogs with a weak stomach are often affected by indigestion, constipation, bloating, gas and diarrhea.

Indigestion, the dog ate into the food in the stomach, there is no way to digest and absorb, those not fully digested food will be fermented in the stomach and intestines, resulting in an unpleasant odor, and then run down the esophagus to the mouth, bad breath is so come. When constipated, the garbage in the dog's stomach can't be discharged, which also affects the normal functioning of the intestines and stomach, making the smell in the mouth become very unpleasant. The same goes for bloating and gas buildup, where too much gas builds up in the intestines and stomach, and this gas carries the odor out of the mouth. There is also diarrhea, an intestinal and gastrointestinal dysfunction, which can also lead to bad breath in dogs

Therefore, we do pet owners, usually need to pay more attention to the dog to regulate the stomach and intestines. In the diet, to choose easy to digest dog food, do not give the dog to eat those too greasy, stimulating food. You can feed your dog some probiotics to help them regulate their intestinal flora and enhance digestion. Usually also let the dog keep a moderate amount of exercise, which is also very helpful to promote gastrointestinal peristalsis. As long as we take care of the dog's intestines and stomach healthy, we can effectively avoid the dog because of gastrointestinal problems bad breath, we and the dog close to the time, can also be less sin, enjoy and play with them happy time.

Food Residue Left in the Mouth

Although the gluttony is adorable, it may bring the trouble of bad breath. Whenever a dog finishes eating, there is often a lot of food residue left in his mouth. Think about it, if we don't rinse and brush our teeth in time after eating, the food stuck in the gap between our teeth will make our mouths smell for a long time, and the same applies to dogs.

Dogs are not like us can consciously clean the mouth, if we pet owners did not pay more attention, do not help them clean up in time, these residues in the gap between the teeth, gums side of the food debris, will become a breeding ground for bacteria. Bacteria multiply greatly in it and begin to decompose the food debris, and with it comes an unbearable stench that emanates from the dog's mouth. This not only affects our experience when interacting intimately with our dogs, but in the long run, it can also lead to oral diseases. 

In order to get rid of bad breath, we pet owners have to take action. The most direct and effective way is to brush your dog's teeth once a week. Maybe at first, the dog will not be too cooperative, after all, for them, brushing teeth is a strange and a little resistant to things. At this time, you can use a special dog toothpaste, the flavor is more pleasing to the dog, and then with a soft pet toothbrush, gently clean its teeth. During the brushing process, talk to your dog more, gently soothe it, and slowly let it get used to the process. 

In addition to brushing, it is also necessary to prepare some jerky snacks for your dog to sharpen its teeth. Dogs in the process of gnawing jerky, can clean up the residue attached to the teeth, play a certain role in cleaning. Moreover, the chewing action can also exercise the dog's chewing muscles, which is good for oral health. As long as we put a little more thought into helping our dogs keep their teeth clean, we can keep that nasty odor away from our dogs, and we can play and get close to our dogs without worrying.

Eating Human Food for A Long Time

When your dog opens its mouth, does the strong odor of breath make you a little overwhelmed? In fact, the dog's bad breath is probably closely related to its diet, especially the habit of eating human food for a long time. We pet owners sometimes see the dog looking at the table, eyes full of desire, can not help but feed it a few mouthfuls of human food. But this seemingly loving behavior, but may bring big trouble to the dog.

Human food is often high in salt, oil and fat, and may also add a variety of flavorings, which are not easy for dogs to digest. Eating human food for a long time, the dog's intestines and stomach burden, digestive system disorders, which in turn affects oral health, bad breath will come. Moreover, the texture of many human food is relatively soft, the dog does not need to chew when eating, the teeth do not get enough exercise, food residues are more likely to remain in the mouth, breeding bacteria, aggravating the problem of bad breath

In addition to human food, low-quality dog food is also one of the culprits of bad breath. Some low-quality dog food in order to reduce costs, the poor quality of raw materials, nutritional composition is not balanced, the dog ate not only can not meet the body's needs, but also may lead to a variety of health problems, bad breath is one of them. These dog food in the dog's mouth decomposition, will emit an unpleasant odor. 

Therefore, in order for the dog to have fresh breath, we pet owners have to adjust the dog's diet. On weekdays, you must hold back from giving your dog human food, even if its little eyes are pitiful. At the same time, we must resolutely abandon the poor quality dog food, spend more effort to select a high quality and have a certain chewy dog food for the dog. High-quality dog food is nutritionally rich and balanced, can meet the daily needs of the dog, to help them grow healthily. Chewy dog food allows dogs to chew fully in the eating process, exercise teeth, reduce food residue, from the root to prevent bad breath. As long as we take care of the dog's dietary health, we can keep the dog away from bad breath, and we interact with us intimately, full of warmth, and no longer have the embarrassment of odor.

1. Dogs are omnivorous animals that prefer meat, and the food residues left between the teeth after eating are decomposed by microorganisms to produce foul-smelling gases such as trimethylamine, and the corrosive decomposition of microorganisms will destroy the dog's enamel to form caries, and in turn, caries will exacerbate halitosis;

2. Bacterial decomposition of food debris in the oral cavity produces calcium and phosphorus salts in the root of the teeth near the formation of calculus, calculus stimulation of periodontal tissue atrophy to form periodontal pockets, it is easier to build up food debris to produce corruption and make the teeth fall out;

3. Bacterial and fungal infections caused by poor oral environment, such as gingivitis and periodontitis;

4. Tissue death caused by pharyngeal, nasal and laryngeal cancer due to poor oral environment and old age;

5. Metabolic odor caused by dysbiosis of the gastrointestinal flora or dysbiosis of the liver and pancreas. 80% of dogs over the age of three years old develop oral odor, plaque, calculus, gingivitis, periodontal disease and other problems. Bad breath is a small matter, clinically there are many dogs die of secondary infections caused by oral infections, and many dogs lose their ability to eat properly due to dental caries and tooth loss.

Unfortunately, dentures and root canal techniques are not very effective in veterinary practice, and teeth cleaning is the best oral care option. Dentures and root canals have been used in veterinary medicine for a relatively short period of time, and hospitals that can perform dental procedures well are not widely distributed in the country. Root canal treatment not only requires general anesthesia to ensure the effect and the postoperative strength of the teeth is greatly weakened, the dog can not control the bite force, often need to take X-rays every 6 months to review.

We all know that dogs are cute and adorable, but sometimes when they get close, the smell of their breath can really make people frown. Do you know why dogs have such bad breath? There are many reasons. Dogs are omnivores who prefer meat, but this also brings trouble.

Every time they finish eating, they tend to leave food residue between their teeth. These residues are like a party for microorganisms, and when the microorganisms decompose, foul-smelling gases like trimethylamine come out. Moreover, the microbial decomposition will produce corrosive substances, the dog's tooth enamel are destroyed, and slowly formed caries. This caries is not a small matter, in turn will aggravate bad breath, it is a vicious circle. 

Bacteria in the mouth does not stop, they break down food debris to produce calcium, phosphorus salts, these things near the root of the tooth slowly formed tartar.

Like a little devil, calculus irritates the periodontal tissues, causing them to shrink and form periodontal pockets. 

This is a good thing, food debris more love to drill inside, the accumulation of more corruption, and finally the teeth may fall out, the dog has to be more difficult ah. 

If the oral environment remains so bad, bacteria and fungi will also take advantage of the situation to cause gingivitis and periodontitis. 
Older dogs should pay more attention to the poor oral environment coupled with the decline in physical function, pharynx, nose, throat or even cancer, resulting in tissue death, think about it all heartbreaking. 
Also, dogs with gastrointestinal flora disorders or liver and pancreas problems can develop a metabolic odor that emanates from their bodies and through their mouths.

You may not realize that 80% of dogs over the age of three are plagued by bad breath, plaque, calculus, gingivitis, and periodontal disease. 
Don't think that bad breath is a trivial matter. There are many dogs that have lost their lives due to secondary infections caused by oral infections. 
There are also many dogs that have problems eating properly because of dental caries and tooth loss.

For example, I know of a patient with caries and calculus that is particularly severe. 

We must be thinking that we can put dentures or do a root canal on the dog, just like people do.

Unfortunately, in veterinary medicine, these two techniques are not very effective. Dentures and root canals have not been used by veterinarians for a long time, and there are not many hospitals in China that can perform these dental procedures well. Root canals require general anesthesia to ensure results, the strength of the dog's teeth is greatly reduced after surgery, the key to the dog does not know how to control the bite strength, and every 6 months you have to go to X-ray review, it is too much trouble. Therefore, for dogs, dental cleaning is the best choice of oral care, we must pay attention to the pet owners, so that the dog less suffering, have a mouthful of healthy teeth.

Bad Dog Breath Solutions

Pay Attention to Gastrointestinal Health

Dog bad breath is serious, the smell can be a real headache. In fact, it has a lot to do with your dog's gastrointestinal health. If the dog lacks vitamins, poor digestion, or gastrointestinal diseases, it may make the mouth become stinky. Think about it, just like us, when the stomach and intestines are not well, the mouth is also easy to have a bad smell.

In order to keep your dog's stomach healthy and his breath less smelly, we need to put more thought into his diet. Choose the dog food should choose high quality, good dog food nutritional balance, can provide the dog with sufficient nutrition, but also easy to digest. In addition, it is also important to follow the principle of sharing small meals. This is like our people, a meal to eat too much, the stomach and intestines to digest the effort, the dog is the same reason. Eating smaller, more frequent meals will make it easier for your dog's intestines and maximize the prevention of digestive tract odor. 

In terms of daily health care, we can use some canine probiotics and inulin for dogs. Probiotics can regulate the intestinal flora of the dog, so that the intestinal environment is more healthy; inulin can also promote the dog's digestion. If you think your dog doesn't have enough vitamins, you can also give him some extra vitamins. However, if the dog has obvious vomiting, soft stools, bloody stools and these problems, then don't delay, you have to take it to the doctor quickly, can not delay the condition. 

Let's talk about feeding. Feed your dog at regular intervals. Generally speaking, it is more appropriate to feed your dog once a day in the morning, midday and evening. Of course, the number of feedings should be adjusted according to the age of the dog. 3 months old puppies, the stomach is still relatively weak, you have to feed them 3 to 4 times a day; 3 to 6 months old dogs, feed them 2 to 3 times a day; 6 months old to 1 year old dogs, feed them 2 times a day; 1 year old or older dogs, feed them 1 to 2 times a day. How much should I feed my dog each time? The basic amount of food for a dog can be calculated as 4% of its body weight. For example, a dog weighing 10kg, its daily food weight is 10000g x 4%, that is, 400g. Don't feed too much at one time, or the dog will easily be overweight, and overweight is not good for its body, and it may aggravate bad breath. Therefore, we pet owners pay more attention to the dog's gastrointestinal health, the dog will be able to less bad breath, we can get along with the dog, can also be more enjoyable.

Brush Your Teeth Regularly: the Simplest and Most Effective Preventive Measure

If your dog's breath is bad, it can be a real pain in the ass to be close to them. In fact, brushing your dog's teeth is the easiest and most effective way to prevent bad breath. You see, we people talk about three minutes after meals and three minutes of brushing teeth. For dogs, the ideal is to brush their teeth three minutes after eating. But the dog eating time is not too fixed, give them brush their teeth and a bit of a hassle, so it is, if you this shoveling officer has a free mind, you may want to toss this thing when you are on vacation.

Here are some common means of brushing your dog's teeth.

Let's start with the gauze cleaning method. Get a piece of gauze of the right size and wrap it around your own finger, like a little glove for your finger. Then, gently turn over your dog's lips with the finger that is not wrapped in gauze, and with the gauze-wrapped finger, gently wipe your dog's teeth and gums. Brush with dry gauze at first, and then dip into saline and continue when your dog gets used to the dry brushing sensation. When the dog is not resistant to the saline-soaked gauze, it can be dipped in a special canine toothpaste and wiped. When your dog is fully adapted to the gauze brushing, you can also switch to finger brushing, which may feel more refreshing to your dog. 

There is also the toothbrush method. However, the bristles of a toothbrush are slightly harder than gauze and finger cots, so some dogs may feel sensitive and want to run away at the sight of a toothbrush. At this point, I suggest two people get on it together. One person is responsible for holding the dog steady or gently pressed, so that the dog stays obediently, the other person, take the toothbrush dipped in dog toothpaste, according to the up and down, left and right direction, carefully clean the dog's teeth. When brushing your dog's teeth, be sure to move gently and talk to your dog to calm it down. As long as we insist on brushing the dog's teeth, we can effectively prevent bad breath, the dog's mouth smells good, and we can play and cuddle with them more happily and more comfortable.

Teeth Cleansing Water: A More Efficient and Easier Option

After spending so many years with cats and dogs, I understand the helplessness of brushing your pet's teeth. To brush the dog's teeth, we are busy and tired enough, the dog is not happy, every time like a war, and often end up with people and dogs are exhausted. Therefore, the kind of just need to be added to the proportion of drinking water, can clean teeth, fresh breath of the teeth cleaning water, has become a daily care alternative to brushing the superb choice. Although teeth cleaning water is slow to take effect and you have to use it consistently, it is highly acceptable to dogs and friendly to them, and I truly recommend using it from the time your dog is young until it is old.

However, there are a variety of ingredients in dog teeth cleaners on the market, so I'll give you a breakdown. 

One type is Chlorhexidine CHX, like Chlorhexidine Acetate and Chlorhexidine Gluconate. You may not realize that Chlorhexidine is also the main ingredient of Gynecol, it is actually a cationic surfactant. Chlorhexidine prevents infections in the mouth of immunocompromised patients, and also treats gingivitis and periodontal disease. When used in moderation, it can make your dog's teeth healthier. However, studies have shown that long-term use of CHX will stain the dog's teeth and damage the oral mucosa, as well as cause oral diseases. Moreover, its odor, so many dogs do not like, even the water does not like to drink.

There is also CPC, or cetylpyridinium chloride, which is commonly used in human medicine as an antibacterial agent. Experiments have proved that it can control bad breath in dogs and prevent periodontal disease. However, in recent years, studies have found that long-term or high concentration of CPC has almost the same side effects as CHX, such as discoloration of teeth, injury to the oral mucosa, and increased chances of oral ulcers.

The main ingredient is catechin EGCG extracted from tea leaves, which is an antioxidant that inhibits the proliferation of harmful bacteria in the mouth. It is non-toxic and harmless, although its antimicrobial effect is weaker than CHX and CPC. However, it is said that chewing gums containing catechins have 10 times more deodorizing power than ordinary chewing gums. 

Finally, persimmon extract, compared with tea extract, persimmon extract has many functions, antibacterial, antiviral, antitumor, antioxidant, and also protects mucous membranes, in the oral cavity, practicality and safety have been recognized. It has strong anti-bacterial ability and is effective in removing sulfides such as hydrogen sulfide and methyl mercaptan, which cause bad breath

After thinking about it, I chose the Small Shell Tooth Cleansing Water which contains mainly persimmon extract and tea extract. It is non-toxic and non-hazardous, and is effective in inhibiting bacteria and deodorizing and protecting mucous membranes. Moreover, the small shells of dental water is additionally added inulin, which can promote the dog's intestinal peristalsis and relieve bad breath caused by digestive metabolism, which many other dental water can not do. The flavor is a light apple flavor, the dog can like it, the palatability is particularly good. Why not give your dog a try, so that your dog can say goodbye to bad breath and be close to you. 

Have Dog Teeth Cleaned as A Last Resort

Anyone who owns a dog knows that if you don't pay attention to your dog's oral health from the time he's a puppy, you're going to have a big problem. In many dogs, tartar is especially noticeable by the time they reach 3 years of age. These tartar stones are like “little devils” that slowly shrink the dog's gums and eventually the teeth may fall out. I've had this experience, and when I went to get a filling before, I realized how important the oral health of dogs is. Just like us people, when our teeth are in trouble, we can't eat well, and the same goes for dogs. Many pooper scoopers around me wait until their dogs can't even eat or drink because of toothache before regretting that they didn't pay attention to their dogs' oral cavity earlier.

The other day, I accompanied my dog through a dental cleaning and bad teeth removal. The process is really quite heartbreaking, the dog has three teeth really no choice but to pull out. At that time, I watched the dog lying there after anesthesia, and my heart did not feel good.

Speaking of dog teeth cleaning, in fact, and human teeth cleaning is a bit like. We people cleaning, is the teeth attached to the stones to wash away, the dog cleaning is the same reason, is to get rid of those dirty things on the teeth. However, it is important to realize that there is no guarantee that a dog will not develop stones in the future. Just like us, if we don't brush our teeth properly after cleaning and pay attention to oral hygiene, the calculus will still come back. Dogs, too, after the cleaning, the daily oral care is still not missing. You need to brush your dog's teeth regularly, and if you find it troublesome to brush your teeth, you can also try using dental water. Only we shoveling officer more effort, the dog can suffer less, away from bad breath and dental disease, every day can happily play, eat, and our intimate interaction. So don't wait until your dog's teeth have a big problem before you remember to protect its oral health, take action now.

Dog teeth cleaning is just like human teeth cleaning, it just washes away the stones attached to the teeth, and does not prevent them from arising again in the future.

Slightly Useful Teeth Cleaning Sticks and Dog Toys

When we are the shoveling officer, we all hope that their dogs can be healthy, but sometimes when the dog opens its mouth, the smell of bad breath is really worrying. In order to help the dog to solve the problem of bad breath, many people have thought of various ways, including teeth cleaning toys are quite common.

Teeth cleaning toys, simply put, is specialized in cleaning the dog's mouth with, like teeth, gums, tongue, can be taken care of. Its material is usually very soft, a gentle bend can be deformed, there are many bumps on the surface. These bumps can have a big role, the dog in the bite to play teeth cleaning toys, bumps can bring friction and pressure to the dog's mouth, as if the mouth to do a massage, can be to a certain extent to clean the oral cavity. However, we also need to know that these teeth cleaning toys have limited effect and are not very durable. It can only play a supplementary role, the dog occasionally play okay, can not completely rely on it to solve the dog's bad breath and oral health problems. 

In order to really let the dog away from bad breath, have a healthy mouth, or to follow the principle of prevention-oriented, prevention and treatment. As a responsible pooper scooper, we have to take action. I suggest that we can add tooth-cleaning water in the dog's drinking water, this method is relatively easy, the dog is also easy to accept. Every day to the water in proportion to add some dental water, can be in the dog drinking water, by the way to give it a clean mouth, fresh breath. It's also especially important to get your dog used to brushing his teeth. Although it may be a little difficult at first, as long as we have patience and slowly guide the dog, it will always get used to it. A mouthful of good teeth is too critical for dogs, which not only relates to the dog's appetite, so that it can eat well, but also the basis of the dog's health. If the dog eats well and has good health, we will be happy to see it, won't we? I hope that every shoveler who reads this article can pay attention to the oral health of the dog, so that their own fur children can have a mouthful of good teeth, full of energy every day, and we enjoy playing.