Dealing with bad kitty breath

MServant said:

Thank you for the update, it is good to hear your little spotty bellied piglet doesn't smell so bad any more! :lol3:    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.   

Click to expand...

Why do cats lick us?
:dk:

Stewball said:

Why do cats lick us?

Click to expand...

Because they love us and want to show us how stupid we are for taking horrid baths and showers when all we need to do is let them groom us: and of course then we will smell like them and everyone we go near will know we belong to out kitties and no one else!    

Do you think that's true.
I love the smell of whisky's:head.

Hm, since I have the same issue do I jump in or start another thread about stinking breath?

My ginger's breath is actually quite strong - as a rescue I look at her and say that she is such a street rat that is where she got her bad breath.

Actually she has been to the vet (now at 8 months) who looked at her mouth and said that even at her young age I need to watch her teeth - recommended dry food. Well, that won't do, I'll brush her teeth! And, unlike her mellow brother (who hates it), she likes the cat enzymatic toothpaste and looks forward to it (been working on that for a couple of weeks).

But my "gut feeling" (no pun intended) is that it may be a digestive thing, her breath actually smells like her  brand of food, only much stronger. I'm not sure what to do about that because she is very picky, and this is the only brand she will eat!

I may just try kittie probiotics and take her in in a couple of months and ask the vet about any digestive issues. She is super active, BMs look a little funky, sometimes like stones, other times like normal logs. Been checked for worms twice, etc.

Sigh, her breath will knock you back! Street rat!

PS - I still let her lick my hand, I'm weird in that I like the little love licks with their raspy tongues.

Oliver's breath is pretty brutal when he yawns -- worse when he's been eating raw -- but not noticeable otherwise. He likes to lick me in the mornings. Usually on my hand, but this morning was on my inner arm, above the elbow. Eeep. That was painful, but I decided to grin and bear it. I figure he is showing affection.

On the brushing topic, I ordered a toothbrush and paste for him today. Going to start the four-week training later this week.

LaraLove said:

Oliver's breath is pretty brutal when he yawns -- worse when he's been eating raw -- but not noticeable otherwise. He likes to lick me in the mornings. Usually on my hand, but this morning was on my inner arm, above the elbow. Eeep. That was painful, but I decided to grin and bear it. I figure he is showing affection.

On the brushing topic, I ordered a toothbrush and paste for him today. Going to start the four-week training later this week.

Click to expand...

Does Sir Oliver eat raw meat - beef?
Lotto's breath stunk but as he was 18 I wasn't about to take him to have his teeth cleaned. I just put up with it. Oh
I miss lotto. I know I've got my babies. Whisky is curled up on my lap but I still miss my old chap.

Not really. I fed him about a tablespoon the other night of ground beef (just to see if he'd like it), then read later that night to never give cats ground meat from the grocery store, so I haven't done that again. So far just chicken breast and turkey giblets. 

NBrazil said:

Actually she has been to the vet (now at 8 months) who looked at her mouth and said that even at her young age I need to watch her teeth - recommended dry food. Well, that won't do, I'll brush her teeth! And, unlike her mellow brother (who hates it), she likes the cat enzymatic toothpaste and looks forward to it (been working on that for a couple of weeks).

But my "gut feeling" (no pun intended) is that it may be a digestive thing, her breath actually smells like her  brand of food, only much stronger. I'm not sure what to do about that because she is very picky, and this is the only brand she will eat!

I may just try kittie probiotics and take her in in a couple of months and ask the vet about any digestive issues. She is super active, BMs look a little funky, sometimes like stones, other times like normal logs. Been checked for worms twice, etc.

Click to expand...

Good for you for brushing her teeth instead of going for the dry food. I don't know why vets try to push the dry so much; my vet said that studies showed dry vs wet had no impact on how clean the teeth were.
It shouldn't hurt to give the probiotics a go and see how she does.

I'd go for regular teeth brushing with and enzyme paste as general cat care and if the cat is prone to plaque build up keep it up daily, and like pushylady and N Brazil, I think pro-biotics make a lot of sense if it seems like there might be a digestive issue contributing to bad breath and poop is stinky or not normal texture either.

For anyone whose cat has smelly breath, if you can manage to get a good look at your cat's gums around the edges of their teeth, right from the front teeth back to the angle of their jaw, if they are not teething and there is a red line or any bleeding I would go for a vet consultation and see if more than just brushing is needed, and indeed if brushing would be too painful for a while - you would just rubbing enzyme paste until gums are heeled in addition to any antibiotics and anti-inflammatories prescribed by the vet. A lot of people on this site find raw food, and raw chicken on the bone helps and if you wanted to try that it would be worth checking out some of the raw food threads in the Nutrition forum.  

I'd like to add a pro-biotic to Mouse's diet but struggling enough with L Lysine for the time being as he has virtually no interest in wet food and can only have tiny amounts anyway without upsetting his dental care routine: Mouse does need the prescription t/d Dental food as well as enzyme paste twice a day to keep his gum lesions at bay.  Like pushylady says, ordinary dry food has not been shown to help in dental care so unless prescription food really was necessary I'd go with the alternatives - the t/d is quite high in carb's.

Hey MServant, re the lysine, which 'version' of it are you using?  I was quite interested to find it comes in a variety of 'packaging' - there are pills, there is the paste, and then there are treats!  If one doesnt work well, hopefully he'll like a different one.  The paste is what we use over here (my cats are almost impossible to pill), and thankfully they both think it is a treat and come running when we take down the container - they lick it off a finger!

Mouse is usually OK with stuff I give him but he hated the pills even if they were powdered and mixed in food.  I gave him the powder from a tea spoon at the back of his mouth and he coughed, foamed at the mouth and feigned a potential fatal reaction very proficiently: I stopped the tablets pretty quickly (not because I was taken in by his amateur dramatics but the mess on the hall rug was a pain to clear up).      I changed over to getting the gel from his vet.  I never tried the treats as he's not used to different foods or snacks.  The stuff has fish oil in it and while Mouse isn't a great fan he will lick it off his usual tooth brush for one of his daily doses.  He has to put up with me squirting the other one in the side of his mouth because he's not that great at taking it, esp when it goes up to the higher dose for flareups.  I have to be careful because he started to get a bit wary of his toothbrush and he'd always come running as soon as he had any sign of 'tooth-time' before.   I'd hoped he would be as keen on the  L Lysine as he is for his toothpaste but sadly not.  He's very sweet when he's medicated or anything so he's still no bother - he just makes sure you know he expects a Thrive fish snack when he's had it (they are the only real 'treat' he gets)!    

The brand of gel the vets get varies a bit, I guess it depends who they use as a supplier.  I'm getting it from them in the hope that maybe the pet insurance will cover it (unlike the toothpaste).

My cat had that. Anyone petting him noticed. Even though his teeth looked pretty good, we had them  cleaned, and "ta da", gone. That was it. No pills, nothing else, just clean teeth. Good luck!

ok bad news diarrhea is back although not as stinky so now i'm thinking its a food issue. I think since got another bag of dry cat food,  it may be the culprit. i dont give her dry as a main meal just as something to snack on in between meals but she doesnt seem to have this problem when its strictly wet. idk how she is gonna react if i just stop giving her dry altogether though cause she was having a fit when i ran out of dry food.

It might be food, it might be some sort of parasite.  There is one called T. Foetus which needs a specific treatment to get rid of, and which produces vile stools.

http://www.icatcare.org/advice/cat-health/tritrichomonas-foetus-infection-cats

If you put her on just poached chicken for a few days do the stools clear up?  Note it's NOT a complete diet, just a very bland one to see if her tummy settles.

Is the bad breath back as well?

It could be the food but I agree it could also be parasitic infection given the initial improvement when the antibiotic started.  You could try a balnd diet like the chicken but definitely give your vet a call, check what they screened for in the stool sample and what came back in the test.  If they didn't screen for a wide number of parasitic infections ask if this would not be adviseable as a longer or different course of medication might be called for.  There have been a few threads recently where cats have had guardia and other parasites and not always picked up initially.  Better checking and not being there than letting something run on.

No bad breath this time just creamy poo. 

Update again:  I tried to feed her boiled chicken like suggested and she didn't like it :-/ . So I did the next thing and acted on my suspicions and removed dry food and now it seems like her poo is more solid and less stinky so I think something in it is the cause. Also the vet claims they haven't found anything in her stool sample but I will have her retested when I take her for vaccinations next week.

Also on a side note: SHe's about 10 lbs now  She'll be 8 months on the 6th

Well she is certainly not the runt of the litter now!    Have you tried grain free wet food?  More likely to eat this than something like boiled chicken and hopefully able to get it where you live.  Quite a lot of cats don't tollerate grain and it isn't necessary in their diet.  Worth trying it out, before you go to the vet it there's time to see how she responds.

MServant said:

 
Well she is certainly not the runt of the litter now!    Have you tried grain free wet food?  More likely to eat this than something like boiled chicken and hopefully able to get it where you live.  Quite a lot of cats don't tollerate grain and it isn't necessary in their diet.  Worth trying it out, before you go to the vet it there's time to see how she responds.

Click to expand...

yea everything that i've been feeding her since day 1 has been grain free foods. i have found an old post about starches creating issues so i think that could be the problem. the dry foods i gave her, nature's variety raw boost seems to have a couple of starches in it. i did pick up a few packets of their freeze dried mixers but carrots are in the ingredients but i'll see how it goes with that too..

I'm not that great at cat nutrition stuff but sounds like your choices could get quite limited here, and nutritional advice for an exclusion diet might be a good thing to do if the screening still comes back clear from the vet.  Another thing to consider, if you haven't already would be looking at the raw feeding threads here?  A lot of members have found that makes a real difference to both dental health and digestive problems.  You would want to know all tests for parasites and infections were clear first though.