# Smelly Cavalier King Charles Spaniel



## ellenlouisepascoe (Jul 12, 2013)

Hello everyone! 

Thought I would come her here a little bit of advise! 

Myself and my husband have moved in his Cavalier King Charles Spaniel from his mothers house , he is 8 years old and up until we got him has always been fed wet dog food. My attempts to move him over onto dry work for a couple of days and then he just refuses to eat, this can go on for 4/5 days if we let it and he will just not entertain any dry food no matter what quality it is! 

His issue is that he stinks, absolutely stinks to high heaven. His breath is the worst thing my nose has ever had the displeasure to come across and he can literally wake me from my sleep with his stench if he sneaks into the bedroom during the night. 

The vet advised us he does have a huge tartar build up, but it recently seems to have gotten better as I coax him into eating 3/4 dentastix a week but the smell will just not go away! 

So far I've tried breath sprays, Tropiclean Fresh Breath , mint flavoured dentastix but nothing seems to work for longer than 10 minutes. 

He also has a bad habit of licking his paws and the fur around his mouth so obviously those areas smell like a mixture of wet dog, and horrid breath! 

Does anyone have any suggestions? The vet did mention him having an operation to deep clean his teeth but at 8 years old is that something worth putting him through? (Anesthetic etc? )


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## Bobbie (May 3, 2008)

Maybe invest in some dried tripe sticks dogs love them and in time will help to get rid of the tartar.


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## PennyGSD (Apr 16, 2012)

I personally would get his teeth cleaned. 8's not that old, more middle-aged really.

And it might avoid him having to have an operation to remove rotten teeth when he is older and more vulnerable to the anaesthetic.

Not to mention the fact that you'll find it easier to love him if you fix this problem quickly 

Add in a raw bone for a chew a couple of times a week after that and you shouldn't have any more problems.


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## apricot (Sep 25, 2012)

Agree that he needs his teeth cleaned by the vet. He's not old but will probably have heart disease later, if not already, as most Cavaliers do.
My Cavaliers don't chew and have no interest in dog chews or bones. My 5 year old already has tartared teeth. I'll get them cleaned before he's 8 and stinking!


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## Lilylass (Sep 13, 2012)

Why did you change him from wet (if he'd always had it) to dry? 

Just wondering what the reasons were if he was fine on his old food

If his teeth are that bad then they need cleaned - he's hopefully got many years left yet and can't be left with teeth that are awful

They're probably causing discomfort too - which may be one of the reasons why he doesn't like the dry food


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## WeedySeaDragon (Oct 7, 2012)

Personally I'd probably go with getting his teeth cleaned now in the hope of avoiding extractions when he's older.

We weren't aware that our eldest had quite bad teeth until it was too late and at the age of about 11 (and with a fairly significant heart murmur) he had to have a GA and several extractions. He came through it fine but it wasn't a nice experience for him and I really wish we'd realised there was an issue soon enough to just get them cleaned instead.


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## Sled dog hotel (Aug 11, 2010)

ellenlouisepascoe said:


> Hello everyone!
> 
> Thought I would come her here a little bit of advise!
> 
> ...


Might be over growth of yeasts part of that can be due to diet.

There is a symptom check list further down and a lot of possible symptoms are similar.

http://www.tristateweimrescue.org/storage/Coconut Oil.pdf


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## rachuros (Jul 29, 2013)

The paw licking and bad breath can be a sign of a poor diet, so having a read of the wet food thread linked above is definitely worth it even if that is not the case here!

The "fresh breath" sprays etc often do very little, as they cover up the smell rather than treating the cause (think of it like covering yourself in perfume instead of having a bath... at the end of the day, the perfume wears off and you are back to being dirty )

I do concur that he probably needs his teeth cleaned by a vet, and maybe in the future invest in something like Plaque Off - miracle stuff!


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## Nicky10 (Jan 11, 2010)

Dentastix do nothing to help teeth I would ask the vet for a teeth cleaning if it's that bad. Licking their paws can be a sign of an allergy what are you feeding him?


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## babycham2002 (Oct 18, 2009)

I would definitely go for the full dental
Better to do it now, bad teeth and gums are linked to many further illnesses

I would put him on a quality wet food with just a little dry well mixed in.
With weekly teeth cleaning items like sea jerky from fish4dogs


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## ellenlouisepascoe (Jul 12, 2013)

He came to us eating pedigree senior loaf and we were quite keen to move him over onto dry food to help with the tartar build up on his teeth. 

We've tried putting a few different foods in front of him but he won't entertain them, but he will happily wolf down any human food dangled in front of his nose.

As I've always been a dry feeder I wasn't 100% sure what to go for in a wet food. He won't even eat wet food with mixer , he'll pick out little bits of the wet and leave the rest, and even if I picked the dry back out he would still refuse to eat it, he is extremely fussy won't eat from his bowl unless it's been washed either! 

Anyone have any suggestions for wet food? and any links where I can buy in bulk like 24 cans etc ( such as zooplus? )


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## Nicky10 (Jan 11, 2010)

Pedigree is pretty terrible food you did the right thing trying to switch him over. Sixstar's dry and wet food indexes are pretty good. If you really want him on dry food you might have to try some tough love, leave it down for 15 minutes and if he doesn't eat it take it back up again until his next meal time


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## Lilylass (Sep 13, 2012)

Tbh I'd leave him on wet until his teeth are done - they could be the reason he won't eat the dry if they're sore

The wet food index is great and, unlike dry foods, there are a lot of green rated foods & for a reasonable cost

Is try something like nature diet or wainwrights (if you have a [email protected] near) so you can check it'll be eaten before bulk buying


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## ellenlouisepascoe (Jul 12, 2013)

Thanks for the advise everyone! I thought 8 was old in Cavalier terms ( never owned a little dog before this is all a learning curve!) 

I'll definitely get him booked in about his teeth, I've never came across problems with teeth before as I've always been a dry feeder and our last lab even at 14 had sparkly white teeth! 

I am also going to try swap him over to Wainwrights Adult Chicken and Rice he does love cooked chicken so hopefully he'll take the bait and I can throw out the rest of the pedigree he came with. 

Anything hard takes him a long time to eat , we have dried strips of chicken breast and it takes him 20+ minutes to eat a small piece and he'll never accept hard dog treats , I even give him the softer puppy dentastix as if I give him an adult one he'll take a couple of days to deal with it.


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## Nicky10 (Jan 11, 2010)

The only concern I would have with putting a cavalier his age under anaesthetic would be if he has a heart murmer they're sadly very common in the breed. If the vet says its ok then it will be far better for him in the long run. I know when I had a sore tooth I didn't want to eat and certainly not anything hard so once his teeth are fixed try putting him onto dry again. 

Dry food doesn't clean teeth you could try raw meaty bones and once they're fixed brushing them a few times a week will really help.

Wainwrights isn't a bad food and a big improvement over pedigree.


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