My cat has terrible breath what can I do?

Question

My three year old Maine Coon has terrible breath. It makes you want to gag whenever he opens his mouth near you. The vet said this is caused by tartar build up and to give him tartar control cat treats. Well the problem is we have bought nearly every brand of tartar control treat on the market (Friskees, Pounce, Whiskas, ect) and he will not eat them -- I can't even trick him into eating them by mixing them in with his food.

We even held him down and brushed his teeth but it didn't seem to help his breath. Does anyone know anything else we can try to fight his tartar?

Answer 1

Try using Petkin's "Liquid Oral Care". You can get it at Petco. All you have to do is add it to your cat's drinking water and it should help to fight plaque and freshen breath. Here's the link for it:

http://www.petco.com/Shop/Product.aspx?R=10724&Nav=1&N=0&Ntt=liquid+oral+care&sku=982849&familyID=13355&

I use it for my cat and it works pretty well.

Good luck!

Answer 2

I go along with all the others who support a thorough dental scaling and cleaning. Teeth that are not kept in good shape can seriously impact your cat's health.

After this is done you can maybe do the brushing routine or use the gel from the vet on a regular basis. My cats get their mouths checked at their annual visits. Some need an annual cleaning, some every other year and I know it's essential for their overall health.

I recently took an abandoned cat into my home. He had been left at a cat boarding facility for six months. Before he went there he had a vet exam and the vet found he had severe gingivitis and needed to have a cleaning which the owner did not do. By the time I got him he had stopped eating as it was so painful for him he didn't even want soft food and had a severely abcessed tooth which had to be extracted. He probably was no more than a week away from this infection entering his whole body and causing serious illness.

So do not "mask" any potential dental disease with kitty mints and such.

Answer 3

Your cat needs his teeth cleaned by a vet (but not the one you brought him to).

Teeth that aren't taken care of can lead to things a lot worse than bad breath...like heart problems. A teeth cleaning is usually done same day, they go in the morning and can be discharged by late afternoon. They'll get some antibiotics for a couple of days.

Tartar buildup can't be helped. It has to do with the the saliva glands. So those crunchie bits, although cats and dogs love the treats, aren't really any help for tartar buildup.

Answer 4

I did read 'won't eat tartar-control cat treats,' but it might be worth seeing if you can entice him to eat something called 'Feline Greenies.' Of all the breath what-not I tried, these were the winner for both me and my cat.

I concur with 'find another vet,' but also like the suggestion about a better brand of cat food. Some of that cheap stuff smells so horrid that it's no surprise some cats have awful breath. The best brands of food I can get have meant glossier fur, and better breath.

Answer 5

There are special foods and treats made to kill bad breath in cats and dogs. Look around a pet store or and H-E-B or Wall-Mart to find some of those treats. Have you just took a small child's tooth brush or something of that sort and scrub its teeth and give its tongue a few good rubs. Have you took your cat by a vet to get his or her mouth/teeth/tongue checked out and maybe some possible dental scrubbing the vet can do? Hope this helps. -Gemini

Answer 6

A Dental Check up once a year would do wonders. My little 6 1/2 year old dog had bad breath, took him in for a Dental Cleaning and YAHOOOOO!!!!!! bad breath gone and not been back, he also chews on a LOT of chewy toys now to help scrape off the tartar.

Answer 7

The vet may need to do some tartar removal, as well as check for other possible dental problems, including a possible abcess/infection. You may want to go to a vet who specialises in dental work. (look for a vet with lots of little bites on her fingers, lol!) Then the "control" , which is pretty minimal, can be used in the future.

Answer 8

Three years seems kind of young for a cat to have excessive tartar buildup, although it is possible. As someone else said, bad breath can indicate a serious illness. I lost a cat to chronic renal failure in April. When I had her checked last November and she was diagnosed with the disease, bad breath was one of her symptoms. CRF tends to strike older cats (mine was 14), but it can strike young cats. A proper diagnosis for CRF or liver disease and other disorders can be made with a blood test. Talk with your vet.

Answer 9

There could be another health problem for your cat. Perhaps it is not the teeth at all. Often animals develop the same symptom of diseases as us humans. Liver problems, intestinal problems, digestive problems, internal bleeding, even cancer. I do not mean to alarm you but it is possible.
You seem to be a very loving person and care a lot for your cat. Perhaps it would be good to have the opinion of another vet?


Good luck with finding a solution. I love cats too and I feel sad about his condition.

Answer 10

Find a new vet who knows what they are doing. Your cats teeth can be de-scaled (scraped) to get rid of tartar build up. This should solve the problem, and your vet should have suggested it.

Answer 11

You can buy these two treats. One is called Pit'n Pat or something like that. You can see it on the petco.com website. Or in lines in the store. People reviews said they smelled bad but I smelled them and they smelled like baby formula. Also there are meow mix treats that are for tartar build up, I see them on the shelfs all the time.