I forgot to mention that she eats Orijen fish 6. Her treats are mainly bananas, carrots and treats we make for her out of ground beef and black beans. She does not eat anything I do not know about. (in other words shes not eating poop or anything else).

Bull dogs apparently have breathing problems, but do you think she's having a little acid reflux? The combination of the fish food and the BEANS could be what's contributing to her breath smell. Black beans do have an odor when they've set too long in the fridge. And after they hit the stomach acid it's hard telling what they smell like! HA!

If a dog has an ear infection their ears will really stink. So it could be the fungus stuff, you mentioned, on her face.

Is there a special concoction that you use to wash her face? Whatever you use, I would clean her face at least twice a day. Also note what she was eating right before you smelled the bad odor. Keep a log. Possibly just a week of cleaning her folds will remove the smell. But you also might notice a pattern to her breath smell and what she has consumed.

If you don't see a change after a week then you might want to run it by your vet.

The beans she gets are mixed with beef and dehydrated to a crisp. The thing is her breath has no scent other than the metallic smell occasionally. We will try the logging thing. To clean her folds we use Malaseb....I've been putting it on a cotton ball and also wiping the under jaw, where I have noticed the fungus...her breath does not smell like the fungus though.

By the ingredients listed in the Malaseb, I would check with your vet about just how many times you should use that stuff on Tootsie. The combo of Chlorhexidine Gluconate and the Miconazole Nitrate would have me a little concerned with too much usage. I realize it's only 2%, and I don't know if you need a prescription, but I'm always wary of too much medication. Wouldn't want her to get a rash from the medical swabs.

But then again, I may be too cautious.

If her skin is really bad, you may be smelling blood. I smell that a lot on bulldogs, especially when they have raw areas between their skin folds.

Her skin is not that bad....we clean her everyday because she is very cuddly and we live in florida where it is humid so we like to keep her folds clean as possible. The skin is not red and raw....I can just see the hair is tinted by the fungus.

Housefairy.....the malaseb is a presciption. The vet is the one who suggested we use it to clean her fold daily.

She is a very tough chewer though Meghane mentioned blood maybe she is cutting her gums?

Now this may sound weird, and its probably way off the mark, but I wonder about the fish diets for dogs?

Most fish is contaminated with mercury AND people are only supposed to eat fish once a week, once a month if you are a child, a pregnant women, nursing or trying to get pregnant...

I would hesitate to feed my dog nothing but fish for an extended period of time.

Perhaps my concerns are unfounded... I haven't researched any data on mercury in fish based dog foods.

Joepyeweed,

Its funny you mention that. I was questioning that myself this just a couple days ago. I asked hubby about the same thing...I knew people weren't suppossed to eat to much fish. Hubby said though that it only applied to certain fish. Maybe someone with a little more knowledge will come on and enlighten us both. I know Orijen also makes a red meat or something.....so it would not be trouble to switch her up. I hope someone lets us know. I wonder if it applies to all fish though or only wild fish....I believe Orijen is made in Canada from farm raised fish....could be wrong about that too though.

I know a lot about fish. ALL fish contain traces of mercury. Fish high in mercury are the large long lived ocean fish or slow growing fresh water fish. I doubt the dog food company is using fish that is high in mercury, however mercury does bioaccumulate, and dogs are smaller than people.

I'd probably switch it up a bit, just to err on the side of caution.

A metallic taste in a persons mouth is often related to toxicity from overexposure to a heavy metal or overdose of some drugs... a friend of mine had that last summer and found out she was given the wrong dose of a prescription and they had to detox her entire body... now that is taste and its people, not sure if its the same as a smell for dogs.

Have you tasted your dogs salivia? I know that is really gross but my dogs lick my face frequently.

Hi, I have an 18 month old pug who has the same problem!!
He doesn't have the metallic smell to his breath all the time but generally when he does its when he wakes up and it pretty strong. I can't work out what its from either because I monitor his food and keep his face folds etc clean.