Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 3/6/2010

Question
QUESTION: My dog is an excessive drooler, has been since I picked her up from the pound. My concern is that her drool is more of a thick and slimy consistency. Any possible reasons for this?

ANSWER: Most dog drool is thick and slimy. What kind of dog is it? If she is drooling 24/7 and hasn't had a vet exam I would encourage you to take her in soon and have her looked over well.

She might have some sort of a jaw deformity that makes her salivary glands overactive. She might have some bad teeth.

Since I cannot look in there you really need to have your vet look her over.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Sorry yes.  The drooler is a red nose pit. She does have large jowels could this be a contributing factor? I took her to the vet after adopting her to make sure there was no health issues. They didn't find anything. Another concern is bad breath. But I give her breath busters for that.

Answer
Well Pit bulls can be droolers but it isn't usually to the extent you mentioned. If she drools all of the time it is probably related to her jowl formation and the way her mouth is. You said she has bad breath, and that is from bad teeth, bad diet and can be from the saliva also.

Her gums might have some dental disease going on- sometimes below the gumline where you can't see it.

If she eats cheap food it will cause her to have bad breath too. The number one cause of bad breath in dogs is dental and/or periodontal disease.

I don't know how old she is but most dogs of all sizes have mild to severe dental disease by the age of two due to lack of dental care by the owners.

Breath busters, what ever those are, are not going to fix the problem. Cheap diets such as purina, nutro, old roy, etc will cause gastric gas to come up and out of the mouth.

So those are the main reasons for the breath problem, but the drooling problem is most likely here to stay.
Another reason for drooling is emotional. Some dogs and many cats will drool when they are emotional- either happy, scared or sad- but the drooling stops when the emotion is past. So if she only drools now and then, that could be the reason.