gassy dog.

taeric

Has anyone ever had experience with an incredibly gassy dog? Any suggestions on what helped?

bowen

What kind of dog and dog food are you feeding it?

I know of an Australian sheep dog that just absolutely rips ass when rice is given to them in the dog food.

taeric

We have three mutts all from the pound. My wife believes the dog in question is at least part pit bull.

Not sure on the food. I believe they all get dog chow. (Purina, I believe.)

Comahawk

Not sure if it is a good or safe idea, but we used to give our Golden Retriever tums whenever she got gassy.

taeric

My wife actually found something called Gas Stop for dogs. We'll be giving that a try now. I'm still curious to know other things to try.

onceling

Here are the ingredients google tells me are in Purina Dog Chow:

Ground yellow corn, poultry by-product meal, corn gluten meal, soybean meal, beef tallow preserved with mixed-tocopherols , brewers rice, dicalcium phosphate, calcium carbonate

Dogs find it very difficult to digest corn products. It's the #1 ingredient in your food, and also the #3 ingredient.

#2 "by-product" indicates organs and parts condemned or unsuitable for human consumption. That is bones, blood, intestines, lungs, ligaments, heads, feet and feathers.

To exaggerate somewhat, you're feeding your dog corn, which he can't process, and ground up feathers and feet, don't be surprised he's getting some gas. Some dogs take it better than others is all. I guess like us, some people can eat McDonalds every day, others would rather die.

Generally, most people would just start yelling at me for suggesting "designer" dog food about now. However if you really want to know, here's some lists from another site:

Ultra Premium
Merrick / Merrick 'Before Grains'
Taste of the Wild
TimberWolf Organics
Wellness
Prarie / Instinct
Innova / Innova Evo / Evo / Ancestral
Orijen
Weruva

Premium
Chicken Soup
Natural Balance
Blue Buffalo
Solid Gold
Canidae
Pinnacle
Addiction

Acceptable
Iams
Purina
Diamond
Eagle Pack
Eukanuba
Royal Canin

Horrid
Alpo
Pedigree
Regular Science Diet (non-perscription)
Mainstay
Kibbles and Bits
Good Day Chunks

Frosty

Just try different foods, and don't necessarily shy away from the cheaper stuff. I have a doberman that loves the dirt cheap stuff and scarfs it down in no time, but gets finnicky when you try to give him more expensive foods

Dark_Side

I'm dealing with a pit who has terrible food allergies right now. I would recommend switching to a premium food, one that doesn't have corn or grains in it. It's expensive food though, so only buy the small bags until you find one that works. The rub with premium foods is some of it is so rich that it will may make your dog even more gassy. I had one premium food that was making my boy throw up all the time. Good luck.

taeric

I am fine switching foods. I would rather have a reason to do so, though. For instance, avoiding corn. (That is, I don't want to just try the expensive stuff because it is "better.") (And I should note, you provided exactly what to avoid. )

Are there any other likely candidates for things to avoid?

cloudeagle

Hm, is Purina One a decent dog food to give a gassy dog? I'm constantly shocked at how my pathetic-looking, 12-pound rat terrier can produce enough stink to cause everyone in a large family room to run away gagging.

Then again, he may just have a sensitive stomach. He once stole a grand total of one McDonald's french fry one time and that did horrible things to his digestive system (and the carpet).

mts

well it could be a food allergy and not a quality of food issue. My pup has inflamm. Bowel Disease. Not sure the exact stimulus of her attacks from it, but we have been luckily modifying her diet. when she does have her flare ups, its bad, really gassy/gurgely and bloody diarhea. she was on a single source protein diet, but we have switched her to a hypoallergenic diet and it has been working great.

gassy dogs make me think they are having a mild allergy to what they are eating. i would switch to a diet that is just a protein and a starch. no real corn fillers we had good luck for a while with natural balance. but it wasn't good enough for our pup

som epups also react to wheat too. its probably the corn.

and before you guys complain about the price of good dog food. our food is $50 bucks for an 8lb bag, and we gladly pay it

Improvolone

My cat has a sensitive stomach and we need to use an organic food with her.
However, with one small cat the increase in cost isn't that much. With 3 dogs? Ouch.

taeric

Improvolone wrote: »

My cat has a sensitive stomach and we need to use an organic food with her.
However, with one small cat the increase in cost isn't that much. With 3 dogs? Ouch.

We could easily just feed the one dog different food. So, I'm not entirely worried about the idea.

mts

dogs are way easier to feed different food to. cats not so much. i think the food in my dogs bowl lasts maybe 2 minutes and thats when she takes her time.

cats food finally runs out when we refill it for dinner. we had to switch our kitten to adult food early since we couldn't manage him on kitten and the other on adult since they would just eat each others food and the older one is a monster in size who we didn't want eating fatty kitten food

taeric

Yeah, our two cats are the same. We just have a continuous bowl of food out for them. Only trouble we ever had was when we first got the dog, she would jump up and eat their food.

There is also the deal of cats refusing to eat new food.

illig

a lot of pits are allergy prone

mine is an absolute mess unless i feed her a very hypo-allergenic diet... currently she's only allowed venison and sweet potato (we buy the Evo 99%, or the Natural Balance wet food only)

the usual dog food fillers like white/brown rice, regular potatoes, and corn tend to cause issues in such dogs... meat such as beef and chicken also causes issues

IMHO venison or ostrich are the safest kinds of meat for sensitive dogs

onceling

taeric wrote: »

Are there any other likely candidates for things to avoid?

Named meat should be the first thing on your ingredients list. The word "animal" means not-named meat. It never means they could not be bothered saying chicken, lamb or beef. It means road kill, zoo animal, diseased livestock, and euthanised pets. If it's chicken, beef, etc, they are going to say so specifically.

Dogs do need some carbs (unlike cats) so something like potatoes, rice are more decent, absorbable carbs for a dog. However, if its lower down the list and still corn its not a complete no-no, just try and see which carbs act well on your dogs energy levels and bowel movements. Other listed vegetables are great, and are a protein not carb source usually though.

You can consider doing a dry / wet food mix if you want, canned foods can provide a more affordable source of better ingredients in *some cases*. It's up to you and your dog though, it has little health effect unlike with cats.

Here's the full list of stuff to avoid:

Meat by-products, Corn, Food Fragments, Beef Tallow, Meat and bone meal, Animal Fat, Chemical Preservatives:

Chemical preservatives include butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA), butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), propyl gallate, propylene glycol (also used as a less-toxic version of automotive antifreeze), and ethoxyquin. BHA, BHT, and ethoxyquin are potentially cancer-causing agents.

Sweeteners: corn syrup, sugar, and cane mallases.

BTW - if its a named "meat meal" its usually fine, it just means meat with the water removed.

winter_combat_knight

DONT FEED IT CHICKEN. That was a problem with my dog. Also, never buy the canned dog food 'Natures Gift'. Oh it's Natures Gift alright!