Bad breath

deerhost · Post by **deerhost** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:24 pm

My Hunting beagle has bad breath. The vet says he has a lot of tarter on his teeth and needs to have it cleaned. The smell dosn't bother me that much but if its healther for the dog to have his teeth clean I'll spend the money and have it done. should I have it done?

burbba · Post by **burbba** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:51 pm

its expensive to have the vet clean teeth. They have to sedate the dog prior to cleaning. Your looking at a couple hundred dollars to do it. If its bad, you need to do it though. They will start losing teeth, at that point feeding becomes an issue.

mo. beagler · Post by **mo. beagler** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:07 pm

burbba is right on all counts. How old is your dog?

Post by **Bev** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:35 pm

Those teeth may eventually get infected and that will effect his sense of smell. People have complained about their dogs doing weird things in the field - backtracking when they never did before, getting tight-mouthed, etc. just to find out it went away when they got the dog's teeth cleaned and the infection gone. Just a thought.

deerhost · Post by **deerhost** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:38 pm

He's only 3 years old. I don't know what he was being fed before I bought him but the tarter is heavy on his back teeth.

coolbrze · Post by **coolbrze** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:38 pm

Interesting topic... How much do they charge in your area, prices vary bigtime.

Chaffin Crank · Post by **Chaffin Crank** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 7:35 am

Get you some of those teeth cleaning biscuit things. They work pretty good. I have 2 dogs out of 7 that will let you brush their teeth but you can forget about the other 5. I don't care how many people hold them. But they all like the teeth cleaning treats.

Chaffin Crank

Post by **Bev** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:06 am

cool, it's about the same here in Indy. One can expect a couple hundred dollars for it - half of which is for putting them under anesthesia for it. Whenever i had to have a dog put under for something else, I had them clean the teeth while they had 'em out, that way I didn't get that charge twice.

simple pleasure kennels · Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:15 am

I use a pair of hemo stats and if you get on the side of tooth and clamp down the tartar will bust loose dont clamp on tooth but pinch on the side of it on the tartar side a little of a angle i cleaned some serious problems up. hard to explain but this work it will bust loose the out side of the tooth. i try to put one jaw of the stat on bottom of tooth and the othe at the top side of tartar near gum but be careful.

Windkist · Post by **Windkist** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:18 am

Raw meaty bones. If you go to the butcher and ask for a cow femur cut up and keep your dogs one of these it will knock off a lot of tartar. If its really bad then you probably should clean his teeth. He's awfully young to have so much tartar. Call around to the vets in your area. Mine only charges 80.00 and the one down the street charges 150.00

Leah

D.Gross · Post by **D.Gross** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:19 am

I had my old female's teeth cleaned when she was about 10 yrs. old. It helped her alot. Vet charged me $60 bucks. She lived to be 14. Prior to cleaning she was having difficulty eating.

Beagled1 · Post by **Beagled1** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:03 pm

Windkist wrote:Raw meaty bones. If you go to the butcher and ask for a cow femur cut up and keep your dogs one of these it will knock off a lot of tartar.

Took the words out of my mouth ... we give raw bones with large chunks of meat 1-3x weekly and my oldest Beag (will be 7 soon) has clean, sparkiling teeth. Try to avoid weight bearing bones which can crack or fracture teeth - the best types I've found are lamb/beef necks, chicken backs, chicken leg quarters cut up (which are dirt cheap here; I can get as low as .49 per lb. @ local grocery store), or lamb ribs. Those types of bones are meals in themselves.
Also, I frequent one local store that raises their own meat & produce, and their in store butchers give me the "trimmings" from the beef. Its hardly any fat and mostly meat, all for free, and about 5# worth of meat each time I go

Can't beat that! Lots of butchers will give you meat trimmings that were going to be disposed of either for free or for a cheap rate. This does have a point, lol. Raw meat contains enzymes that clean the teeth/mouth, so along with the bones, thuis can go a long way towards cleaning off teeth.

burbba · Post by **burbba** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:58 pm

bev, thats what we will do. Our bassett (pet) has to have cysts removed on occassion and thats when they will do the teeth cleaning. Not paying for anesthesia twice, if I dont have to!! Thats 80% of the expense.

Meaty bones, denta bones and the likes will help, but will not cure the problem, if its a problem.