hiya all,

im new to this site, i came across it whilst searching for bad breath in puppies!

we have just got a 5 week old puppy given to us and realize he shouldnt have even come off his mother yet, but he needed rescuing, so we said we would give him a home and hand rear him, we have never had a puppy before, we have another dog 'chloe' shes a rescue dog and about 15mths old, shes a border collie cross and lovely! -her coats lovely and shiny as she takes daily mutivitimins, and odourless garlic tablets and gets brushed twice a day! - we are slowly introducing garlic cloves for her and she is slowly eating them!!! she is on dried food with a little pedigree chum to wet her appetite and every now and again we give her a bone from the butchers.she seems to be in a pretty healthy state.

anywa back to our new puppy 'Bailey' he's cute and tubby, he's a Lab cross we have only had him since 3 days ago! and he has a foul smelling breath, it's not nice at all.he seems happy enough and is being fed about 6 times a day in tiny amounts of Bakers puppy dried food mixed with a bit of water! we have also started giving him 'Lactose' milk instead of ordinary milk mixed with water as this was recommended by the petshop! we do bottle feed him with it sometimes and now have syringes for when he comes off the bottle!

he appears to be pretty happy, tail wagging and full of energy and also sleeps alot which we know is normal of that age....he also squeals alot and lies with the other dogs teddy! we have also introduced a tepid water bottle and fleece and also a ticking clock for his bed.

but we are a little concerned about his breath....it is foul and i suggested we started cleaning his teeth, if he would let us?, but not sure if he's too young for this or if its just because he's a puppy?? why his breath is like this. chloe our other dog has just been spayed and is having her stiches out tomorrow, so whilst we are there we were going to ask the vet to have a look at Baliey and just check him over,his weight etc! -but also the only thing we do know, the owners of Bailey had fed him weetibix and water the morning we got him?? and also he hasnt had any boosters etc!

please could somebody give us some advice as i have been reading on here about somebody else with the same problem which turned out to be his beard.Bailey doesnt have a beard and is very tiny, his coat looks good though and is nice and soft, he looks pretty healthy! i did find and odd flea on him though, but ould be from the other dog as we were treating her for flees a couple of weeks ago, which cleared up! apart from that we think everythings ok? but i'm not a vet!!!!

many thanks

claire

Worms can give a dog bad breath, and as he's a tiny puppy he should be wormed every fortnight till he's 8 weeks old, then every month till he's 6 months, then every 3 months for the rest of his life.
:)

Thank you Jeangenie for your quick reply!

We have had Bailey checked over by the vets this morning and he said that he appears to be in good health, a little overweight for his age but not a major concern and the vet said the same as you have......to worm him and hopefully his breath problem will go away and also to wean him off 'lactose free milk' and replacing it with water! he has a slight temperature and the runs but not too overly concerned as he may just be getting used to his new diet!!

phewww we are starting his worming today so will see how he responds?

thanks once again for your input, i appreciate it.

All the best

Claire

Hi Claire,

I have a Baillie too! :) He's a golden retriever - I was just going to echo what JG had said about worming - but too late!!
I'm glad that he checked out well at the vet's and hopefully his breath will get better soon - bet he's a sweetie pie.
Look forward to hearing about his progress - well done for taking him on!
Sharon