Smelly mouth and hidden infection
Posted: 28 Oct 2017, 14:09
I'm posting this as it took so long to work out what was wrong and find a practical solution that didn't go down the surgery option. Apologies if this is a bit long - worth a read in case yours gets the problem at some point.
Our Mini (Kipper) started smelling around the mouth a while ago. This was over and above the usual fishy breath!
I looked at lots of online resources and tried several things (rinsing beard in salt solution, finding and cutting out dreadlocks etc) to no avail.
The smell got really bad to the point where we couldn't have him up on the sofa with us, so we took him to the vet.
The vet said that his anal glands needed expressing and the smell was probably him licking his backside and it ending up in his beard. This seemed to help a little (but as it turned out that was more likely to be down to the fact that his mouth was cleaned....), we assumed that the smell would go away over a few days afterwards. It didn't.
So we went back after a few weeks and had the same outcome.
Now during the continued cleaning of his beard I had noticed that there was an accumulation of black hard 'stuff' just under where his upper teeth clear his lower lip, this stuff smelled bad but I could clean it up and the smell went away (or at least got less).
So I took him back to the vet and this time they said his teeth were plaqued up and the black was coming from his mouth in drool so he was put under and his teeth scraped (I wasn't very comfortable with anasthetic but we were desperate), a very pricey procedure also. His teeth were whiter than white, but the smell persisted.
So once again we were left with cleaning every day and reducing the smell as best we could. After several more weeks we went back again and said that nothing had improved during a particularly bad bout of smelliness. This is where we turned a corner.....
The vet we saw that day sniffed him and immediately pulled back his beard, took hold of his lower lip and pulled down and back on his jowl revealing a pussy infection in a flap of skin that you would never know was there! She was a star, she knew straight away, she cut the fur short over that area and cleaned it with some Hibiscrub on both sides and the smell disappeared, there and then!
So he was prescribed antibiotics and I was given some Hibiscrub to dilute and apply, job done!
However... not quite, the infection came back after a couple of months, once again he had antibiotics and I continued with the scrub. We were told that if it persisted that the best option was surgery to remove the flap of skin on both sides.
I'm not keen on surgery so I have searched out an alternative, and it works... so far.
The accumulation of black stuff is still there (I think that this is the stuff that causes the infection, getting under the flap), so to clean that I use sterile saline solution (this is cheap in a pharmacy for cleaning contact lenses) twice a week or so. it's best to keep the fur short with some scissors over that little area by the way. If it looks like the skin under the flap is getting red I use some Leucillin, which is a fantastically effective antiseptic wipe and cleared up a new infection in two days with no need for antibiotics.
So far we are good, his breath still pongs a bit but I brush his teeth every night and that helps a lot.
I'm sharing this with you all in case you see similar symptoms as it took so long to get our little monkey sorted and all that time he must have been very sore.
If the description isn't clear I have some pictures somewhere, just shout and I'll put them up.
Our Mini (Kipper) started smelling around the mouth a while ago. This was over and above the usual fishy breath!
I looked at lots of online resources and tried several things (rinsing beard in salt solution, finding and cutting out dreadlocks etc) to no avail.
The smell got really bad to the point where we couldn't have him up on the sofa with us, so we took him to the vet.
The vet said that his anal glands needed expressing and the smell was probably him licking his backside and it ending up in his beard. This seemed to help a little (but as it turned out that was more likely to be down to the fact that his mouth was cleaned....), we assumed that the smell would go away over a few days afterwards. It didn't.
So we went back after a few weeks and had the same outcome.
Now during the continued cleaning of his beard I had noticed that there was an accumulation of black hard 'stuff' just under where his upper teeth clear his lower lip, this stuff smelled bad but I could clean it up and the smell went away (or at least got less).
So I took him back to the vet and this time they said his teeth were plaqued up and the black was coming from his mouth in drool so he was put under and his teeth scraped (I wasn't very comfortable with anasthetic but we were desperate), a very pricey procedure also. His teeth were whiter than white, but the smell persisted.
So once again we were left with cleaning every day and reducing the smell as best we could. After several more weeks we went back again and said that nothing had improved during a particularly bad bout of smelliness. This is where we turned a corner.....
The vet we saw that day sniffed him and immediately pulled back his beard, took hold of his lower lip and pulled down and back on his jowl revealing a pussy infection in a flap of skin that you would never know was there! She was a star, she knew straight away, she cut the fur short over that area and cleaned it with some Hibiscrub on both sides and the smell disappeared, there and then!
So he was prescribed antibiotics and I was given some Hibiscrub to dilute and apply, job done!
However... not quite, the infection came back after a couple of months, once again he had antibiotics and I continued with the scrub. We were told that if it persisted that the best option was surgery to remove the flap of skin on both sides.
I'm not keen on surgery so I have searched out an alternative, and it works... so far.
The accumulation of black stuff is still there (I think that this is the stuff that causes the infection, getting under the flap), so to clean that I use sterile saline solution (this is cheap in a pharmacy for cleaning contact lenses) twice a week or so. it's best to keep the fur short with some scissors over that little area by the way. If it looks like the skin under the flap is getting red I use some Leucillin, which is a fantastically effective antiseptic wipe and cleared up a new infection in two days with no need for antibiotics.
So far we are good, his breath still pongs a bit but I brush his teeth every night and that helps a lot.
I'm sharing this with you all in case you see similar symptoms as it took so long to get our little monkey sorted and all that time he must have been very sore.
If the description isn't clear I have some pictures somewhere, just shout and I'll put them up.