Tips to Fight Your Pet’s Bad Breath

We’ve all had the experience of your pet jumping on you and breathing directly in your face, you love your pet but you hate the smell of their breath. It’s enough to make you lose your appetite. Pets, especially dogs, sniff around digging and eating almost anything so you really shouldn’t expect their breath to smell fresh and clean. There could be many reasons why your pet’s breath smells bad. Just like humans, your pet’s bad breath could be caused by plaque buildup on their teeth. However, there are things you can do to help freshen up your pet’s bad breath.

The first tip to help your pet’s bad breath is to fight plaque. Unlike humans, pets don’t need to brush their teeth everyday. However, brushing their teeth a couple of times a week can cut down on the plaque buildup. The best time to start brushing your pet’s teeth is when they’re puppies or kittens – about three or four months old. Just like other activities like wearing a collar, staying in a dog or cat house, sleeping and relieving themselves in certain areas, pets get use to doing certain activities. If you start brushing their teeth when they are young, they will get use to it and become more comfortable with it.
Brushing your pet’s teeth will make your pet feel as if you are forcing something in their mouth, so be gentle. To comfort and relax your pet, pet them and stroke their mouths gently for a few minutes while you gently put the toothbrush in their mouth.

The best way to achieve this process is to lift their lip on one side and with a gauze on your finger gently brush their teeth in a circular or back and forth motion, similar to the way you brush your teeth. You’ll probably have to start with the front of their teeth and eventually work your way to the back teeth. Once your pet gets use to this activity purchase a miniature brush at a pet store. You can also purchase different flavors of toothpaste like meat, poultry, or anything with a meaty taste. Don’t use any mint flavors or human toothpaste. Pets don’t care for mint flavors and they are unable to spit out the foam from human toothpaste, which can cause stomach problems.

If your pet is still uncomfortable with the idea of brushing their teeth, try purchasing a rubber toy that they can sink their teeth into to help clean the plaque. Another good tip is to stop giving them can food. Use dry dog food, which scrapes against their teeth helping to “brush” your pet’s teeth the natural way. A few other tips to help fight your pet’s bad breath without actually brushing their teeth is to give them some carrots or purchase a mouth spray to help alleviate the bad breath. You could also feed them rice to help move food through the digestive tract more easily. Also, stop giving them certain types of human food. If it causes bad breath in humans more than likely it will cause bad breath in your pet.

Here are some tips to recognize suspicious odors coming from your pet’s breath. If your pet has these particular smells, go see the vet.

-Your pet’s breath is sweet or fruity. They urinate and drink water frequently could be an indication of diabetes.
-A urine smell on their breath may mean kidney problems.
-And bad breath that follows vomiting, loss of appetite, swelling of the gums, and yellowing of the eyes or gums could mean problems with their liver.