While not all are simple to fix, after reading this you should have a good idea of what to do. I’ll rank them in rough order of frequency.

Before the list though, you need to do something unpleasant: make a close inspection of your dog’s body using both your eyes and nose. Pay particular attention to the crevices like armpits, groin, feet, ears, mouth and lips. We’ll use this information in a minute.

Skin Disease

The skin of dogs with chronic dermatitis almost always has a bad smell. You might describe it as ranging from an extreme ‘doggy’ smell to old socks. This is probably due to an overgrowth of secondary yeast and bacteria taking advantage of the skin’s weakness.

Affected skin often looks thickened or wrinkly, and may have a greasy or flaky surface. It can also become red or even black in colour.

Uncomplicated dermatitis on its own does not smell, and so an odour is a sign that the condition has progressed. The solution is never as simple as using antifungal or antibacterial shampoos. You will need to address the underlying skin problem, which you can read about here.

Ear Infections

Infections inside the ear canal are a specialised form of skin disease complicated by severe yeast or bacterial overgrowth. They nearly always smell strongly, and if you put your nose right up to the canal it there’s no mistaking the origin. Sometimes the infection is so deep that the ear canal looks normal on the outside.

Never, never just put cleaner into a smelly ear without your vet checking it first. As it’s probably infected by now, cleaning alone won’t work and it will sting harshly. Once you do this, your dog won’t trust you and treating the problem properly gets a lot harder.

Ear cleaners are great for prevention, but first read about the treatment of ear infections here.

Oral Disease

If you have identified the smell as coming from inside the mouth, there are still quite a few causes. The first is advanced periodontal disease, which is inflammation and infection of the junction between the teeth and gums. This is the most common cause of bad breath and tooth loss.

Once dental disease develops, you will need it treated under anaesthetic, but it can also be effectively prevented afterwards.

Any infection or ulceration in the mouth will also smell bad, so other causes I have seen include oral tumours, foreign material caught in the teeth or mouth ulcers from kidney disease. A smell from the mouth has never in my experience been caused by any area lower down like the stomach.

The smell from bad breath is often described as ‘fishy’ or ‘metallic’, leading to confusion with the next cause. The clue is to look at the location.

Anal Glands

Anal glands are special scent glands found just inside the anus. When a dog defaecates, they release an odour onto the poop which other dogs can detect. Anal glands malfunction when they release this scent at any other time.

The classic anal gland leakage situation is your dog sleeping on your lap and suddenly you smell a horrible rotten fishy odour. You might find a drop of brown fluid. Many of these anal glands are too full and not emptying by themselves.

If so, all you need to do is get your vet or groomer to express them every 3 months and the problem goes away. However others leak when they aren’t full, and these are much harder to fix. Some have infection inside, others just seem leaky. Read about their treatment here.

Skin Folds

Fold pyoderma is a localised infection in folded skin. It’s notorious in short-faced breeds like Bulldogs, but this is easy to see because the hair is short.

The more insidious form is found in dogs like Cocker spaniels and Golden retrievers. The lower lip often droops as they age and a fold forms which traps saliva in the hair. These can get very badly infected and smell like rotten meat.

The trick to finding them is to not just look inside the mouth, but also stretch out the skin on the upper and lower lips. Treatment involves antibiotic tablets or creams, then prevention with antibacterial wash and barrier ointments. Severe cases require a small facelift!

Flatulence

Passing smelly gas from the bowel is a common noxious odour, but at least no-one has trouble identifying it. The solution is almost always to find a food that agrees better with your dog’s digestion. Or put up with it, as the dog is usually untroubled!

Urinary Incontinence

Around 2.5-5% of dogs will develop urinary incontinence. In some females it can start very early, and may be more common after desexing. It is also common with urinary tract infections.

The stale ammonia smell is usually quite distinctive, but I see many dogs whose owners have got used to the scent until I point it out. These dogs can almost always be cured by either fixing an infection, removing a bladder stone or medications to prevent leakage.

Faecal Soiling

Having poop stuck in the hair might seem like an excessively obvious cause of bad smells. However, I see it regularly, especially with new owners of Poodles and Poodle crosses. The hair can quickly get thick and long around the anus to hide the buildup of soft faeces.

If this isn’t addressed urgently with a gentle bath and dry, you often end up at an overnight emergency vet. The faeces end up blocking the anus, and the resulting rash can be terrible.

Prevention is of course all about having a good relationship with a trusted dog groomer, and starting as early as possible. It’s also about avoiding soft faeces by the use of high quality diets.

Normal Doggy Smells

The last cause is the hardest and saddest. Never assume this is what is causing your dog’s bad smell unless you have consulted a vet first: it’s very rare.

Every now and again I see a dog owner who is disgusted by their dog’s terrible odour. Except that I can’t smell it at all, and neither can anyone else in the clinic.

These dogs smell normal. Nearly all of us with dogs have tuned out the natural odour of dogs and can no longer detect it. However, for an unlucky few it remains thick and intense.

I have no solutions for these people, as a bad smell can’t just be hidden under cologne or other scents. Putting a dog outside is definitely not the answer.

But let’s not be negative. Eight of the nine causes of bad smells on dogs are fixable, and the ninth isn’t a problem to the dog. Good luck working it out!

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.

New treatments have made the control of stomatitis within the reach of more cats, and we may be on the cusp of even greater things.

What Is Stomatitis?

Stomatitis, or more correctly gingivostomatitis, is inflammation of the mouth not directly associated with the teeth. The definition is important: many cats who are said to have stomatitis really have gingivitis and periodontitis. While still severe, these cats will respond to standard dental treatments and subsequent good oral hygiene.

Stomatitis on the other hand, is a poorly understood disease which likely represents malfunction of the immune system. It is said to affect anywhere between 0.7 and 12% of cats depending on how you define it.

The most common locations for stomatitis are at the back of the mouth at the opening to the throat (often called the fauces) and on the inside of the cheeks. Sometimes the tongue or oesophagus are also affected.

The Causes Of Stomatitis

Here is what we know about feline gingivostomatitis:

• Cats with stomatitis almost always also have regular tooth and gum disease, but not vice versa
• The risk of it developing goes up by 70% with each additional cat in the house (but removing them afterwards will not help)
• Affected cats are more likely to carry the calicivirus cat flu virus, and if they cure they will clear the virus
• The gums of affected cats contain more cytotoxic (killer) T cells than normal cats
• The risk increases with age

The best theory is that long-term immune stimulation in the mouth leads to the development of an abnormal, runaway immune response. This is certainly what I see: cats who develop stomatitis often have had more regular gum disease for years before it starts.

The Signs Of Stomatitis

Most of the signs of gingivostomatitis are due to severe pain. These include:

• Drooling, excess salivation and a dirty face
• Hissing or backing away during eating
• Extreme pain on opening the mouth
• Reluctance to eat hard food (though it is amazing how some cats will manage to keep eating)

Cats will also have a foul smell from the mouth, but this is true for all oral diseases. Diagnosis is usually straightforward but if the lesions are not symmetrical, a biopsy is a good idea to rule out cancers.

Treatment Of Stomatitis In Cats

Due to the slowly developing nature of the disease, most cats have tried some or all of the following by the time stomatitis develops:

• Regular dental cleaning
• Antibiotics
• Corticosteroids, especially prednisolone

These will all help to some extent, often quite well at the beginning but the effect reduces with time. Most cats end up needing a lot more treatment. The most important of these is pain control.

No matter what else we do, we need these cats to be comfortable, both for welfare reasons and so they look after themselves better. Drugs used are a combination of meloxicam, buprenorphine and gabapentin. In particular, buprenorphine (which is normally an injectable) works very well just by dripping it in the mouth.

However, even this is usually not enough.

Tooth Removal For Stomatitis

The best hope for a cat is that removal of their teeth will help. This is such a major hurdle to cat owners that I can spend six months trying to convince some to do it. But just look at these figures:

• 28.4% of cats are cured
• 39% are substantially improved
• 26.3% have minor improvement
• 6.3% do not respond at all

To the question of “how will they eat?” I answer that the pain is what is stopping them, not whether they have teeth or not. Commercial foods mean that cats don’t really need teeth anyway. All they need is to be happy.

Only the teeth at the back (premolars and molars) need removing in most cases. Leaving the canines and incisors means cats look and act much the same, and the procedure is shorter. However, at Walkerville we still often do only one side of the mouth at a time.

Close to 70% of cats who have their teeth removed will still need some form of medical treatment at least in the short term.

Newer Stomatitis Treatments

The real problem comes for the few cats who don’t respond to tooth extraction. If this happens to you, please don’t regret having the teeth removed; the next treatments are very unlikely to work on their own.

Cyclosporine is an immunosuppressant that helps in around a half of these cases, especially if blood levels are measured. Those that cure can usually be weaned off the drug, whereas others may need to stay on it for life. You can learn more about cyclosporine here.

Interferon Omega injections have a lower response rate (similar to prednisolone) but give a small chance of complete cure.

Mesenchymal Stem Cells given intravenously are the newest hope, and are showing good results in early trials. A seemingly effective product is close to release in the USA.

If no other treatments work, you should never feel guilty about choosing euthanasia. It’s a terrible choice, but also sometimes the only humane and kind thing for the worst of cases. But I hope I’ve helped you see that there’s a lot more than just cortisone and antibiotics, and a real chance of cure for many cats.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.

References

Jennings, M. W., Lewis, J. R., Soltero-Rivera, M. M., Brown, D. C., & Reiter, A. M. (2015). Effect of tooth extraction on stomatitis in cats: 95 cases (2000–2013). Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 246(6), 654-660

Lommer, M. J. (2013). Efficacy of cyclosporine for chronic, refractory stomatitis in cats: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded clinical study. Journal of veterinary dentistry, 30(1), 8-17

Sometimes when a tooth needs removal, there is plenty of time to explain why. However, most of the time, you get a hurried phone call while your dog or cat is asleep. There really is nothing you can do but trust your vet.

We’ll look at each of the reasons why a tooth might cause enough pain to require extraction.

Trauma

Tooth fracture is most commonly caused by chewing on hard objects such as antlers, fences, stones or even raw bones. While shallow fractures can be tolerated, those that involve the the tooth’s central pulp cavity require urgent care.

You can see a picture of an exposed pulp cavity at the start of our page on What to expect after tooth extraction. There’s also a discussion of costs of removal.

Such a tooth is destined to die, and then form a tooth root abscess. They can be below the eye like the one pictured here, or hidden in the jaw like the xray at the start (green arrows). These teeth always cause severe and ongoing pain, even if your dog appears normal.

General Rule: tooth fracture involving the pulp cavity requires immediate pain relief and either referral for root canal endodontics, or removal. Removal is a practical and low-cost option chosen by most owners..

Tooth Resorption

Tooth resorption is the most common cause of tooth loss in cats, but it’s increasingly being seen in dogs too. Despite being everywhere, we still know very little about why it happens. It occurs when the tooth is invaded by special bone-destroying cells called odontoclasts.

Resorption below the gumline is probably painless. However, when it spreads or starts higher up, it causes painful cavities called odontoclastic resorptive lesions. You can sometimes identify these by red areas where gum is growing into a hole on the tooth.

The xray at the start shows the appearance of Type 2 resorption (red arrow), as seen by a loss of both the internal structure of the root and the periodontal ligament (the dark line on the adjacent good roots indicated by the yellow arrow).

General Rule: part or all of a resorbed tooth must always be removed.

• Type 1 resorption requires complete removal of the tooth including its roots as they remain intact and will not resorb by themselves.
• Type 2 resorption only requires removal of the part above the gum line. Attempting to remove roots in such cases is extremely difficult, as well as unnecessary.

Mobility

Buildup of plaque on the teeth causes infection and damage to the periodontal ligament that holds the tooth in its socket. We call this process periodontal disease (PD).

As attachment is lost, the tooth becomes mobile, or even wobbly. Eventually it causes too much pain to be used.

General Guideline: a tooth should be removed when movement in any direction (other than axial) is greater than 0.5 mm.

Furcation Exposure

PD in multi-rooted teeth, which is most of them, will eventually expose the junction between the roots. We call this the furcation. Once it’s exposed, food and plaque accumulate underneath the tooth and cause painful infection.

General Guideline: a tooth should be removed when a probe can be passed in one side of the furcation and out the other. In other words, when there’s a hole under the tooth.

Gingival Pocketing

The loss of attachment caused by PD also causes pockets to form between tooth and gum (‘3’ on the diagram). Once the pocket gets deep enough, food and plaque accumulate and the pocket gets harder and harder to manage.

General Rule: pockets deeper than 6 mm in dogs, or 4 mm in cats require advanced care. Most teeth like this are removed, and that’s a valid approach given the poor outlook. The ideal is periodontal flap surgery, but this is rarely available outside specialists. A bare minimum is cleaning under anaesthetic at least every 6 months.

Management of the pockets is one of the most important parts of a routine scale and polish. I hope you can see that it’s completely impossible to do with anaesthetic-free dentistry.

There are only two other common situations where tooth removal is indicated. The first is in cats with severe gingivitis and stomatitis, where even healthy teeth are sometimes removed to reduce the disease burden. The second is preventative extraction of puppy teeth that haven’t fallen out by themselves. You’ll find a whole article about this (and pictures!) at the link.

In closing, I can promise you something with my whole heart: your vet would always rather a clean mouth than a dirty one, and a dental procedure without extractions. The advice I give you on cleaning teeth in dogs and ways to keep cats’ teeth clean is designed to prevent you ever being in this position.

The reality is though, that in a long life nearly all pets need at least one tooth taken out. I hope this helps you for when the time comes.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

However, there’s one very particular swelling that I haven’t talked about even though it’s important, common and easy to recognise.

It’s the tooth root abscess.

An abscess is a pocket of infection that forms a hot, firm swelling anywhere in the body. They’re well-known, for example, as lumps under the skin of cats after fighting. A tooth root abscess in dogs, however, usually has very specific signs:

• A soft swelling below the eye that comes up quickly
• Tenderness, pain and lethargy
• An infected wound below the eye (pictured below)

Click here for other causes of lumps and sores on the face.

Tooth root infections can occur with any teeth, but a lump or abscess seldom forms elsewhere. For example, the picture shows an infected root we found last week during a routine scale and polish. Infection, but no lump.

There’s no reason they can’t also occur in cats, but for unknown reasons, we rarely see them.

Causes Of A Dental Abscess

Tooth root abscesses mostly occur in one of two ways:

1. As an end result of years of progressive gum disease
2. When a tooth is fractured and the pulp cavity is exposed

The video shows what a tooth fracture looks like. It also shows how the abscess isn’t always easy to find. These teeth should either have root canal surgery or be removed, as this one was.

The dog in the pictures both at the start and here are good examples of an abscess caused by gum problems, or periodontal disease to call it by its correct name.

The first is an ex-breeding dog, and clearly never had a moment’s effort put into his oral hygiene. He’s been rescued now and will have dentistry just as soon as the infection is under control.

The second is a very old dog whose teeth just deteriorated with age. I told both owners that dentistry will not only cure their abscesses, but also make them feel the best they’ve been for a long time.

Preventing Tooth Loss

Teeth that get this bad can usually only be removed but it doesn’t have to be that way.

If you start a young dog with the effective ways to clean teeth, your old dog can still have a full healthy mouth. For example, the picture is from my 14-year-old and shows what a lifetime of raw bone feeding can look like.

But before doing any of these methods, consult your vet. Once teeth start going bad, most preventative options won’t work without dentistry first. Even worse, they’ll hurt.

Related: Causes Of Lumps In The Mouth | Reasons Why Dogs Teeth Need Removal

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.

The answer is a disease you won’t easily find if you look up the causes of bleeding gums in dogs. Even though what Barlie had could have killed her.

The Causes Of Bleeding Gums

There are five reasons you might see bleeding from the mouth and gums. I’ll run through the four simple ones and get to Barlie’s last.

Periodontal Disease

The correct name for gum disease and bad teeth is periodontal disease or periodontitis. It’s a destructive process that starts with plaque building up at the junction between tooth and gum.

Plaque is really just a biofilm containing bacteria so you can imagine how the immune system feels about that. The result is gingivitis, which causes the gums to bleed easily, especially when probed or brushed. Without treatment, attachment loss and pocketing lead to tooth loss.

Periodontal disease is easy to identify by the red gums, the smell and the brown buildup of mineralised plaque called tartar on the teeth. However, that’s not Barlie’s problem. Just look how clean her teeth are from chewing bones!

Teething

A cute and totally normal reason for bleeding in the mouth or gums is teething. Loss of the baby or milk teeth occurs gradually between 3 and 6 months of age, like this:

1. Incisor (front) teeth: 3 to 4 months
2. Canine teeth: 3 ½ to 5 months
3. Premolar teeth: 4 to 5 months
4. Molar teeth: 5 to 6 months

The pictured deciduous canine tooth crown was found by a puppy owner after she saw drops of blood. The missing root is totally normal: it’s been destroyed by the advancing adult canine. In a few days a new tooth will emerge from the hole.

Tumours & Growths

Abnormal tissue tends to be easily damaged, not only because it sticks out but also because it’s often quite fragile. It also heals slowly. Therefore, any investigation of unexplained bleeding from the mouth should also include a thorough search for a mass.

The picture shows a small benign growth called an epulis that got knocked and started bleeding. You can read a lot more about mouth lumps in dogs here.

Foreign Bodies

Anything that gets caught in the mouth (especially between the teeth) can cause bleeding. Usually it’s a small piece of bone, but I’ve also seen pieces of plastic or aluminium from chewing up containers.

It’s no big deal. We can sometimes fish them out awake, but most of the time a quick anaesthetic is on the cards.

And now to the tiger hiding in the tall grass…

Platelet Deficiency (Thrombocytopenia) In Dogs

The most common bleeding disorder in dogs after rodenticide poisoning is a low platelet count. However, whereas bleeding from rat bait is usually internal and hard to spot, bleeding from low platelets has a characteristic pattern.

Signs Of A Low Platelet Count

A dog with insufficient platelets will have one or all of the following:

• Bruises on the skin and gums
• Swellings caused by blood under the skin
• Bleeding from the nose or any other orifices
• Blood in the stool
• Pale gums, lethargy and fast breathing from blood loss

The blood loss is key. This was the cause of Barlie’s bleeding, and she was in great danger. Yet within a few days of treatment, she already looked like a survivor.

So if your dog has bleeding in the mouth or gums, consider all the options, and consult your vet. There’s only one reason here why your dog doesn’t need to go. There’s another that needs you to go straight away.

Now Read: The Causes & Treatment Of Thrombocytopenia

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.

For each, there’s a suggestion of the best treatment.

Do Cats Get Colds?

One cause you won’t find here is the common cold.  Despite what you hear, cats just don’t get them.

Symptoms like sneezing, congestion, watery eyes or a runny nose are instead likely to be caused by one of the other problems on this list.

Causes Of Sneezing In Cats

Although there are many causes of sneezing in cats, the first is the only one that’s normal.

Nasal Irritants

When something irritates the nasal lining, it triggers a sneeze. The aim is to expel material from inside the nose.

Examples of irritants are:

• Dust
• Smoke
• Perfumes & sprays
• Cleaning fluids

You’ll often see this type of sneezing after kitty just had to explore behind the shelves in the shed. Any discharge should be clear and bilateral.

Allergies

While allergy is a common cause of hair loss in cats, it’s a rare cause of sneezing or a runny nose. When it does happen, it’s usually at the minor end of the spectrum.

Again, the discharge is clear and bilateral. I have found cyproheptadine (an antihistamine) to work best for these cats. However, most cats suspected of having allergic rhinitis actually have the next problem…

Viral Rhinitis

The most common cause of sneezing in cats is viral infection. In up to 90% of cases, this is caused by either of the two cat flu viruses.

Cat flu usually starts as a severe and acute upper respiratory infection in a kitten that you can read about here. However, most sneezing cats are carriers of a milder virus (read more at the link). In these cats, signs might include:

• Clear nasal discharge
• Conjunctivitis
• Sneezing

Treatment is usually supportive plus antibiotics as needed to prevent secondary infections. However, signs in most cases will stay mild if cats are well looked after.

Bacterial Infection

Some cats infected with cat flu develop a post-viral condition called the snuffles or chronic snuffles. This is a lifelong condition believed to be caused by permanent damage to the structures in the nose and possibly altered immune function.

Affected cats have a thick, persistent nasal discharge and will sneeze yellow mucus frequently around the house. They can also have a hacking cough from the post nasal drip and get quite unwell at times. Treatment is mainly a combination of intermittent courses of antibiotics and steamy rooms or nebulisation to loosen the discharge.

Chlamydia psittaci is a separate bacterial infection that looks like a mild case of cat flu, with persistent sneezing and watery eyes. One common feature is the conjunctival swelling pictured but many kittens just show watery eyes and a runny nose.

Chlamydia is often seen in cats from shelters, and requires a long course of antibiotics to eliminate. It has no relation to human chlamydia.

Grass Seeds

Although better known in dogs, cats will also occasionally sniff up a grass seed in the garden. Signs are of distress and a sudden burst of violent sneezing. Grass seeds can’t go out backwards and need to be removed by your vet.

More commonly, a cat eating grass will vomit a blade into the nasal passages. It then lies through the nose from front to back, sometimes triggering both sneezing and coughing. Grass also rarely comes out by itself but is easily removed or flushed out under anaesthetic.

Bad Teeth

When the front teeth in the mouth get bad, the infection can push through the thin bone separating them from the nose. We call this an oronasal fistula.

Oronasal fistulas are a lot more common than realised because the tooth can look fine until it’s probed. This is just one of the reasons why anaesthetic free dentistry is only a cosmetic procedure.

If there’s any discharge, it’s yellow and unilateral.

Fungal Infections

Thankfully, fungal infections are rare, because they’re nasty and difficult to treat. Like tumours, they progress slowly and can cause facial deformities. The classic infection of cats is caused by Cryptococcus neoformans.

Symptoms include long-term sneezing and even neurological signs. Once diagnosed via a smear as pictured, treatment with antifungals is slow but usually successful.

Nasal Tumours

Everyone’s fear is that the sneezing and nasal discharge are caused by a tumour. That fear is well-founded, as most nasal masses are malignant. Thankfully, tumours in the nose are one of the least likely reasons for sneezing.

The most common nasal cancer in cats is lymphoma, accounting for around 70% of cases. The discharge will usually be unilateral and blood-tinged. Treatment with fractionated radiation can extend survival times in most cases.

Nasal Polyps

I’ll finish with a rare cause that’s almost unique to cats. Fleshy inflammatory growths can form in the nose, sinuses or middle ear and cause persistent sneezing. Polyps are most commonly seen in young cats.

Like tumours, they require examination under anaesthetic or CT scans to diagnose. The cause is unknown, but suspected to be related to ongoing middle ear or upper respiratory inflammation or infection.

The only treatment is removal.

Related: diagnostic tests for nasal diseases are described at our page on the causes of blood from the nose.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.

Sneezing during play isn’t well understood, but it’s clearly one of the least serious causes of sneezing in dogs.

I’ll take you through the other common reasons, from minor to major. As nearly every one is associated with a runny nose, I’ll also describe the nasal discharge that goes with it.

By the time you make it to the end, you’ll be an expert!

Do Dogs Get Colds?

One cause you won’t find here is the common cold.  Despite what you hear, dogs just don’t get them.

Symptoms like sneezing, congestion, watery eyes or a runny nose are instead likely to be caused by one of the other problems on this list. You can find the causes of coughing in dogs on this page.

Causes Of Sneezing In Dogs

Dog sneezing looks just like human sneezing. The only thing you might confuse with it is reverse sneezing. This is the inward sucking of air accompanied by an alarming grunting noise. Reverse sneezing has different causes and treatment.

So before we start, if this could be your dog, you’ll find some videos at the link. Now to those causes…

Nasal Irritants

The number one cause of sneezing is the only normal one, and the reason why it exists in the first place. When something irritates the nasal lining, it triggers a sneeze. The aim is to expel material from inside the nose.

Examples of irritants are:

• Dust
• Smoke
• Perfumes & sprays
• Cleaning fluids

You’ll often notice your dog sneezing after an injection at the vet. In this case, the cause is the alcohol swab and their sensitive nose.

Any discharge should be clear and bilateral.

Short Noses

You’ll often get a face full of nasal spray when you say hi to breeds like Boxers, French Bulldogs or Pugs. Many short-faced breeds sneeze frequently without it being very important. It’s rarely a concern as long as you don’t hear breathing noises and the discharge is clear.

Those who snuffle or grunt with each breath may benefit from corrective surgery to open the airways. In the case of sneezing, that would be surgery for stenotic nares.

Allergies

While allergy is a common cause of itchy skin, it’s a rare cause of sneezing or a runny nose. When it does happen, it’s usually at the minor end of the spectrum.

Again, the discharge is clear and bilateral. However, most dogs suspected of having allergic rhinitis actually have the next problem…

Kennel Cough

Kennel cough doesn’t always look like a classic harsh barking cough. Sometimes, especially in puppies and vaccinated dogs, it can just produce sneezing. There’s usually also a bilateral nasal discharge that goes from clear to yellow.

Symptoms just about always improve with treatment. You can read how dogs catch kennel cough here but it’s basically anywhere dogs get together.

Grass Seeds & Foreign Bodies

A dog who sniffs up a grass seed will suddenly start violently sneezing and sometimes even pawing at their nose. One distinctive feature is that the sneezing can be so hard that the nose hits the ground.

The discharge is unilateral, quickly becoming yellow or blood-tinged. Grass seeds can’t go out backwards and need to be removed by your vet. Sneezing tends to reduce with time if the seed isn’t removed.

An easy trap to fall into is thinking it’s fixed when it’s really just the dog getting used to it.

Other foreign bodies only occasionally get up dogs’ noses. I have seen one unlucky dog who had vomited or coughed a dog biscuit into his nasal passages. I also suspect that just like in cats, occasionally nasal disease from another cause can cause dead nasal turbinate bone to act as a foreign body.

Bad Teeth

When the front teeth in the mouth get bad, the infection can push through the thin bone separating them from the nose. We call this an oronasal fistula.

Oronasal fistulas are a lot more common than realised because the tooth can look fine until it’s probed. This is just one of the reasons why anaesthetic free dentistry is only a cosmetic procedure.

If there’s any discharge, it’s yellow and unilateral.

Idiopathic Lymphoplasmacytic Rhinitis

Idiopathic rhinitis is possibly the most frustrating condition on this list. It won’t kill anyone, but it’s very annoying, and like the name suggests, poorly understood. Another name for it is chronic hyperplastic rhinitis.

Affected dogs produce a thick, yellow, ropey bilateral discharge that gets sneezed on walls and furniture. There’s also a lot of snorting and snuffling and sometimes even a vomit afterwards. Diagnosis (found in the link at the end) is made by ruling out other conditions.

The best we can do is to keep these dogs on continuous medication. Options include antibiotics, anti-inflammatories or prednisolone based on the response. Recently suspicion of a link with gastrointestinal disease has led to antacids or special diets being trialled as well. It would be nice to know more.

Fungal Infections

Thankfully, fungal infections are rare, because they’re nasty and difficult to treat. Like tumours, they progress slowly and can cause facial deformities.

Symptoms include long-term sneezing with a yellow discharge that may contain blood.

Nasal Tumours

Everyone’s fear is that the sneezing and nasal discharge are caused by a tumour. That fear is well-founded, as around 80% of nasal masses are malignant.

Thankfully, tumours in the nose are one of the least likely reasons for sneezing. When they do occur, the discharge will usually be unilateral and blood-tinged.

Rare Causes

To finish this excessively long list, I’ll throw in some rare causes of sneezing you’re never likely to see.

• There is a nasal mite of dogs found in many parts of the world, including NSW and Qld in Australia. I would not be surprised if the isoxazoline tick preventatives mentioned here would treat this.
• Distemper virus used to be a cause of severe, thick nasal discharge but vaccination has made it almost unseen in developed countries.
• Herpes virus can cause sneezing and nasal discharge in puppy litters.

So at this point you must be thinking it’s all hopeless. Thankfully that’s not true. Most of the causes of sneezing are the better ones, and most improve with treatment.

I’ll finish with two top tips your vet will thank you for doing before you come:

1. Touch a white tissue to the nose. This should tell you if a discharge is coming from one or both nostrils and its colour.
2. Hold a cold mirror up to the nose and look at the condensation pattern. This will tell you if one or both nostrils are blocked.

Related: Causes Of Bleeding From The Nose In Dogs (includes a list of the tests your vet might recommend for nasal disease)

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.

When A Dog Has A Mouth Lump

1. Oral masses have a high probability of being serious
2. The sooner they are biopsied, the better the chances
3. But don’t panic: many still turn out to be benign

Now dive deeper…

If you bring your dog to the vet for a lump in the mouth. you might get a surprise. Your vet’s relaxed, ‘let’s keep this under observation’ attitude is likely to change.

We’ve all seen too many dogs die of oral cancer. So although it might be benign, take your vet’s advice if they ask you to act quickly. Mouth lumps can be very, very nasty.

The Common Oral Lumps

Good news first. The most common mass is the least harmful.

Epulis

Epulis (pronounced eh-pooliss) is the most common lump in the mouth of dogs. It’s a benign overgrowth of the gums, not involving the bone. It usually looks just like the pictures above or below.

We see epulides a lot in older dogs, especially with bad periodontal disease. And Boxers. Have a look in any older Boxer’s mouth and you should see plenty.

An epulis can still be harmful though:

• It can cover the tooth and trap food, causing tooth loss
• It can get big enough to interfere with chewing
• It can be something nasty that gets called an epulis by mistake

The dog pictured above is a good example. Ted is young, has excellent dental care (raw bones!) and isn’t a typical breed. Therefore, I biopsied this mass for analysis and it turned out it wasn’t an epulis at all! See what it really was later.

Papilloma or Wart

Young dogs that socialise a lot often pick up papillomavirus and end up with warts on the head and in the mouth. Here’s a good example. The clue should be finding others elsewhere and the history. In this case, it was solitary so I biopsied it to be sure.

The one below has a more classic appearance.

The Nastier Oral Masses

Next most likely are the ones we fear. These are especially common in older dogs. Early on they can just look like the picture at the start. However, they invade bone quickly.

Below are the results of attempting to surgically remove these lumps. As you can see, getting an accurate identification is the key to knowing what to do. Melanoma and osteosarcoma are usually not curable. Ameloblastoma, which often looks the same, has an excellent outlook. That’s why we will start with a biopsy, where we send a small piece away for analysis.

* also called an ameloblastic fibro-odontoma or acanthomatous epulis

Ted’s tumour, by the way, was an ameloblastoma. It has an excellent prognosis but needs extra surgery to remove it completely. The speed with which his owners got him checked means that it shouldn’t be too disfiguring.

There are many other, rarer tumours of the mouth of dogs, too numerous to mention. However, I’ve included all the examples seen over a 25 year career.

Pictured is also the incisive papilla found on a dog’s hard palate just behind the upper incisors- this is normal.

Surgery For Oral Tumours

If the prognosis is good enough, we will recommend you to see a specialist surgeon. Removal usually also involves some of the jaw, but you’d be surprised how well they do afterwards.

There is no doubt that the chances of survival for any of these tumours will go up the earlier they are treated.

So if you see a lump, should you be like Ted’s owner? He could have ended up with a result that says there’s nothing to worry about. That might seem like a waste of money.

It wasn’t. Early intervention has made his lump curable. If we’d waited, that could have no longer been true.

You might also like: Common Skin Lumps Of Dogs

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.

Causes Of Lip & Mouth Sores

In order of frequency, oral lesions of cats are most often caused by:

• Eosinophilic granuloma complex
• Viral infection
• Renal failure
• Gingivitis & stomatitis
• Squamous cell carcinoma
• Chemical or physical injury
• Herpesvirus

Now let’s look at each of these in detail.

Eosinophilic Granuloma Complex

EGC is the name for a variety of diseases all caused by an accumulation of a particular white blood cell called eosinophil (“Ee-Oh-Sin-Oh-Fil”). These are the cells normally associated with allergies and parasites, but in EGC they cause ulcers, erosions, swellings or plaques of the skin and mouth.

The picture at the start shows a typical lip margin ulcer caused by EGC. If this early lesion is untreated it will spread to both sides and cause permanent erosion of the lips. I’ve deliberately chosen a mild case so you can identify it in time.

The picture here is another version of EGC where the chin of a cat gets puffy and swollen. If you look closely you can see the swollen area of gum has a yellowish tinge from the eosinophils.

Treatment with corticosteroids is usually simple, cheap and effective. There’s a link in some cats with flea bite so you should also add a good cat flea preventative whether you’ve seen fleas or not.

If there isn’t a quick response, I always double check the diagnosis with a biopsy or blood test to rule out the other conditions below.

Viral Infection

Both cat flu viruses commonly cause tongue ulcers especially in kittens. Sometimes they also cause gum ulcers, and are even linked with stomatitis (see later). Nasty!

You can read all about cat flu here.

Renal Failure

These odd white ulcers on the gums are associated with the uraemic syndrome of advanced kidney disease. Look closely and you’ll see another ulcer on the edge of the tongue. These have occurred due to high blood levels of toxins that are normally excreted by the kidneys.

Sadly, uraemia is a late and very bad sign usually associated with a poor response to treatment. Where possible, making a diagnosis earlier using routine wellness testing gives much better outcomes.

Gingivitis & Stomatitis

Without good dental care, all cats eventually develop gingivitis. However, in some unlucky ones, mouth inflammation and infection appears more rapidly. Causes include viral infections such as cat flu and FIV, genetic faults, and poor early nutrition.

Gingivitis in affected cats often progresses to stomatitis, as the inflammation and ulceration spreads away from the tooth-gum margin. These cats may continue to eat, but are usually in severe pain. Signs of gingivitis-stomatitis include bad breath, reluctance to eat hard food, drooling, and pain on opening the mouth.

If you get to look inside, you’ll see a horror show of bleeding and ulcerated gums. While they improve with good dental hygiene, severe cases of stomatitis respond best to complete tooth removal. It’s a radical step but it’s all-too-often necessary to treat the ongoing pain.

Read much more about the latest treatments for gingivostomatitis here.

Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Although cancers are thankfully less common, they have a bad habit of masquerading as other conditions. This is especially true for squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), which can look either like a lump or like a slowly spreading ulcer or sore.

SCC is well known for affecting the noses and ears of cats that sunbathe. However, it can also be found inside the mouth, sometimes hidden by dental disease. This is why a biopsy is necessary whenever a supposedly simple condition doesn’t respond like it should.

Early diagnosis can lead to curative surgery, as well as a lot less unnecessary treatment.

Chemical or Physical Injury

Animals that groom are uniquely sensitive to their environment. When a cat gets toxic chemicals on the coat or feet, their first response is to lick them off. The most severe cases of oral ulceration I have seen have been a result of exposure to household cleaning fluids.

To prevent this, never allow cats near areas being bleached or disinfected, and remove any chemical exposure straight away using dilute dishwashing liquid.

Physical injury, such as foreign material becoming lodged in the mouth, is rare enough that I can’t recall a case. However, I’m sure there are some cats who’ll give anything a red hot go, so it’s always worth getting your vet to take a close look.

Herpesvirus

Lastly, I’m indebted to the comment below for the reminder about herpesvirus ulcerative dermatitis. It’s usually more severe and widespread (read one case here), but it can just affect the lip margins like described below.

In conclusion, if your cat has a mouth or lip sore, it’s probably one of the causes above. However, as much as I’ve tried to explain them, their appearances overlap too much to ever replace the opinion of an experienced vet. And with a diagnosis there’s a lot that can be done to help.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.

Note: Thanks for all the comments. These are now closed but you should find all the common questions answered if you scroll through them!

“No. I brush his teeth every day.” 

I’m always caught by surprise but I shouldn’t be; more and more dog owners are doing it these days. People are now prepared to follow tooth brushing advice without even a hint of astonishment or laughter.

My Problems With Tooth Brushing

If tooth brushing is effective, why have I been so negative about it?

• I think about my busy home life and assume other people are just as short of time
• I know how difficult tooth brushing can be for dogs and owners
• I regularly see bad teeth despite regular tooth brushing
• I’m aware of research showing that less than 50% of even the most dedicated owners will do it

Fundamentally, I worry that by advising owners to perform a difficult task I’m just setting them up for failure. Especially when there are easier ways to keep dogs teeth clean. However, by avoiding tooth brushing I’m not offering the best solution for some dogs. It’s time I stop being so negative.

Can You Brush Cats’ Teeth?

Cats are another story. We value cats for their independence but when it comes to tooth brushing, that independence comes with teeth, claws and a lot of wriggle. I have seen plenty of people try, and even be successful for a while, but I have never seen sustained success in cats.  It also helps that feline dental diets are a lot more effective than their canine equivalents.

So should you brush your dog’s teeth? There’s no ‘should’: it’s only one option along with raw bone feeding, dental chews and ultrasonic cleaning. Tooth brushing is also great to use along with dental chews for the parts of the teeth that the chews don’t clean.

How Long Does It Take?

Once your dog is accustomed to brushing (and doesn’t run away), it should take no longer than two minutes to brush their teeth. You only need to dwell on the outer tooth surface for a few seconds each.

How To Brush Dogs’ Teeth

It’s not rocket science.

Get a vet check first

The biggest reason most tooth brushing doesn’t work is that owners are trying to brush the unbrushable. Once dental disease is visible it’s usually too late, and will actually hurt. Most of the time we need to start by cleaning up the mouth under anaesthetic first.

Develop a routine

It’s perfectly OK to brush your dog’s teeth before a meal or a treat! The main goal is to remove the accumulated plaque from the previous 24 hours before it turns into tartar. Dogs generally don’t get food caught in their teeth unless they have a lot of gum recession.

Take it slowly

It’s a rare dog that will tolerate going straight from nothing to daily brushing. Build up your dog’s acceptance over weeks of slow, steady reward-based training.

Start young

Teaching to accept any meddling works best with puppies. However, don’t take this to mean your adult dog can’t learn as well. Just be patient, though you may have to accept that brushing isn’t for every dog.

Use the right gear

Dog owners find it hilarious that we have chicken and beef flavoured toothpastes but dogs don’t. Although I see the occasional dog that likes it, human toothpaste is unpleasant to most dogs.

As for brushes, I have yet to see a finger toothbrush that is good enough. You need soft bristles much like on a child’s brush, though we recommend and sell these inexpensive, nicely shaped pet brushes. Their other benefit is an offset handle so you don’t keep bopping poor Fido’s nose.

Get right to the back

Another common mistake is to not clean far enough back. Have a look at the video and you’ll see that in order to brush the molars your brush will have to go out of sight.

Only do the outside

Don’t worry about the video showing the inner surfaces; that’s for us to do. The tongue-side of dogs teeth doesn’t deteriorate as fast and is best left alone. Dogs really don’t like this area brushed.

Check your results

Any vet at a regular checkup can tell you how much success you’re having. They can also check the areas you can’t brush or even see. This is important: once gum recession starts, it’s very hard to stop.

How Often To Brush Dogs’ Teeth

The evidence shows that best results are achieved with brushing every one to two days. Here’s why I would do it every day:

• Dogs are happiest with predictable routines
• Owners will remember a daily event more easily
• If you miss one, it’s still OK

Once you go beyond two days, removable soft plaque mineralises into hard tartar. It’s extremely difficult to successfully remove this by brushing. That’s the brown stuff I’ve circled.

Finally, I’m grateful for a recent vet interview that made me rethink my prejudice against tooth brushing. In the same interview was another interesting fact. This vet sees at least one dog per week with tooth breakage or pieces stuck in teeth from bone feeding.

Our experiences tell a different story. We have always encouraged an approach to dental care that includes raw bones and we don’t see anything like this number of problems. Is it possible that by engaging with and informing people about bone feeding we are reducing the risk? I certainly hope so.

Further Reading

Harvey, C., Serfilippi, L., & Barnvos, D. (2015). Effect of frequency of brushing teeth on plaque and calculus accumulation, and gingivitis in dogs. Journal of Veterinary Dentistry, 32(1), 16-21.

Roudebush, P., Logan, E., & Hale, F. A. (2005). Evidence-based veterinary dentistry: a systematic review of homecare for prevention of periodontal disease in dogs and cats. Journal of Veterinary Dentistry, 22(1), 6-15.

Have something to add? Comments (if open) will appear within 24 hours.
By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here.