Golden Retriever/excess slobber/death breath

[LizzieCollie]

Hello everyone, I havent posted here in a long time!

Life has been so busy, moving into a new house, taking care of my toddler (hes turning 2 tomorrow!), a new pregnancy (were havng twin boys!) and taking care of the trail of animals that seem to make their way into our home.

Originally we had our Collie puppy and an adult female Golden Retriever. Our Collie puppy is now a 14 month old adolescent, our Golden a mature 3 1/2.

Just last week we had been receiving visit from a large male Golden. We found his owner and turns out the guy had turned the dog loose because he no longer wanted to take care of him. So we ended up with out 3rd dog.

He is absolutely gorgeous, very big, fit and sweet.

The only thing is, he has an excessive drooling problem. He constantly has this disgusting long drool coming from the sides of his mouth, usually a brownish color. You have to keep an eye on him at all times because if he decides to give his head a shake the drool is absolutely everywhere.

Also, his breath smells horridly bad. He can be out in the yard, and if he starts to pant you can smell his breath from all the way on the porch.

His teeth look amazingly good for his age (hes about 5) and his gums are nice and pink. Since his mouth looks so good I figured it could be a problem with his diet? His former owner fed him the family's left overs, no dog food or fresh food whatsoever.

Since hes been at home weve been feeding him Kirklands, sometimes mixed with cooked meat and/or rice, and his breath has improved slughtly.

Is this something that could be improved with a continued good diet, or could we be dealing with a mouth infection? What could be causing such horrible slobbering?

[Dax]

Could be a stomach or internal problem. You could try adding some chopped up parsley (about a tablespoon) to his diet.

I would also have a fecal test done looking for parasites.

[Bclover92]

Yeah i agree with dax... a continue in his diet should continue to help too.

[fairlight]

Dax does it again...meaning I agree with her. Does the go come in your house at all? If so, does he have gas and it smells? That too can be from poor diet. Whether you see tarttar or not it also sounds like he needs a good teeth cleaning. I don't know if you have a vet, but if so, I would ask him/her. Welcome to the world of the big DROOL!!! We have a hand towel in EVERY room of our house. In the living room there is at least two on had at one time. Ehhh you get used to it wiping all those slingers....ya gotta love the big dogs!

[golden&hovawart]

His diet might have been very bad until you got him and can take up to a month to see any improvement.Have you checked his mouth/teeth?.He could have a problem with them which makes him salivate too much.thanks for rescuing him!.

[mara]

Thanks so much for looking after this boy!!
I agree with the bad diet and also might get his throat looked at to make sure there's no sores. The brown saliva to me indicates a possible infection process.
The other thing that comes to mind is gastric reflux.....that often has a bit of blood in it and that would cause the brown colouring. Reflux can also cause excessive salivating. ( like when you feel really nauseated )Blood brought up from the stomach has a horrible odor.
Hopefully with a proper diet he will do really well.
Just a couple thoughts!!

[Moostang]

I wonder if there could be a foxtail somewhere in his mouth/throat.

[mara]

Originally Posted by Moostang

I wonder if there could be a foxtail somewhere in his mouth/throat.

That's a great thought....my Boxer had a foxtail up her nose once...caused a whole lot of problems until we finally figured out was the problem was.

[Bellabianca]

We've never had a golden that slobbered. I would look into the stomach/parasite issue. Also the foxtails. Or, maybe a salivary gland infection?

[LizzieCollie]

Update:

I believe part of the problem may have been stress from moving into a new home. Hes been with us maybe 2 weeks (im bad with time) and weve noticed he is no longer drooling as much, his saliva is actually better colored.

His breath is stil a bit stinky but hes not drooling as much. When he shakes his head there is still a very wet sound, and I always expect for drool to come shooting out of his mouth

When he came home the poor guy had such a troubled look on his face, now i can honestly say his eyes look brighter and he looks happier