Cats are very clean. They hunt from ambush, hardly sweat, and lick themselves thoroughly so that the prey does not sense their presence. Healthy animals do not smell, and if an unpleasant odor appears from a cat, you need to check whether it is healthy and whether you are caring for it correctly. Regularly change the litter in the cat's litter box, rinse the cat's bowl after each feeding, and wash it with baking soda every 2-3 days.
To understand why your cat smells bad, identify the source of the unpleasant odor:
- mouth;
- leather and wool;
- ears.
Why does my cat's breath smell like rotten meat?
I would like to immediately reassure cat owners who are concerned about the bad breath of their cat, your cat is absolutely healthy. And the unpleasant smell is due to the fact that the diet of the cat breed is almost 100% meat and fish products. Yes, it is rare to meet a vegetarian cat. If there are any, it is either because the owners are poor or because the cat is homeless and did not find any other food in the trash cans.
Why does my cat's breath smell like rotten meat? Meat and fish, entering the cat’s stomach, are digested by gastric juices, but this process is long and the smell of hydrogen sulfide, or rotten eggs, appears due to the breakdown of protein products. Should I worry about this if the cat is healthy and leads a normal life?
Signs of a healthy cat may include the following:
- The cat willingly eats regular food.
- The cat's fur is shiny and soft to the touch.
- He plays and readily responds to affection.
- The cat sleeps no more than usual.
All these signs do not apply to cats during the period of sexual heat. When a cat wants a cat or a cat wants a cat, you can forget about the adequacy of pets. If such a cat has the opportunity to go outside, then you can hardly wait for him to come home in the next three days. On active days, cats do not care about such little things as an empty and hungry stomach and matted, dirty fur.
If your cat is healthy, has a shiny coat, and eats willingly, bad cat breath can be considered normal.
Small infant kittens do not have bad breath. This is facilitated by feeding on milk from the mother cat.
Kittens smell better than adult cats
Ear diseases
An unpleasant odor from a cat appears due to ear diseases: inflammatory processes, otitis media, ear mites. Earwax accumulates in the ears, redness and irritation appear, and fluid may accumulate in the ears. The animal often scratches its ears and is worried. Check your ears regularly and clean them with an ear stick dipped in boiled water or hydrogen peroxide. At the first symptoms of the disease, take the animal to the veterinarian. Self-medication can lead to deafness.
When should you go to the doctor if your cat’s breath stinks of rotten meat?
If your cat is lethargic, eats little or not at all, and his breath smells like rotten meat, you need to take your pet to the veterinary clinic. The cause of ill health may be:
- Cat stomach diseases.
- Cat intestinal diseases.
- Diseases of the teeth and oral cavity.
- Poisoning from poor quality products.
- Chemical poisoning.
- Worms, fleas and other parasites.
Unless you are a doctor, you will not be able to determine the cause of your cat’s ill health. At home, you can fight worms and fleas and treat mild food poisoning, but only a doctor can cure severe food poisoning and other diseases.
A sick cat and the same one after recovery
Signs of an unhealthy cat:
- The cat eats very little or not at all.
- A sick cat's fur is dull and matted.
- The cat does not engage in regular games and does not respond to affection.
- He sleeps a lot and sits still.
- His stool is unnaturally loose.
- Lumps can be felt under the skin.
All these signs should not appear at the same time. In order to suspect that a cat is ill, you need 2-3 signs to appear at once. The most basic sign of ill health is the cat’s lack of normal appetite for 2-3 days and low physical activity. Not to be confused with a lack of appetite in a cat who wants to mate with a cat. Such a cat is quite active physically, and sometimes even too active.
Types of stench
Based on the nature of the smell emitted by the pet, an attentive owner can independently determine what caused its appearance.
Bad breath has the following odor shades:
- Rotten.
The smell of rotting meat or fish from a cat's mouth indicates problems with the gastrointestinal tract, inflammation of the gums, dental diseases, and helminthic infestation. These problems require immediate solutions, sometimes surgical intervention (for worsening ulcers, intestinal obstruction). In any case, if a rotten smell appears from a cat’s mouth, the veterinarian must decide what to do about it. Sometimes changing your diet helps.
- Ammonia.
A pet's breath with a smell of ammonia is an alarming signal indicating kidney problems. They do not excrete urine, so creatinine and urea accumulate in the blood, poisoning the body. If your pet often runs to the toilet, stomps and meows for a long time, becomes lethargic, and does not allow you to touch its stomach and sides, you should immediately visit a veterinarian.
- Sweetish.
An amber like that from rotten, rotting apples (acetone) indicates the development of diabetes in the animal. If the animal often comes to the drinking bowl, has a good appetite, but does not gain weight, a periodically appearing sweetish-putrid fruity odor from the cat’s mouth is a reason to contact a veterinarian to examine the pet and select therapy.
Bad breath with a metallic odor, similar to blood from rotten meat, indicates liver pathology. If your pet's gums become yellowish, your cat won't eat, and your cat's breath smells sickeningly sweet, you should immediately visit a veterinarian.
The cat's breath stinks of rotten meat: disease prevention
Protecting domestic cats from fleas and worms is the prevention of many diseases. Even if your pet does not leave the apartment, periodically check its fur for fleas. If the cat goes outside freely, use flea collars or drops. Worms can appear in cats from contact with other animals, contact with contaminated food or soil. Why is infection with worms dangerous? By multiplying in large numbers in the body, worms can cause inflammation of the cat’s intestines, the smell of rotten meat from the cat’s mouth, intestinal blockage and even the death of the pet.
It is important to prevent infection with worms by deworming regularly every three months. Every veterinary pharmacy will offer you affordable deworming products for cats.
Fleas, especially during infancy, can cause poor growth and poor appetite in kittens. Sometimes, the health of infected kittens is so poor that their lives are in danger. Small kittens can be washed with flea shampoo; aggressive flea products should not be used.
Usually they fight fleas first, and then worms. The break between these procedures, due to the aggressive effect on the cat’s body, is at least a week. If there is a suspicion of a large number of worms and the cat is not eating well, deworming is first done.
If not teeth, then...
- If your cat has a problem other than his teeth and still has bad breath, he may have an oral ulcer or tumor. By the way, if the virus gets on the mucous membrane, it can ulcerate it, destroy the enamel and cause the gum tissue to grow. Such diseases can even lead to the death of a pet. Therefore, in order to identify the disease in advance, it is necessary to look into the pet’s mouth from time to time.
- You should also monitor the food you give your cat: you need to feed it correctly, consulting a veterinarian. There is a lot of literature on how to feed cats so that they don’t get sick. If finances allow, you can go to the veterinarian and use an ultrasound to remove plaque from the cat’s fangs.
- If your pet has toothache, then you can’t do without a veterinarian.
- The doctor will remove caries from the fangs and treat the oral cavity with anti-inflammatory drugs. Well, if the inflammation is severe, the animal will be prescribed antibiotics and immunostimulants. If the animal suffers from diseases of the internal organs, it will not be possible to do without surgery.
Can cats brush their teeth?
The formulation of the question itself looks somewhat funny. Of course, in the wild you will not meet a tiger with a toothbrush in its paws. And if he does have one, it will be more likely to chew it up. Cats are not particularly different in their habits from their wild counterparts. And only restless cat owners can subject them to an unpleasant procedure. Agree, wrapping a cat in a sheet and brushing its teeth with the help of another person, while it screams, scratches and tries to escape, is not an activity for faint-hearted owners, or faint-hearted cats. Although you can find cute videos on the Internet where a cat willingly bites a toothbrush. I wonder what the cat’s owners used to smear such a brush with?
Cleaning the cat's teeth
In order to properly clean your cat's mouth, you will need to visit a veterinarian. By the way, you can ask your doctor to teach you how to properly clean an animal’s fangs yourself. You can even train your cat not to resist when you put a toothbrush in his mouth. Of course, it is better to teach this procedure to young kittens.
Here are some tips to help you properly clean your animal's fangs and get rid of unpleasant odor if the cause lies in oral problems:
- Let your veterinarian show you how to properly clean the fangs;
- Buy a special brush. How many animals you have, so many brushes will be needed;
- Buy a special flavored teeth cleaner that smells like chicken or fish;
- Carry out the procedure strictly according to the clock: in the same period of time;
- Use toothbrushes carefully because your cat may bite them.
You need to gradually teach your cat to brush his fangs to get rid of the smell from his mouth.
To do this, you should first take a little tasty paste on your finger and let the kitty lick it off. Continue this way for a couple of days. When cleaning, place the animal with its back to you, because it will try to escape.
If the kitty pushes with its paws, ask your relatives to hold them. Slowly and gradually touch the cat's fangs with a toothbrush and encourage him. When the procedure is completed, reward the cat with something tasty. If the cat accepts the process of starting brushing well, then you can continue, starting to brush more confidently. In this way, you can teach your cat to brush his fangs, his mouth cavity will be healthy and the unpleasant odor from the mouth will disappear.
Unpleasant smell from a cat
When a cat stinks, there are physiological and pathological reasons. In the first case, the situation is less dangerous, and the unpleasant odor is associated with the diet and characteristics of the pet’s body. If the pet suddenly begins to smell bad, while other unpleasant symptoms and changes in the cat’s behavior are recorded, then this indicates pathology. If your kitten starts to smell, it is recommended to take him to the vet.
Incorrectly selected diet
Improper nutrition provokes many diseases, affects the functioning of the body as a whole and often leads to the appearance of an unpleasant odor. With natural feeding, this can happen if protein (meat) or carbohydrates (porridge) greatly predominate. And when feeding ready-made diets, incorrect selection of food can provoke a similar problem (for example, if the pets are intolerant to any ingredients). To correct the situation, it is better to contact a veterinary nutritionist.
Detect and neutralize
Furry pets love to mark their territory. Think great leather boots are yours? Not at all, your cat thinks completely differently. So don't be surprised if one morning you find an unpleasant surprise in your shoes. Cats can mark absolutely any part of the territory: carpets, sofas, chairs, floors, clothes, shoes, toys and other things of the owners.
Following cat psychology, not a single pet will make its surprises in front of its owner. After all, the cat understands that this will be followed by a very severe punishment. Therefore, very often the owners catch the “aroma”, but do not know how to discover the place of the “surprise”. If your sense of smell did not allow you to find the “marked” area in the apartment, use a black light lamp. Turn off all the lights in the apartment and turn on the lamp, first pointing it at possible affected areas. Traces of cat urine will appear as yellow spots in the dark.
Lack of hygiene
Of course, kittens do not brush their teeth, and if they are fed properly and kept in clean conditions, this is not required. All you need is a preventive examination by a veterinarian from time to time. So that if a disease appears, it can be cured at the initial stage. It’s bad when the disease is in development.
© shutterstock
If an animal has an abnormal bite since birth and eats soft food, then it is recommended to brush its teeth.
Feed or spoiled food
Pets love to explore the kitchen and trash can for food. As a result, the cat may find the remains of old sausage or fish there. This situation can not only cause a terrible smell, but also provoke other diseases . In addition, missing food can cause a number of other serious problems. Therefore, carefully remove spoiled food. Sometimes low-quality prepared dry food can also cause an unpleasant odor.
Veterinarians recommend feeding the animal the same food and not constantly changing manufacturers. Also choose the optimal food in terms of price/quality ratio. If you combine different foods, an imbalance in the diet occurs.
Salivary glands
In the mouth, saliva constantly coats the mucous membrane, thereby protecting it from damage. During the eating period, more saliva is produced in order to safely swallow food. If there is little saliva, then injuries may occur when eating.
If there is little saliva, then dry food will injure the gums and tongue, which will lead to inflammation. If, on the contrary, there is an excess of saliva, the chin will begin to become inflamed in those places where saliva will constantly flow from the baby’s mouth. All this will lead to the development of microorganisms and the kitten’s breath may stink.
