Doggy Flatulance??

[AnnaC]

Need help for a friend who has a resuce dog suffering badly from (very smelly) flatulance. I'm sure some of the remedies for this problem were mentioned some time ago on a thread here, but please chime in with anything you might know would help.

I think she feeds Natures Diet (or similar) to her dogs if that's any help?

Many thanks.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Probably too much grain in the diet. Most dog foods are grain-based. Also, the brewer's yeast/garlic supplement is very helpful.

 

[Mona]

Yes, food can definitely cause it, as can sucking in a lot of air. So if the dog does lots of running and is inhaling lots of fresh air, that too will contribute.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

If it is not the food it might also be the way the dog eats. I have found that dogs that eat fast tend to pass gas more. There are things that an help the dog slow down but some of them, IMO, actually contribute to the gulping of air. The best fix I've seen (not my dog) was to feed large chunks of food that must be gnawed on to eat them. One person switched to a raw food diet and then froze each meal in a big chunk. Not convenient for me but sure helped that dog.

 

[shorthorsemom]

funny... I always fed a smaller kibble. My dogs swallow the food whole no matter what size and smaller kibble helps slow down my gulpers.

LOL. will be lots of ideas on this one.

I once had a Doberman that could make the air green. I was working on the floor with her in an obedience class and all of a sudden I was aware of a horrible smell coming out of my dog. I glanced to the sidelines to see if anybody else had noticed and the entire class was holding their nose.

I had another Doberman that "tooted" very loudly. She would cock her ear every time she made the noise and would even go over to the door and act like somebody was knocking.

The funniest one was when I had to take another one of my dobies to meet my insurance agent before he would grant me home owners insurance because my dog was on the list of "dangerous breeds". My boy impressed the insurance agent so much I got the insurance, we did not get out of the guys office without leaving a HUGE dobie stink bomb. The guy kept saying "OH MAN>>>OH MAN" It was hilarious. He did tell me the "toot" was more dangerous than my dog.

Nothing "toots" like a Doberman.
this was stories about 3 different dogs.

I don't remember what food they were on.

Best wishes..

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

funny... I always fed a smaller kibble. My dogs swallow the food whole no matter what size and smaller kibble helps slow down my gulpers.

When I said big I meant too big to tempt them to swallow it whole lol, there are always those dogs who will gulp down food of nearly any size and not chew it tho. For some dogs smaller might work better if they can be convinced to chew it. It would definitely depend on the individual dog.

LOL. will be lots of ideas on this one.

I once had a Doberman that could make the air green. I was working on the floor with her in an obedience class and all of a sudden I was aware of a horrible smell coming out of my dog. I glanced to the sidelines to see if anybody else had noticed and the entire class was holding their nose.

I had another Doberman that "tooted" very loudly. She would cock her ear every time she made the noise and would even go over to the door and act like somebody was knocking.

The funniest one was when I had to take another one of my dobies to meet my insurance agent before he would grant me home owners insurance because my dog was on the list of "dangerous breeds". My boy impressed the insurance agent so much I got the insurance, we did not get out of the guys office without leaving a HUGE dobie stink bomb. The guy kept saying "OH MAN>>>OH MAN" It was hilarious. He did tell me the "toot" was more dangerous than my dog.

Nothing "toots" like a Doberman.

I would challenge your Dobies to be worse than our Bullmastiff, lol. Some breeds are just gassy no matter what I guess. We used to say our big guy could blister paint

Ya gotta love em when they look around like "who done that!?"

this was stories about 3 different dogs.

I don't remember what food they were on.

Best wishes..

 

[AnnaC]

LOL!! Very funny, I never realised it could be a Dobie 'trait'!!

Thanks for the suggestions so far folks - will ask my friend if the dog gulps its food/air. Also I think the Nature Diet food is supposed to be very low in cereal content, but will check that one.

Any more suggestions?

 

[shorthorsemom]

Probiotics help

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

That's interesting, shorthorsemom, I've never thought of trying probiotics. It is something I go to pretty quickly if any of my horses seem off (digestively) don't know why I've never thought of it with my dogs. I may have to try that on our Boston altho I suspect in her case its the way her skull/jaw/nasal passage/etc. is built that creates the issue. Probios are pretty easy to try and won't do any harm even if they don't help.

 

[shorthorsemom]

I have a boston and she is not gassy. (knock on wood) I feed her the new hills food natural balance. she has problems with urinary crystals and the hills food was one that didn't significantly change the pH of her urine after I fed it. I have not been a hills fan in the past, however my boston does well on this food for a separate issue other than gas.

I have fed probios in the past (it s labeled probios), same stuff as I feed my horses. I don't know if it works or not, but it would be my first choice for a gassy dog. I don't have Dobermans any more, but the ones I did have were all gassy. I will say that I was not paying as much attention back when I had my dobies as to what food I fed and what was in it. Once I had a dog bloat I became rather diligent about reading labels.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I daren't change dog foods with our Boston. She is sensitive and will loose her hair and get itchy on the wrong food and it has taken me a while to find one that works and doesn't leave her with dull dry hair and no energy. I will have to see about picking up the probios tho. Back when we had Dobies I don't recall them being terribly gassy but the first one had so much trouble with his stomach that he seemed to always have runny stools and be in at the vet. We learned from him to feed quality food because it seemed to be worse on supermarket brands. In the end it turned out he had a form of cancer and the food was not the problem (we couldn't keep weight on him either) but we have not switched back until now - all our present Rotti will eat is O.N.E . She does ok on it but I would not recommend it to anyone, its better than what her breeder fed I guess and tastes good to her but we worried we were going to have another thin one with health issues for a while. i was adding gravy to her food at one point to try to keep her eating but she still picked and maybe ate 1cup in a day. Not enough for a growing large breed dog.