# Bad Breath......



## msdogs1976 (Dec 21, 2007)

My golden is 8 years old and has bad breath. To some extent, she has always had it but no more than most dogs. Recently though I've noticed that it almost smells like urine. I have read that this can be a sign of kidney disease or even gum disease. I took her to the vet in Sept due to stomach problems. She threw up and wouldn't eat for a couple of days. They checked her over good running all kinds of blood test and nothing appeared wrong. To back up a second, she had UTI when she was much younger so I had been given her a Urinary tract supplement(acidifier) to lower ph and that did the trick. She stopped having infections. But the vet's conclusion was the long term use of these pills had upset her stomach so she recommended cutting the dose in half. I did but later stopped given them all together. Oh yes, her appetite returned and no more throwing up. UTI did not return either.

But I wonder by me eliminating these supplements all together, if that could have caused her kidneys to become out of balance and thus causing the urine breath oder? As I said, they ran a complete chemistry on her in Sept and all was ok. She eats well now, plays hard, and seems healthy. Just has this odd breath. I haven't been good about brushing her teeth regularly so i did that tonight and will for the next several days. Might go back to a real low dose of the urinary tract supplements.

I rambled so I hope you followed my thoughts. Any suggestions?


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

Bad breath is most often related to digestion. I would highly recommend adding probiotics to her food. I use Nature's Farmacy Digestive Enhancer probiotics, and had had no bad breath in any of the dogs - even the oldest - they all get it every day. Probiotics are beneficial for all dogs, and dogs that have been on, or need to be on, antibiotics have the natural intestinal flora compromised - probiotics balances it.


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## msdogs1976 (Dec 21, 2007)

Pointgold said:


> Bad breath is most often related to digestion. I would highly recommend adding probiotics to her food. I use Nature's Farmacy Digestive Enhancer probiotics, and had had no bad breath in any of the dogs - even the oldest - they all get it every day. Probiotics are beneficial for all dogs, and dogs that have been on, or need to be on, antibiotics have the natural intestinal flora compromised - probiotics balances it.


I give her a spoon of all natural plain yogurt everyday. Maybe I will give your recommendation a try.


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## Pointgold (Jun 6, 2007)

msdogs1976 said:


> I give her a spoon of all natural plain yogurt everyday. Maybe I will give your recommendation a try.


While dogs get some benefit from yogurt, the amount of probiotic available when feeding it is minimum, and the dairy can actually contribute to bad breath.


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## GoldenJoyx'stwo (Feb 25, 2007)

Also check the teeth.


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## Finn's Fan (Dec 22, 2007)

Also, if you think her kidneys need support even if lab work doesn't medically confirm this, there'd be no harm and potential benefit to giving her milk thistle. Buy it at your local health food store, give a normal sized golden 375 mg. My vet did some research then I told him about this, and science backs up milk thistle as a good supportive supplement for the kidneys.


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