Smelly breath

Hi, just wonder if any one could advise. Meg (5 year old labrador) was on Chudleys when she arrived in December. On advice from vet we changed her to a better food Whites chicken and rice. She stopped scratching so much and her breath was much sweeter but she did loose some weight. Not sure if this was due to new food or much more exercise than she had been getting. We started to feed her in the morning and added some olive oil to her evening meal. This helped with the weight. The only concern I had was the amount of food she was eating seemed to make her poo much larger and this seemed to stop her anal gland clearing so well. We decided to change her to whites active dog which does have other ingredients such as maize and have noticed her breath smells again does any one think this could be down to the new food (or the dead rabbit she found). Can food cause this sort of thing. Thanks

Hi - and yes, food can definitely cause smelly breath! (dead rabbit is the very worst actually, but thankfully is not an everyday foodstuff).

With a young dog such as yours, it is unlikely to be teeth causing the problem, so diet is the next suspect. If a particular food suits a dog, then perhaps the breath should be ignored?

Hi, an overloaded tummy can cause horrible breath....a bit like an opens sewer....but it might be best to have her mouth checked out in case she has a bad tooth which can also lead to quite a stink. My dog just had a scale and polish and WOW are his kisses sweeter now. Also dogs love veggies. Its a great healthy way to bulk up food and slow down the digestion and also the extra fibre can help with any digestion problems which could be causing the bad breath where as olive oil will only add extra calories. Good luck!!

One of my dogs started getting bad breath, I decided to go on a tooth cleaning regime with all of them on a daily basis, and boy their teeth are a lot cleaner, and the bad breath has dissapeared.

Mo

Charcoal biscuits help their digestion as well as stopping smelly breath so with those and teeth cleaning things should improve.

Am i right in thinking worms can also cause bad breath?