My parents have a Westie, who gets brown stains around his mouth, presumably from his food (Royal Canin or Purina) or saliva.
A breeder has suggested adding a teaspoon of either white wine vinegar or cider vinegar to his food to make the stains disappear.
They have been doing this for the past week or so, & it seems to be working. They are just a little concerned, though, whether it is completely safe to add vinegar to his food.
Does anyone know about this please?

Never heard of it for staining, but could work, vinegar is brilliant for a lot of things, I found it a miracle worker if I have a dog systitus, just a drop in their drinking water and hey presto 24 hrs later all is well, before this if anyone got it it was usually two courses of antibiotics, also very good for sore throats in us, but not pleasant to swollow.

If you add an acid such as vinegar to food you are at risk of upsetting the balance of the urine and creating stones.  Not worth it for a bit of staining :)  If it really bothers them there are lots of products available for applying to the coat.

not sure but if it is working in his food - though i wouldn't like to add acid for the same reason as isabel - could it not be diluted and then the stained area wiped with the solution. Would this not be better not only for health but also for the fact that it is being directly applied to the area so should help like that.

Not sure, please correct me if I am wrong

Think this may be one of those remedies which has got mixed up or misunderstood while being passed on.  Cider vinegar is an often used remedy for "cocker mouth" - but it is wiped on, not fed to the dog!
bye
Gwen

I use a shampoo on my white toy poodle called White on White by Chris Christensen which keeps her fur very white.  You can buy it from http://www.hubintsecured.co.uk/acatalog/Chris_Christensen.html.