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How to help my old dog's terrible breath and unhealthy gums at home?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Small (up to 22lb) | Male | unneutered | 20 lbs

Hello, I have a dog about 13 years old & he has REAAAAALLLLYYYY bad breath.. I can't afford to take him in to a vet at the moment, but I want to see what I can do to help him. He has one front tooth & barely any back teeth.. but his breath smells so bad I can smell it without even having to bend over to pet him.. his gums look disgusting as well.. please help!!

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Jennifer Summerfield, DVM CPDT-KA

Veterinarian, Certified Dog Trainer

Published on December 11th, 2016

Poor Bonbon! It sounds like he has really severe periodontal disease - this is unfortunately quite common in older small-breed dogs. This means that he has severe infection in his gums, often with bone loss around the base of the teeth and a great deal of pain for the pet as well as horrible breath. To treat this problem effectively, I'm afraid that he will definitely need to see a vet for a full dental cleaning under anesthesia to remove any painful, rotten teeth and get rid of the tartar and infection in the mouth. So ideally, this should be a goal as soon as you are able to do this, even if you need to plan ahead for a while to be able to do it. In the meantime, you can try using a daily oral rinse for dogs such as CET oral dental rinse. This will not remove tartar or treat the infection, but may help a bit with the odor and keep things from getting worse in the meantime.

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Andrea M. Brodie, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    Bonbon apparently has severe dental disease and will need a veterinary exam and likely a tooth cleaning. There is also a possibility of kidney problems which can also cause bad breath (would likely smell like urine). Please take Bonbon to a vet on Monday.

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