My Cocker Maud has just come back from the vets where I suspected she had a abscess.  One side (bottom) of her mouth is swollen and very very smelly.  However, the vet has said that she has 'pockets' either side of her mouth and sometimes, with the warm weather, these get infected.   She is now on a 10 day dose of antibiotics and we are to bathe her mouth daily (for the duration of the tablets) in slightly salted water.  We have had to do this before when she suffered from another mouth complaint but does seem to react the salted water (sick everytime a few minutes after)  At the moment we are cleansing her mouth like this but wondered if anyone knows of a different concoction that will disinfiect her mouth.  Especially so as we have been advised to clean the inside of her mouth every couple of weeks from now on.
Thanks for any help.

I'm not really sure from your description exactly whats wrong, but I think it sounds like lip fold excema. Is the affected area along the outer edge of the bottom jaw, the bit that is hidden beneath the top lips? If that's the place then this might help. I have an Irish Setter that gets lip fold excema, the smell is dreadful, fishy!!!! I use iodine skin antiseptic applied with a cotton wool ball. I give it a good scrub with the cotton wool, and I do this a couple of times a week.
When he has a 'flare up' I do it every night and every morning.

Iodine Skin Antiseptic is available from the Chemist.

Dawn R.

Think you should be swabbing the mouth but not allowing the dog to drink the water, the normal saline solution should not make the dog sick but try to stop them drinking any but that left in the mouth.

I would hearily recommend Colloidal Silver available from Canine Chemists or good health shops.

It is 100% safe and can be used internally, to bathe eyes etc etc etc and I use it for just about everything; it is not cheap but it is effective.

I would look at boosting your dog's immunity and health with Vitamin C and zinc supplement for his oral health.

Tohme, thank you for the advice.  When you mention Vitamin C and Zinc, can I get this from the local health food store (like Holland & Barretts) or do I need to find a trained animal supplier of homeopathic treatments?  I don't want to overdose her!  I have run a search on here already looking for more information on naturally treating oral health after reading your advice  but couldn't find any so if anyone knows of another post where this has been discussed more fully I would be very grateful.

Again, thanks for all the advice, as Maud is not a 'chewy dog' (ie loses interest in anything that doesn't go straight down her neck) she has suffered with bad teeth and breath in the past that even brushing hasn't alleviated. 

You can Vitamin C and Zinc tablets anywhere they do not have to be for humans; you cannot really OD on Vitamin C although it IS possible to OD on zinc but difficult.

Fragaria can dissolve tartar on some dogs teeth, not all, bad breath may not originate from the mouth but be a symptom of other disease.

there are various homoepathic treatments for gums, etc but dpends on various factors and other features of the condition as to which remedy is correct.

Thanks for the advice, will certainly try the iodine.  She seems much better last night and this morning.  Although I didn't allow her to drink the salted water I think I was probably being a little too over zealous in its application!  I eased off a bit and gently cleansed the area and she wasn't sick, so successs.