Dog Wind - Sorry!!

janninew

Sorry for the gross subject matter!

I have 3 male boxers, they all have the same dry dog food diet and the odd biscuit as a treat. The only problem is my eldest boy (8 years old) has the most awful wind and it seems to be getting worse!! I have to light yankee candles in my living room at night otherwise it would be very unpleasant! It doesn't particularly bother me anymore (got use to it) but I did feel sorry for my guests over Christmas who aren't use to smelly dogs!

Do you think some dogs are just more prone to having bad wind? He has always been a trumpy bum, but its getting worse as he gets older!! I have mentioned it to the vet, she wasn't concerned and he is in very good health for his age.

Sally_A

Think of it as a Plus Point - someone to blame it on

Seriously, has he been scavaging? Mine were always worse after chicken pickings, or after ferreting through the bins or rotting bean trench.

Charcoal biscuits do help a bit, but quite frankly, I think most people, especially dog owners would not see it as an embarrassing problem, it's just one of those things (that they don't tell you about in the Ideal Home magazine).

krlyr

I would look at his diet. I've heard Boxers can be quite windy dogs, but I find diet plays a huge role in my dogs' windiness (they're not breeds with majorly sensitive tummies, though GSDs can be hit and miss at times). Lamb, for example, is a huge no-no - any more than a little titbit and they can trump for England!
For other dogs, beef can have the same effect, or chicken, or certain cereals or vegetables, so it's difficult to pinpoint unless you do an exclusion/elimination diet to rule out triggers for your particular dog(s).
For a start, I would probably ditch the treats - use their dry food as treats if needed. If the wind doesn't clear up without treats (this includes titbits from your meals etc. too so don't forget to stop them as well) then you may want to consider trying a different food or a homemade elimination diet (e.g. something simple like white fish and potato, or turkey and rice - try for novel proteins/carbs, i.e. something the dogs haven't really had before).
Personally, while I've seen charcoal to work, I think you're just masking the symptom - like taking painkillers for a toothache without addressing the abcess causing it. Something is giving the dogs wind, charcoal may ease the smell but are the dogs suffering in other ways - does it give them tummyache, for example? They can't tell us, but I know I can get a right bellyache when I've eaten something that makes me windy.

janninew

Some good points raised - thanks! They have all been on the same dry dog food for years (Eukanuba Breed Specific Food) and they don't get any tit bits from us. They have the shapes dog biscuits as an occasional treat. He isn't very bothered about food and isn't a scavenger. Will have a chat to the vet at his next check up, I would be a bit wary about a sudden change in his food after so many years on it. I do think boxers are quite a 'windy' breed anyway, but he has produced some vile smells recently! I'm wondering if one of my visitors have been slipping him their sprouts in secret!!

Sally_A

I wouldn't waste my money on a vet.....a stinky fart isn't an illness, unless (and I take your gross subject and double it!) it's that sour, ill, stench, accompanied by squits that are more than a one off incident.

krlyr

Eukanuba isn't really the best of foods - high in maize (corn) which can be a culprit for iffy tummies
"Chicken (24%), maize, wheat, animal fat, sorghum, barley, poultry meal, dried beet pulp, chicken digest, dried whole egg, brewer's dried yeast, potassium chloride, salt, sodium hexametaphosphate, fish oil, linseed, DL-methionine, glucosamine hydrochloride, chondroitin sulphate."

They list chicken first, but "chicken" means the amount with the moisture in, pre-production. As chicken can be 60-80% water, the amount you actually get in the food is a lot less than if the ingredients listed "chicken meal", i.e. dried chicken - therefore maize may well be the main ingredient in the food.
Even if the dogs have been fine on it, a slight change in recipe or source for the ingredients could cause problems - note that the ingredients list "animal fat", by not specifying, this allows the manufacturer to use any kind of animal fat in the food - so one month it may be chicken, the next lamb, the next beef, this can often cause hard-to-pinpoint symptoms in dogs because you can never know for sure what's in the batch you're feeding. They also do the same with "poultry" meal and "fish" oil - which poultry, which fish?
At the price Eukanuba charge for their food you could certainly do a lot better IMO - it's a premium priced food but not a premium quality in my books. At £37 for 12kg (price I found online), you're not far off the price-per-kilo of a really premium food like Fish4Dogs (working variety, same stuff, working dog label, means it's free from VAT) - £49 for 15kg makes it £3.27 a kg vs Eukanuba's £3.08. The amounts you feed wouldn't be too different, roughly about 310g of the latter, Eukanuba say up to 295g for a 30kg dog. For the 20p per kg extra, you'd get a lot better quality food, which will be higher in meat/fish, with specific ingredients:
Ocean White Fish (27%), Pea Flour (22%), Potato (23%), Fishmeal (8.7%), Salmon Oil (9.3%), Beet Pulp (6.6%), Brewers Yeast, Minerals

And F4D food is probably the upper price range - you could get better quality foods for less, bringing them on par or even lower than Eukanuba.

http://www.dogfoodproject.com/ may be worth a read

janeys

All our Boxers have been particularly windy, we could find no reason and after many years Mum found having a febreze air freshener in every room the easiest answer. It would go something like this' Ohhhh Copper, spray spray spray'

BECKIN1507

I agree with everything Krlyr has said. My mothers fussy pup is on Eukanuba, only because its one of the only food she loves and she really does stink! I've convinced her to try natures way she was trying to pinch my pups food when we was there. The adult one is cheaper than Eukanuba and the ingredients are so much better. (its £32 a 12kg) If you look on the website you can see all the ingredients they put in there foods and why they put them in http://grahamsmelt.wix.com/ultima#!ingredients where the Eukanuba has loads of ingredients dogs don't need. I've recommended natures way so many times in the last couple of weeks I think they should start paying me, lol but I'm really pleased with it and the price is reasonable for a food with 50-60% meat. I'm currently researching Raw feeding my lot, and should be starting in the next couple of weeks.

dizziblonde

I have a greyhound - nothing trumps like one of them. Someone suggested a dollop of natural yoghurt to me but I haven't tried it, we just grin and bear it and evacuate the room when it becomes exceptionally deadly!

splishsplash

I have a 13 year old westie fed almost exclusively on Burns food. We never normally have a problem with wind, unless she gets into things she shouldn't. Chicken leavings is a big culprit - she reeks for the evening afterwards if she gets at them.
This last couple of days, she's definitely been getting stuff she doesn't normally eat - the evidence is unmistakable .

As the others have said, OP, diet is everything. On the rare occasions I've run out of Burns and have had to feed her ordinary dog food, the smells are horrible. As soon as we get back to her normal food, no smells.

Interestingly (to me, anyway), the theory behind Burns food is that a dog is omnivorous, not carnivorous, so its diet should not be high protein, but rather, one-third meat, veg and rice/potato. All i know is that for the past 10 years, my little dog has only been to the vets for vaccines, weight has never been a problem, and she's in excellent health for an old lady, so maybe there's something to be said for it?