doggie dentist

Yesterday the weather spiked and I was actually feeling sick walking dogs mid-day with the high noon sun beating down. I decided to drive my afternoon dogs to the park in my car since I knew it would be shady there. I piled the dogs in the boot of my car with the windows slightly cracked. One of the dogs was breathing heavily and I almost puked from her stinky breath. It smelled like a mix of tuna, rotten leaves and sewer. She either needed to see a "doggie dentist" for a cleaning or she just finished licking her anal glands.
Gross.
Yup, dogs do go to the "doggie dentist" for cleanings which are generally their veterinarians.
Who ever spread the old wive's tale that dogs mouths are sterile must have been retarded.
One of the number one complaints people express to their vet is that their dogs have bad breath. Bad odors comes from an overgrowth of bacteria.
In fact, one of the most commonly diagnosed disease in dogs and cats is periodontis. Beagle dogs in particular, have similar oral flora as humans and have been used in various tests at Tufts University school of dentistry regarding periododontal disease.The bacterial species found in dogs mouths causing gum disease is: Porphyromonas denticanis, Porphyromnas salivosa and Porphyromonas gulae plus 26 different species of black pigmented anaerobic bacteria. In humans the main bacteria causing gum disease is: Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis. Dogs, like humans can suffer from a bacteremia (bacterial infection in blood stream) due to poor oral health.
My Mother took her geriatric cocker spaniel to the "doggie dentist" on a routine basis especially as he aged. Smaller breeds of dogs tend to develop gum disease more easily than larger breeds so she was pretty vigilant in his oral care. What is interesting that dogs and cats do not generally get cavities. My Mother would also brush "Tony's" teeth with a special doggie toothpaste. Flouride can be poisonous to dogs so you need to use "dog toothpaste' made for dogs. Oversized rough kibbles treats also act as a tartar debrider similar to the effect of eating apples. Tony was pretty good about sitting there having my mother brush his teeth. My mother could not tolerate anyone having stinky breath- even the dog.
I have even heard of show dogs having orthodontics in order to make sure their teeth are aligned right and to look perfect.
Even though my birds (obviously) don't have teeth I check them regularly for any odors out of their mouths. Odd odors could indicate problems such as bacterial infections in the crop or yeast infections.
I think I needed to give that dog a breath mint.