Sudden bad breath

[Ratboy]

One of my Dobe/Lab/Husky?? mixes, Molly suddenly has developed really nasty breath. She seems to be her normal nervous self. I took her to the Vet to have them look into it, and cut her huge toenails that grow amazingly fast. To me, it smells like trash/garbage. Of course, nobody could smell it at the vet's office. It's not the same smell my Yellow Lab pup had when he had hookworms (He apparently threw up the dewormer, since I know he had been dewormed a few months eariler at the breeder, but it's kind of the same thing. I kept complaining about how rotten his breath smelled, but they couldn't smell anything either, and they never found hookworms in the many stool samples I took them. Finally, they did find it, and the garbage breath went away the next day.

Her teeth are great, she saws through biscuits, pig ears, and rawhides constantly. She's not acting any stranger than normal for her, she's eating and drinking normally. Her thoat isn't infected, so the vet doesn't think it's Tonsils. He said the most likely thing is bad kidneys, but I've been around dogs with kidney failure in the past, and it's not anything like "ammonia breath". It seems to vary, sometimes it's horrible, sometimes it's barely there.

I'm going to watch her for the next few days and if it's not gone by Monday, I'll take a stool sample in and probably have the vet run her blood too.

Anyone got any other ideas??

[Renee750il]

Sounds like you've got things covered. Unless, or course, she's found a nice, nasty source for trash somewhere that you haven't caught her at yet.

[Ratboy]

Well, we kind of have almost all the trash dogproofed. Except for tissues and stuff, most of the trashcans are off the floor, or have lids, and it would be hard for her to get to them without it being obvious. Besides, she would probably knock it over, since she isn't THAT tall. Not like your dogs.

It has a slightly familiar smell to it, I can't describe it except it smells like spoiled bologna, sort of.. When I went home in the morning, it wasn't that bad, but when I went to bed at 2PM (yes PM), it was pretty bad, and when I woke up, she came into the room, panting, and it was horrible.

King was next to me, and he picked up his head and sniffed the air, then got down and walked around her, trying to smell her muzzle area. She's eating fine as usual, not drinking any more than normal, and seems to have no problems peeing. I'm going to be totally blown away if it is a kidney problem, but I can't figure out what else it can be except that or worms.

[Renee750il]

Try this. Make a note of how long after she eats the bad breath starts. That will give you a little more information for the vet.

I'd also suggest getting her on some probiotics to help balance her system. And absolutely check out the article on yeast at www.greatdanelady.com.

[bogolove]

I have never tried this stuff before, but the people on my cat forum have reccommended this stuff and say it helps with different things. I believe one of the vets on my cat forum either developed it or at least reccommends it (if anyone knows different just let me know, because i don't know anything other than what I read on the site about it) They have it for dogs, cats, and humans, and it is called Spirit Essence. There are several different kinds, so you will just have to read through it to see if any may apply to this situation. Just read about it to see what you think. I have thought about getting one for my cat to try because she used to have a bladder stone so I was going to get her the urinary one. If you do try it let me know about it. I don't know at all if it will help, but hey I guess it is worth a shot.

http://www.spiritessence.com/?action...g&category=fed

[Ratboy]

Bigolove:

Well, we tryed this one before, when we were trying to calm her down a little:

Stress Stopper (formerly Serenity) ($14.95)

And other stuff called relaxation that the vet had.

Neither one did anything. nothing. A couple of Benaryl worked a little better and they barely affect her al all.

I'm beginning to think she's got something she's eating, as it varies so much..

It's storming today, so I might not let her out at all, and then I will see if theres any change..

Thanks for the suggestion.

[Ratboy]

Originally Posted by Renee750il

Try this. Make a note of how long after she eats the bad breath starts. That will give you a little more information for the vet.

I'd also suggest getting her on some probiotics to help balance her system. And absolutely check out the article on yeast at www.greatdanelady.com.

Well, that's going to be a problem, she eats all the time, pretty much continuously as long as she's awake. No more than 10-15 minutes between food from the dish, pig ears, biscuits, peanuts (will annoy the hell out of you until she gets them), popcorn, etc. She eats so much it's amazing that not only isn't she fat, but she's a little on the skinny side. Only my Beagle in his old age could out eat her and not gain any weight.

I guess I could check all their "stashes" (King hides the Jolly Rancher Candy all over( he doesn't even really like it!), and Molly hides biscuits and pig ears in almost every room of the house) and hide all her stuff and not let her eat all day. When she was spayed was the last time we did it, and she was a basket case, and we got really tired of her looking at us and crying.

It's a rare thing when I'm not lying in bed and I don't hear her crunching on something at least once a day.

The longer this goes on, the more I'm convinced she's muching on something nasty outside. If I could just figure out what that familiar smell is, I know I've smelled it, or something close to it, before..

We looked into the Yeast deal before, when she started really getting bad with the scratching and stuff. I'll check it out anyway, Thanks!

[Renee750il]

Has your vet checked her for diabetes? I don't know why I didn't ask that before. When you said she eats all the time, though, and stays on the skinny side it popped into my mind.

[Ratboy]

No, she's fine as far as that goes, she's just squirelly. She would be drinking a lot if she had Diabetes. She hardly drinks at all, and she's not that skinny, just on the skinny side. I know what "ammonia breath(kidneys)" and "sugar breath" smell like and this isn't either one.

We have narrowed it down. A few days ago, her breath was fine, it was rainging and she hadn't been outside, so I know it wasn't some kind of poop eating. She was sitting there, staring at the peanut can, trying to get us to give her some, and she belched. WOW!! There it was, the horrible breath! BTW, she has always belched a lot..

I'm going to take a stool sample to the vet and see if she has any critters in her and see what they think. Hopefully, I can get her in there when her breath is really potent, so one of the people there can smell it. It was about as bad as it's ever been this morning..

[Debi]

Has she been checked for tapeworm?