Augie Needs A Food That Will Help Lessen His Terrible Gas

[Guest avadogner]

Hi Greytalk Friends,

 

My sweet boy Augie is fitting in great in our home and we couldn't have asked for a sweeter beta boy. When he came home he was worm positive and having terrrible BIG D. We took him to the vet had him checked out and did two rounds of Panacure. We put him on the Kirkland Chicken, brown rice and Barley food which scored over a 110 on the scale Greytalk has to help out decifering food labels. His stools firmed up and his very loud GI noises settled down. The only thing is his paint peeling gas didn't completely settle down. I'm a retired RN so I can tolerate high levels of stinkiness (it's a part of surviving life as a nurse) but Augie is way off the scale. It's so bad he will get up come to another room, pass gas and go back to the other room. It's pretty bad when the dog can't even tolerate his stinky gas. We do the Stink Stopper supplement which has helped. I've noticed it's worse when I have been out of the home. He has seperation anxiety which we are working on. I don't want to sedate him but his tummy is in real distress from his anxiety. He's still stinky on days I am home and he's happy curled up in bed with me. I've had him on the Kirkland for 3 months now and the gas is marginally better.

 

I had our girl Ava on Pro Plan Salmon Sensitive Skin and Stomach for skin allergies and loose stools. She did great for 10 yrs but she's sickly now and on the Blue Buffalo grain free Salmon to get as many calories in her (seperate thread for poor feeding). I am thinking changing Augie to another food may help but we can not afford to have both of them on the BBGF. It's $50 a bag for a 25 lb bag (really pricey for Alabama). The Pro Plan Salmon is about $40 for a 30 lb bag. I was considering trying it but thought I would check with y'all first to see if anyone has found a food that helps with gas.

 

Thanking you for the help while holding my nose! ,

ava and augie's mum

 

 

[macoduck]

Perhaps add a teaspoon of active yogurt to the kibble. I've also used Forti-Flora (from the vet's) to help settle intestinal unbalance.

[Houndtime]

While my dogs did really well on the Kirkland Lamb and Rice, they have started having really bad gas. I also notice a substantial amount of crumbs left over in the bottom of the bag and the color of the kibble seemed to change ever so slightly. We then noticed that the color of their poop was more yellow. I think they may have changed the formula of the kibble. I was using this product for all three dogs and have been purchasing it for close to three years.

 

So, I purchased Avoderm Lamb and Rice and they are doing better. It is about $35 for 35 lbs, but I got it on sale for $29.99 and bought 4 bags. The feed store where I purchased it, offers one free bag of certain premium brands after purchasing 12. We are on our way to a free bag.

 

I am not speaking against Kirkland as I feel confident that it is a superior brand. It just stopped working for us. I also, find, for example, that when we have company, travel with the dogs, etc. that the stress seems to give them gas.

 

I do use Gas X or Beano when necessary and sometimes give Fuzzy Pepic AC.

[Time4ANap]

We've had no gas issues on any of the Taste of The Wild foods. We are currently feeding the Lamb based TOTW food.

 

Price here in Illinois is about 37-40 dollars for a 30lb bag - but we also find that he needs less of this food than others we have fed. He gets 1 1/2 cups twice a day and maintains his weight at about 70 lbs.

 

We have also fed the High Priairie TOTW and no gas on that either, but it was very rich and we found that he would occasionally get the Big D on it. It really varied on the High Prairie - he would be great for a while and then unexpectedly have Big D. Things have been perfect on the Lamb based TOTW which is a litle lower in calories.

 

 

 

[OwnedBySummer]

I find the gas is much less with Taste Of The Wild. I doubt the flavor matters but FYI we feed High Prairie.

[Guest jbox]

We've tried a lot of the expensive brand foods and honestly the only ones that don't give our dogs gas are Iams Lamb & Rice and Eagle Pack

Natural. Don't think they had gas on Taste of the Wild either but did have an occassional loose stool on the higher protein ones.

 

Good luck. :-)

[Sambuca]

I love TOTW. We use the pacific stream (fish) formula. My boy had gas so bad, it would burn my nose and I can no longer smell as well as I used to. He had diarrhea for over a year and like 9 foods until TOTW. He cannot have processed chicken or everyone pays for it. He also doesn't do well on lamb. My suggestion is that whatever you do, try to get chicken out of his diet. I know many dogs who just can't handle it. Make sure you read ingredients because even lamb or beef based foods can have chicken in them.

[OwnedBySummer]

I've heard about the chicken thing, too.

[kolarik1]

One thing I have done for gassy pups is put an acidophilus pill either in their food or shoved into their mouth at each feeding and that has really helped with gas.

 

My foster Uno is on TOTW Pacific Stream and he can still have gas, but nothing too bad.

[Guest Adrianne]

After reading this thread and thinking about it, I realized that Chevy hasn't had gas since we switched him to TOTW about a month ago. Wow.

[GreyTzu]

One thing I have done for gassy pups is put an acidophilus pill either in their food or shoved into their mouth at each feeding and that has really helped with gas.

 

 

 

Yup!

[Guest melissa]

I've always added a spoon of yoghurt and it stops gas issues.

[Guest PhillyPups]

I always add a spoon of yogurt to each meal and never had a gas issue - thank GoD with 5 no gas.

[Guest NJgrey]

You can also try adding FortiFlora to one of his meals per day.

 

http://www.amazon.com/FortiFlora-Canine-1gm-sachets-30ct/dp/B001650NNW/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1293637886&sr=8-2

 

Our girl had some combination of loose stools or horrible gas on every one of the TOTW flavors. She's doing really well on Wellness Core reduced fat - good poops, exceedingly rare gas.

[Guest Vinnysmom]

We tried TOTW for our boy, Tommy, and it didn't help. We tried Bil-Jac Select, and it has worked wonders! I think each dog is different. We do also add yogurt to his food.

[Guest HHHounds]

We add a spoon of plain yogurt and it helps some with the gasiness - my houndies love it too! Best of luck to you!

[HoundHeavenAZ]

I started cooking veggies and meat for mine about 3 months ago and switched to Natural Balance Venison and Sweet Potato kibble. I can only remember 2 or 3 times since then that the air has been fouled. Plus we have solid, well formed poops!

[kudzu]

We've had no gas issues on any of the Taste of The Wild foods. We are currently feeding the Lamb based TOTW food.

Ditto here except for the duck flavor. The fowl was foul but not nearly as foul as what was caused by most other foods. Just switched back to TOTW from an experiment with Earthborn Holistic Primitive Natural. It produced similar results as the duck TOTW.

 

Will say though that adding probiotics would be one of the first things I would try before switching from a food my dogs were otherwise doing very well on.

[Guest LindsaySF]

Sounds like a food change is in order. You'll have to try different brands and protein sources to see what works best for your dog. Rogan had horrible diarrhea and gas on most of the foods I tried him on, even some of the higher-end brands. I tried yogurt and acidophilus and it didn't help. He can't seem to handle any grain, no rice, no oatmeal. He did well on TOTW Wetlands (has potato). I recently switched him to Nature's Domain Salmon & Sweet Potato (for cost reasons) and he's doing well on that also. Best of luck.

 

 

 

~Lindsay~

[Guest ChasesMum]

we had to use kirkland lamb not chicken.

 

I thought costco in the US carried some blue buffalo?

[Guest Sunset123]

we had to use kirkland lamb not chicken.

 

I thought costco in the US carried some blue buffalo?

 

Same here. Mine can't tolerate chicken, but she does great on Kirkland lamb & veggie.

[TwiggysMom]

You can try giving him just boiled chicken & rice for a few days to see if that helps.

 

If so, you can blame the gas on one of the other "minor" ingredients in the food. (minor in quantity, not gas production!!)

 

I've found that the Kirkland produces major gas (and loose stools) in a lot of my fosters, including my current foster. I tried the chicken/rice (and turkey and rice) and noticed an immediate improvement. I switched to a different chicken/rice based kibble (without barley) and he is doing awesome! (I'm giving him GO Natural - the same as I give Twiggy, it's really hard to find though).

 

I'm always surprised at how quickly chicken is blamed when there are usually a dozen or more ingredients that could be the culprit. Finding out for sure whether chicken is the issue is pretty easy , and could make long-term feeding a lot easier.

 

You may notice that a lot of "alternative" protein kibbles also are "limited-ingredient", and therefore don't include the gas-producing grains that caused the problem in the first place. The owner thinks (reasonably) that the protein source was the problem, and never realizes that it was really millet, or barley, or any number of other things (don't meann to harp on barley or millet - they are just fine for those dogs that they are fine for , those are just the ones that come to mind today

Edited January 3, 2011 by TwiggysMom

[cleptogrey]

good suggestion going to rice and chicken or boiled beef. make sure it's over cooked white rice(add more water than usual) and take it slow.(the eat huge amounts of rice, 25% can be a protien) when his stool returns to normal, than try introducing small amounts of food. if there is a change in stool then may i suggest that you contact your vet and bring in a sample. maybe that miracle drug flagyl might be called for. it has straighten out many a gut in my house. sometimes 2 rounds are necessary, but boy does it work.

 

i use a probiotic and found my sensitive boy does nicely on duck , using hollistic select duck for some time now. it was trial and error. welcome to the club! always talk to your pet/feed store and make sure the food is returnable if it doesn't agree. most will take it back.

[sarabz]

I found that Bella was getting horrible gas over the past few weeks. I stopped feeding her homemade treats (mine and others) and she went back to normal, which is minimal gas. She seems to be helped by a generous spoonful of yogurt am & pm. We feed Earthborn Holistic Adult Vantage.

 

Intersetingly, there wasn't anything in the treats that I made that she doesn't get already, either in Kongs, current treats or current kibble

 

One thing I learned recently - a listing of protein meal first is apparently better than just the protein. This is because the meal contains much less water, which in the regular protein is cooked out, making the percentage of that protein less after being cooked. For example, if the first ingredient is chicken, the kibble actually has less chicken than if chicken meal was listed first. I know there are many people here who know more about feeding than I do, but this seemed to make sense to me. Yes, I know that meal isn't necessarily using the prime parts of the animal.

[cleptogrey]

i seem to remember reading something like this last winter from other owners.

 

mmmmm......are the dogs not as active and still eating the same amount of food?? i find that often has something to do w/ the gas. probiotics, rice, flagyl, the right food and yoguart(my dogs don't tolerate it but love it) all can help especially since we can't open the windows this time of the year.

 

(this too shall pass )

Edited January 4, 2011 by cleptogrey