Dealing with bad kitty breath

My cat's breath stinks and she always tries to lick me. Is there anything I can do to freshen it? She eats mostly canned food with dry in between meals if that has anything to do with it.

I think she's around 6 months old?  She'll be shedding her baby teeth (have a look and see if the gums are red and perhaps you'll see new teeth coming through).  That often causes smelly breath.

She shouldn't have stinky breath from her food, maybe a bit fishy or smelling like the food just after she's eaten but not stinky.  Is it something that has started recently or has it been around since you adopted her but maybe got worse?  I agree with Mani that it can sometimes be an issue when a kitten is teething but I am also cautious because I didn't realize it was an indication of some health issues when my boy was younger and I didn't check things out as quickly as I should have done.  

Sometimes you can get stinky breath if there is a digestive issue and maybe some kind of food isn't agreeing with your cat.  You will also get it, just like you do with people, if there is any infection in the mouth and gums - which is why many kittens have bad breath when they are teething.  Although this is a stage when her mouth can be sore because of teething it is a useful time to introduce gentle oral hygiene, using dental wipes on a finger to rub around the teeth.  This helps keep bacteria levels down and get her used to her mouth being touched and having her teeth cleaned - ready for gentle brushing when she's a bit bigger and her adult teeth are through. 

It is worth trying to have a good look in your kitten's mouth.  Being in the right place when she has a big yawn is pretty ideal, but you can also have quite a good look by holding her head gently and pressing her lips down a little so you can see the outer side of the gums at the border with her teeth. Try to look at the front and then round both sides right to the back teeth if you can.   You may see thin red lines around teeth that are loose or newly cut, or where teeth have come out, that is likely to be fairly normal.  

If the gums look more angry try to see right back to the angle of her jaw. To do this you will have to open her mouth properly by pressing at the sides of her mouth with one had and the front of her lower jaw with the other.  Her mouth may well be sore so be as gentle as you can.   If there are areas of thick red or ulcered lines around the base of the teeth, or if other areas of the mouth look sore or red-  like on the tongue, lower down on the gums,, roof of the mouth, throat, or tonsils you should definitely take your kitten along to the vet.  This is because your kitten may have a more painful gum infection and need some treatment to help with pain and infection. If she does have a mouth infection your vet will probably advise on other things you can do to help your kitten's oral health.

Totally what MServant said!

We had smelly breath issues around 6 months and took Ava to the vet.  I'd say it was many of the reasons MServant suggests - we were already dealing with digestive issues, she was teething, and her mouth had developed some infection in the gums.  We kept on going with our food trials, gave her lots of things to chew to help the teething and general dental health (including raw boney meals of a section of rabbit every night), and also had an oral mouth wash that our vet gave us to assist things.  She did mention it is something you want to get in hand, rather than leave, as it can then become a bigger and more ongoing problem.

If your kitten is around 6 months, I'm sure she'd be having regular vet check anyway, so do get it checked out - especially as you want a clean bill of health before desexing (if not already done).

She does look like she has some new teeth coming in but I took her to the vet anyway because she's been having the worst smelling poo lately and I was given some antibiotics. They won't have stool sample results for another week though so I'm not sure if she has worms or anything.

Poor little thing (and poor you with the smell).  Is her poo normal consistency or soft?  I assume vet thinking she has some kind of infection going on if they gave antibiotic, but checking for parasites as well.  Might be worth thinking about food tolerance issues with the vet depending what the sample results show and her tummy issues and breath go now she's had the antibiotic?

I hope she's not been too traumatised by the vet visit and you see a significant improvement for her over the next week.   

some of her poo is solid but most times its diarrhea its gotten messy to the point that she started tracking some back to my bedroom yuck. She seems fine right now although much more chatty than usual. btw is 8.6 lbs about average size for a 6 month old cat?

Poor little kitten, her system doesn't sound happy just now.  I hope the antibiotics help settle things down.  Have you tried pet wet wipes for cleaning off her paws if she's got messy?  When one of my girls had upsets she hated getting messy as much as I hated the mess.  You have to use the wet wipes safe for animals though.

What kind of cat is she?  She sounds a little on the big side to me but depends on type of cat / genetics.  If she is seeing the vet they should be weighing her, and if she is not a healthy weight I would expect them to talk it through with you.  It may be that her weight is affected by what ever is going on with her digestive system right now as well so definitely worth talking it through the next time she sees the vet.

I tried wiping her off with a damp piece of toilet paper but she tends to think its playtime whenever i approach her with an object so that didnt go over too well. lol I havent gotten any pet specific wet wipes because the last time i looked through the hygiene section in the pet store they had some that had tea tree oil in it.

My cat is just a domestic shorthair and the vet didnt seem too concerned about it after she put her on the scale so I didn't think it was something to be alarmed by but it did make me curious. When other people see her they say they can't believe she's still a kitten and thought she was an adult cat.

Cats can vary hugely in size.  My tabby girls were similar in size but the smaller, thinner one weighed about 7 lb, and the larger fluffier one never weighed more than 6 1/2 - she wasn't as muscular as her sister who was like a little athlete in her youth, and muscle weighs more. People would come round and say they looked huge!  My current boy is about 9 1/2 lb and is almost 3 but as he was neutered at around 10 weeks he didn't grow as big as males not neutered before their testosterone kicked in. He is a lean muscular cat, just not big! He sits next to other male neuters at shows and stuff and I think he looks like a little girl. 

I'd go with your vet, they should be the best judge of your cat's healthy weight and not people coming round or seeing her out in the garden.  Just hope she doesn't have Main Coon in her and grow out of your furniture unless that's the size of cat you wanted. 

For the wipes, I know what you mean - you do have to check things carefully but they do work well if you can find some. I think Amazon and most of the on line pet suppliers have them and ingredients should be listed. I did manage to find some locally as I use them when travelling with my boy because if he gets messy at all he freaks out.

lol i would actually be shocked if she had some main coon ancestry. She was such a runt when I first got her 2 months ago now she's a big girl. She has already outgrew a bed i made for her out of a box i made her another one so we'll see how long this one lasts. I think I'll look on amazon I kinda wanna stock up on cat stuff anyhow.

   The last time I looked there Mouse ended up with a battery operated cheeper version of Undercover Mouse and DaBird.....  dangerous place that Amazon!  Mind you that was months ago and he's still playing with the cardboard DaBird came in.

Is she the lovely soft looking tabby cat in your avatar with the belly that begs to be rubbed?  If she is she looks like she's going to be quite big  - but not Maine Coon!  She looks very long legged, long boddied and big pawed in your albums. 

yea thats her she loves belly rubs and she always sleeps at night on her back with her legs open. my sister commented how it always seems like she stomps when walking and she is very active. i am trying to move sometime soon so i may have to opt for a lower level apt cause i dont want anyone complaining about the noise.

its been 1 day since her first full antibiotic treatment and her poo is already less smelly but I did see something on her but that looked white. dont think it was litter residue. :-/

GoldEye said:

yea thats her she loves belly rubs and she always sleeps at night on her back with her legs open. my sister commented how it always seems like she stomps when walking and she is very active. i am trying to move sometime soon so i may have to opt for a lower level apt cause i dont want anyone complaining about the noise.

its been 1 day since her first full antibiotic treatment and her poo is already less smelly but I did see something on her but that looked white. dont think it was litter residue. :-/

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Good that it looks like some results with the antibiotic.   It sounds like she's a very relaxed and happy cat if that's how she likes to sleep.  Very cute.

Noisy cat neighbour, that will be me   (or the cat/s to be precise) !                       A previous downstair neighbour told me she'd spent years wondering what the weird noises were she heard from my place: eventually she was round one evening and witnessed the crazed herd of elephants stampeding and it clicked - 2 tabby cats chasing each other.  My boy is probably even noisier despite being on his own because he's always falling off stuff or knocking things over and breaking them, skidding, running in to walls, and leaping down from high places.  I like to think it's preferable to domestic disputes or screaming kids.   

Yea I'm hoping to find a place in a complex that only has studios and 1 bdrms so its less likely to deal with neighbors having parties and a bunch of other people around. I hope my cat is comfortable with moving into a smaller space because here she has a whole floor to run around in. Hopefully we can find one before new years it would be a great present for both of us this year.

If your scales are accurate then 8.6 pounds (3.9 kg) is huge for her age - many female cats aren't that big when mature.  However if her body condition score is OK then she's the right weight.  There is plenty of info about body condition scoring if you use Google.

Teething in human babies is thought by many to cause diarrhea and I guess the same might be true of kittens.  It certainly can cause profoundly horrible bad breath in some kittens.  I would see if she will eat some whole raw food, in big enough chunks that she can't simply swallow them hole.  My two female cats both adore raw chicken wings and manage to eat most of each wing - they leave a bit of the largest bone.  This keeps their teeth lovely and clean and it also occupies them for some time.  It is rather messy though!

Your kitten has been wormed?  Depending on her origins regular worming might be called for during the first few months.  This is because if the mother had roundworms they can cross to the kittens in her milk.  Here in the UK worming against roundworm is recommended monthly to 6 months by many sources, then every 3 months.  My cats don't go free-range - they do have an enclosed back garden - so I don't worm them that often.  Faecal tests are not common in the UK and are usually only done if there is clearly a problem out of the normal.  Unfortunately they don't always give a particularly accurate result.

Well I brought her home in Oct from the vet which also does adoptions at the time she was given strong id and her stool was negative for anything and i was given 3 months worth of revolution as well. She is strictly an indoor cat. As for her weight her belly does seem to protrude a little at the sides but she's very active and gets plenty of exercise so idk. the veterinarian didn't seemed alarmed or anything when she weighed her so I didn't think too much of her size. She does eat like a pig though i feed her mostly canned food and only a little dry in between waiting times.

Just an update: We finished off the antibiotics and her breath isn't as bad smelling and she doesn't have horrid smelling wet stool anymore. I never got a call about her stool sample so I guess she didn't have worms or it was just an inconclusive test but she seems better now so whatever the problem was seems to have been solved. She still is a little pig though

Thank you for the update, it is good to hear your little spotty bellied piglet doesn't smell so bad any more!     It might be worth giving your vet a call after the festive season is all done to check those results as a lot of places might have been closed and things taking longer than usual, but it is sounding hopeful with her stools being more normal.  If her breath is still a bit smelly just keep an eye on her teeth and gums, and maybe get her used to her mouth being handled and using dental wipes to keep bacteria down while she's teething.  It might help to look at the type of food you're feeding too as that can make a difference with how well her digestive system copes.

I hope her licking you is now more pleasant and you can enjoy those grooming sessions she has been offering to show how much she loves you.  Keep her nice and busy and then she should burn up all that food she likes to eat, she sounds lovely and at her age she should be full of fun and energy.   

MServant said:

Good that it looks like some results with the antibiotic.   It sounds like she's a very relaxed and happy cat if that's how she likes to sleep.  Very cute.

Noisy cat neighbour, that will be me   (or the cat/s to be precise) !    :blobgreen              :dash:     A previous downstair neighbour told me she'd spent years wondering what the weird noises were she heard from my place: eventually she was round one evening and witnessed the crazed herd of elephants stampeding and it clicked - 2 tabby cats chasing each other.  My boy is probably even noisier despite being on his own because he's always falling off stuff or knocking things over and breaking them, skidding, running in to walls, and leaping down from high places.  I like to think it's preferable to domestic disputes or screaming kids. :catguy:  

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You betcha it is. Much nicer to hear the herd of elephants than shouting and yelling.