Doggy wind!

kitten

Hello

Six weeks ago we adopted a dog whose owner had sadly passed away. We were friends of his owner so already knew the dog and he has settled in beautifully with our own dog.

He is a three year old German Shepherd and the nicest dog we could meet BUT - he has awful smelly wind and does really stinky f*arts several times per day! We'd already noticed this when he lived with our friend (who didn't seem to notice or mind!) but we assumed it would settle when we had him on a good quality food. It hasn't.

We feed him the recommended weight (480 gm daily, split into two meals) of Applaws large breed dried food and nothing else. Our own dog has eaten this for years and thrives on it with no wind. He doesn't get titbits and his poo is normal. He is healthy and an ideal weight, no other problems.

Does anyone have any suggestions of a food that might help? Or other suggestions? It's the typical dog f*rt smell, but much more frequent than I've ever come across before! He has been to the vet for innoculations and she was happy with him, but I didn't think to mention the wind because I assumed it would pass......

Madbags

My mum has a staffie who also used to have bad wind. But she stopped feeding him on the dry stuff and now gets the tinned meat for him.


Seems to have solved the problem. In past experience is usually does seem to be down to the food.

krlyr

Sometimes it's not the quality of the food, just something in the ingredients that the dog doesn't agree with. My two both seem to have an intolerance to lamb, for example, it doesn't matter if it's a bog standard dry food, a premium wet food, a raw lamb rack of ribs..anything more than a few titbits and they become weapons of mass gas-truction!

GSDs do tend to be a bit more sensitive in the digestive system than other breeds can be too. I would suggest finding a decent brand food via https://www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk - I would try a different meat to what he's on now, and potentially go for something grain-free (common cause of issues, having the digestive system of a carnivore, they don't digestive grains well). Some companies will give out free sample packs if you request them too, or maybe just buy a 2kg size bag to try at first.

If it's something that interests you, raw diets can be great for dogs with sensitive tums and with intolerances, because it's really easy to know what you're feeding (no hidden chicken fat in a fish flavoured biscuit, no trying to guess what "vegetable based derivatives" means, etc.) - but it does require a bit of research to make sure it's balanced (it's not rocket science but you need the right proportions - although it's good for you, you wouldn't cook yourself a plate of spinach every night as you'd soon suffer malnutrition!). There's some great starter websites and Facebook groups on raw feeding if it's something you'd consider.

teddysmum

Food affects dogs in different ways. I used to have four cavaliers, but only the two I have left get smelly 'wind' after eating (cooked) chicken.