Disappearing bad breath

[georgiagirl8]

My cat, Pretty Kitty, is the oldest cat we have. I'm not sure how old because she kind of just took up with us a few years ago. A year or two ago, she developed really, terrible bad breath that did not want to go away. A few months ago, she got really sick. My vet put her on an antibiotic, which, thankfully, made her better. The weird thing is, since she finished her medicine, her bad breath is completely gone! I originally thought that her breath problem was due to her age. Now, I'm not so sure. What do you think?

 

[amy shojai]

Bad breath usually is due to periodontal disease -- inflammation and infection of the gums and teeth. It often takes a thorough teeth cleaning by the veterinarian to get rid of the odor.

But metabolic diseases also can cause nasty breath. Kidney disease and diabetes, for instance, can make the cat's breath foul.

My guess is the antibiotic helped resolve an infection somewhere--in the mouth? --and that resulted in an improved breath. *s*

Incidentally, cats do not tend to smell bad just because they're old. Some old cats do develop odors if they aren't able to keep themselves clean, for example. But nasty smelling breath is a good reason to seek a check up from the vet. Glad Pretty Kitty got this fixed!

amy