my cats breath stinks

[newty]

i have 2 cats, and they both eat the same food. one cat has terrible breath, smells like something is decomposing in there. brushing her teeth doesnt seem to alleviate the smell. as far as i know, she always had the problem. could it be worms? something bad with her teeth? anyone know what else could be the source of the problem?

 

[tizzo]

My little dog had the same prob... I took him to the vet to get fixed, I asked the vet to clean his teeth because his breath was raunchy!! Toward the end of the procedure, the vet calls us to inform us that the dog had a tooth rotting away. He called because he would not remove it without our permission. I brushed his teeth, I even scraped his teeth with a pick, and got a LOT of tarter to flake off. So to find out this was going on with my dog, I was much surprised!!
To save money, call a shelter and ask if they can take an x ray. If money isn't an issue, take him to your normal vet. Here, it was like $200 for anesthesia and cleaning then about $35 more for the tooth extraction.
Good luck, keep us posted!

 

[birdy]

$200 for a tooth cleaning! YIKES, around here it is more like $100 for the whole kit and caboodle, and a bit extra for extractions.
For breath that bad, sounds like an abcess tooth, which can be very dangerous even to the point of being fatal if not taken care of. The infection can spread throughout the cats body. Take your kitty in and see if it needs a cleaning or a tooth pulled.
On a side note do your cats eat dry food only? If you feed them moist food, STOP, it is just bad for them and their teeth.

 

[gasguzzler]

My cats only get dry food. Some of my past pets got wet food, but I stopped when I read an article the vet handed out. I use Science Diet.

 

[tizzo]

Originally posted by Birdy
$200 for a tooth cleaning! YIKES, around here it is more like $100 for the whole kit and caboodle, and a bit extra for extractions.

Yeah, It's rediculous. Most of the cost was the blood cultures and anesthesia. Since he (my dog) was already down for the neuter anyway I saved a ton. But at my vet, it is actually cheaper to get an animal fixed thean to have his teeth cleaned!! I procrastinated forever, til the neuter... then I got an all for one!
But I imagine it was very painful for my dog, so Newty, I would recomend taking him/her.

 

[thomas712]

IMO the animals breath stinks because, (in part) of what it eats.
Did you guys know that renderers will not only use the meat by products form cows, chickens and other animals but also the remains of cats and dogs that have been euthinized?(sp).This goes into the food they eat. This will also include the drug used to put them to sleep. I have just been looking up such things in the last few days in regards to my 3 cats and what they eat.. This applys to dogs as well.
Did you know that many vets recommend Iams pet food only because they get some kind of kick back from the petfood company? And according to some (believe it or not, do the research) its not any better than many of the cheap stuff you could buy.
Check this link out about petfood nutrition: It will scare you.
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/jesse.htm

 

[saltcreep]

I do not understand how these pet food companies can use products that are not fit for human consumption and sy it is healthier for dogs than real mweats. We have cut our dogs off of baged food and only feed raw meat and veggies. They are a lot more active and seem healtier so far. Our vet could not believe we do this. He said it is exactly what they should be eating but no one wants to hear it.

 

[thomas712]

Saltcreep -
I understand completly, I have a manager that rescuse charpie (sp) dogs, he has 3 of his own and looks for good homes for the ones he rescues. He switched to raw food for his dogs over a month ago and tells me that their coats are better, and there breath never smells anymore like they used to. Last week he told me about it and since then I have been looking for nutritional info on it, as I would like to take better care of my cats.
There are arguments on both sides to the meat by products, as this is what they would eat in the wild anyway, but some of the other things they pull is out of this world
Thomas

 

[saltcreep]

I know it is working for us and I have a ne pug puppy and want to see if it benifits her growing up. Half of the stuff in the bag foods the animals are alergic to. I hear that the pet food co actually pay for the vets nutrition training and are responsible for telling people that raw " People" food is bad. I do not know how true this is but my Vet said that we are correct. They all have the digestive tract of wolfs and should eat raw foods. As for the cats, I have not cut them over yet. Not quite sure what to give em and waiting to see how the dogs make out

 

[tizzo]

Originally posted by Thomas712
IMO the animals breath stinks because, (in part) of what it eats.

I do not disagree with anything that you wrote, but...
This vet is a mobile vet who promotes nothing (i.e. Iams) AND he actually gave me the tooth he extracted. It was so rotted it was literally split in two, up and down ways. Like I said, I am not saying your info in not accurate, but in my case it was with out a doubt, a rotten tooth. I just threw it out not to long ago or I would post pics.

 

[newty]

well, the idea/fact that these foods contain byproducts, ground meat of various sources, etc doesnt surprise me too much. for all i know, there the food could include brains from beef or sheep! now, there is a cause for alarm...
still, why can a cat have bad breath while the other cat doesnt? they both eat the same food. physical examination of the palate revealed nothing, but as mentioned above, only a x-ray or more virgorous examination would reveal the problem if it is a tooth-related thing. both cats only eat dry food. we used to feed them both, but have shifted to dry food only due to laziness of opening cans. why is wet food bad for cats? oh yeah, we use iams food, sometimes supplemented with some other cat food, but the cat had bad breath even before we supplemented with the other food. the only reason why we supplement is because we were originally thinking of weaning them off iams food and have them eat this other food, but we thought that the extra 4 dollars we save is really nothing big.
i will let you guys know what is going on with the cat.
thanks, newty.

 

[newty]

Hi all,
Newty's girlfriend here. Yes, bad breath is often associated with decayed teeth. However, the cat in question is a kitten (less than 9 months old) so has had little to no time for decaying, not to mention the fact that it had bad breath at 13 weeks. I've looked online and it could be a lot more serious (associated with kidney problems), but she doesn't exhibit any other symptoms like lethargy or difficulty using the litter box.
As for "not for human consumption" what that often means is that the animal in question was not bled before slaughter. You may be interested to know that all our meat is completely bled before packaging and then colouring is added.
The pet food companies do not add dead cats and dogs to the mix; that is a nasty urban legend that has been around for years.
The raw food diet has been garnering a lot of attention lately, and if you can afford it, more power to you. My personal belief is that the food companies like Science Diet or Iams spend millions in research to ensure your pets are getting enough nutrition. Cats would do very well on a total raw meat diet, but do not feed them any vegetable matter...they can't digest them. You will have to supplement a dogs diet since wolves eat the stomach etc. of their prey to get the extra vitamins and nutrients already digested.
Thanks for all the hints and help.

 

[thomas712]

I agree that a rotten tooth could certainly cause some bad breath in animals as well as us two legged human animals.
Back to the nutrition issue about the by products. They are not all bad in fact they can be just fine and dandy with our pets, but some companies can not exactly care what or where its coming from or even how its prepared when it comes to money matters.
The artical below can dispell some of the myths, and its just another article to consider when contimplating your pets health.
By-Products...
Are they getting a bad rap? As you read various pet food producers' advertising material you will often find such statements as "No By-Products Added!" or "Our food contains no animal by-products so you know it's top quality". I will let you decide if By-Products aren't good for dogs and cats after you learn what they are. To most people the term "by-products" congers up images of whatever is left over after the animal is processed, or maybe whatever can't be used for human food, or maybe even what's cleaned up off the processing floor at the end of the day. (I hear this misconception all the time!) It's time you learn what by-products are; so here is the legal definition as described by the official agency in charge of directing animal feeding practices in the U.S....AAFCO: Association of American Feed Control Officials.
By-Product... Secondary products produced in addition to the principal products. Well, there is nothing here to indicate good or bad quality of product. Maybe we should look at what the principal product is to find out what the secondary products are; then we can decide if the secondary products would make good food for meat-eating dogs and cats.
If Meat is the primary product (meat refers to the skeletal muscles of the slaughtered mammal) then ...
Meat By-Products - the non rendered (uncooked), clean parts, other than meat, derived from slaughtered mammals. It includes, but is not limited to, lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, partially defatted low-temperature fatty tissue and stomachs and intestines freed of their contents. It does not include hair, horns, teeth and hooves.
T. J. Dunn, Jr. DVM
Thomas712 - I like the second to the last line at the end it states "freed of their contents" can we always believe that? You can bet there are some well kept secrets about the pet food we buy, and there are some books on the subjects.
http://www.thepetcenter.com/imtop/nutrition.html
Anyone else finding this interesting?