My dog's tongue hangs out and gets dirty. How do I keep it clean?

Question

My male daschund is 15 yrs old and blind. He’s had the majority of his teeth removed and now his tongue permanently hangs out the side of his mouth (rather adorable) Besides the constant dryness of the end of his tongue he collects constant dirt and grime because he needs to use his smell for navigating around. I flush it with water regularly but concerned with parasites and bacteria. He’s had bouts with diarrhea and currently on Antibiotics.. is there and oral rinse I can use to help? Pet's info: Dog | Dachshund | Male | neutered | 5 years and 5 months old | 22 lbs

Andrea M. Brodie, DVM · Accepted Answer

Using an antibacterial oral rinse could actually cause more problems than not using one. Water is fine. You could flush his tongue and put some vaseline on it to keep it from drying out. If you take him out into the "wild" you can put a basket muzzle on him which may hep keep the tongue in, ie keep it from dragging in the dirt. I don't think flushing the mouth will make much of a difference in whether he gets diarrhea of not. Regular environmental bacteria should not make him ill. Dogs regularly lick all sorts of dirt and their very acidic stomach should kill most of the detrimental one.

My dog's tongue hangs out and gets dirty. How do I keep it clean?

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