My yorkies have terrible breath!?

Question

Help, it's very imberassing when I have company. I've already tried mints,breath spray, and changing their food. Any sugestions? I'm up for anything!

Answer 1

Could be tooth decay or gum disease if they are not young dogs. Ask your vet if s/he does dental cleaning or can recommend a vet who does. You should brush your dogs' teeth, too. You will not need all those odor-masking products if your pups receive proper dental care.

Answer 2

It's probably dental disease. A dentistry would fix the problem--requires anesthesia. Depending on the severity of the dental disease, they may or may not need extractions. It's important to have this checked by your vet, because dental disease can cause many other problems in the body. The bacteria in the mouth can enter the bloodstream through the gums and affect their heart and other organs. It can cause heart murmurs, etc.

In the meantime, you can put doggy toothpaste on their teeth--if they will let you brush them with a dog toothbrush, great! If not, even just rubbing the toothpaste on the outside of their teeth will help. There are toothpastes specifically for dogs that come in different flavors (poultry, beef, etc) that you would need to buy at your vet's office/pet store. You would have to do it once a day for it to do any good. This will help prevent further tartar buildup, however it won't remove any tartar that they already have.

Another good way to prevent further tartar buildup is giving them something to chew on that can help scrape the teeth clean, such as Dental Chews. However, it is not good for them if they swallow large piece of it, so only allow them to chew on these while they are supervised. If you notice that they like to swallow large pieces, don't give them anymore.

Answer 3

I purchased a chihuahua that was advertised to be 8 months old. His teeth were terrible and his breath was worse. (I think he was older than advertised) I thought woms and ill health in general were causing his breath issues. So, I wormed him repeatedly to no avail. His breath remained disgusting. When he and my little girl chihuahua produced a litter, I gave him and the female albon along with the puppies as a preventative. My dogs breath improved by weeks end. The smell has not returned and it has been a couple of months. Your dog may have infection in addition to tooth decay. I would consult with your vet about the possibility of infection and and antibiotic treatment such as albon.

Answer 4

All yorkies have terrible breath. Even if you brush their teeth, it still doesnt work.

You need to feed them a little bit of doggie mint every once in a while. It turns their poop green too. You can buy them as a snack in most stores nowadays. Just dont overfeed them, as too much of anything is bad for smaller dogs with low body weights.

Answer 5

Most likely your dog needs dental care from your vet, at a minimum a dental cleaning. This needs to be done every year or so, depending on the dog. It is possible your dog may have gum disease and needs additional dental work. Only your vet can tell you. Little dogs are especially prone to this problem.

Once your vet has taken care of his teeth, brushing his teeth regularly can help reduce the build-up of plaque and slow down gum disease.

Answer 6

All small breeds have this problem. Unlike large dogs, there isn't any space between their little teeth and food particles get lodged in there. Also, their gums can get infected. The only way to remedy this problem is to have their teeth professionally cleaned at the vet. They are put under mild anesthesia, teeth/gums cleaned, and home the same day. I have this same issue with my little dogs.

Answer 7

I suggest checking the type of food your yorkies are eating. my dog had the same problem but it turns out that it was just the food. After changing to a different type of food, he didn't have such terrible breath!

Answer 8

The usual cause of bad breath in dogs is bad teeth. Another is they may be eating their own poop or another animals poop.

Have a vet check his/her teeth, bad teeth can causes many problems so I'd check that first.

You can get chlorophyll at the drug store and start giving it that in his/her dog food. Chlorophyll eliminates bad breath, that is what the parsley is for on your dinner plate at restaurants.

Answer 9

my yorkie has nasty breath too!! i try giving him breath sprays and mints, but he doesnt like them. so what i try is breaking down the mints and slip into their food.

Answer 10

Have you heard of these breath mints for dogs......I think they're called yim yams or something.I don't know but I hear dogs love them & that it really does get rid of bad breath!!!!