Dogbreath; suggestions before we are all asphyxiated!

[boris18]

I have a beloved 9 year old Bedlington terrier who is perfect in every way (well almost) apart from his terrible breath.

His diet is half and half raw chicken and dry food (James Wellbeloved).
He has had a dental check and scale and polish from the vet.
He has been tried on t/d Hills prescription biscuits; made no difference (but drained my bank balance) and he won't eat them now anyway.

I have tried to get him to accept a variety of different toothbrushes/toothpastes but he has never let me clean his teeth (he is groomed regularly and although he doesn't like it he behaves well.

Does anyone have any suggestions? It is now so bad that when he is in the car we have to open all the windows.

I should say that his general health is very good and although this is a longstanding problem it is getting worse.

Thanks in advance

Please? Any suggestions anyone?

I take it you've tried dental sticks?

I've tried a variety of denial chews none of which seem to make much of a difference. He has a rawhide chew most days. I posted in quite a light hearted way but it is actually becoming a real problem particularly in the car as my family are staring to object to taking him with us. Makes me feel awful!

Thanks for your reply

Have you tried just giving biscuits and cutting out the raw meat? Raw meat seems to make our dog's breath stink so he now only has purina biscuits, a pedigree chum dentastick a day and markies and has completely inoffensive breath (we've tried other dental sticks but they don't seem to have the same effect). Also, could your dog be eating something to make his breath so bad? We used to have a golden retriever who ate fox poo (I know - wtf?!) whenever she could and it would make her breath foul (unsurprisingly...)

Those are interesting ideas thankyou. I will try Purina biscuits for a bit and if that doesn't have any effect I'll cut out the chicken wngs.
He has occasionally eaten fox poo but only v rarely. He did once steal a lump of poo before I had cleaned out the cat litter tray; I found him sneaking out with a "cigar" looking like a woolly Winston Churchill.......

Have you tried charcoal biscuits? We found they help a bit with our elderly stinky dog (have been good for his, er, flatulence issues too ).

We also feed dry food only, and a dentastick once a day.

No, is there any particular brand you would recommend?

We use these ones, haven't tried any other brands though so I can't say how they compare...

My Bedlington is nine and fed on Milburns and a small topping:Forthglade, Nature's Diet, or homemade (the chicken off a carcase after I have made stock or remains of a roast plus oats, bulgar wheat etc.; it's rabbit and oats at the moment). With trays I divide a pack into about 9 or put a dessert spoonful of homemade onto a baking sheet and freeze. He shares a scrambled egg once a week. This seems to have sorted his runny tummy, although I think he has a fast metabolism.
He does not have stinky breath nor does he fart. He loves biscuits, especially charcoal, in fact I was once asked if his name was 'Biscuits' after enticing him to come back by offering biscuits. I buy a big bag of small charcoal ones from market, or carve up bonios. I think Pets at Home do a charcoal biscuit.
I don't feed raw as the Bedlington/whippet cross can't process bones and she is a thief. There are peppermint flavoured biscuits and dentasticks but they could be rejected. There is a de-plaque liquid you can put in the drinking water, can't remember the name.
Hope this helps.

Thank you all for your replies. I will try some of the suggestions and report back!

What did the vet say ? Different pet, but my cat had terrible breath & I'm ashamed to say that when she went in to have them cleaned the vet rang me & told me off, stating one of the worst mouths he'd ever seen.

Most of her teeth came out, apart from the front 4. I had tried all the usual tricks. Of course only a few teeth meant no bad breath for her & she was eating her dry biscuits the next day (thank goodness).

Aren't raw carrots supposed to be good ?

The vet didn't suggest anything beyond the prescription biscuits and the scale and polish which didn't make that much difference.He hasn't really got any decay and cleaning off the plaque didn't help much.

I did give hi a raw carrot; he took it, dropped it on the floor then looked at me as if to say wtf!

Thanks to everyone who posted. I've made a plan of action based on the suggestions and hopefully will have some success.

are bedlingtons clipped round the muzzle? clip closer? wash round the mouth more often?

chew toys help, though scaling teeth helps if they don't chew much...