Male Dog Smell

[Guest jedortia]

Hi all, I have a question and I don't really know where it fits but I thought I would try here. I have fostered several male greys and when they come to me they are entire. After I have seen that they are fine with my little dogs they then go to the vet and get desexed (normally only a few days after they have been in the house). My current foster dog that I picked up yesterday stinks He smells like a boy. He was bathed yesterday but just smells very male (sort of a strong urine smell not an infection smell or anything like that). When I work up this morning I had to look everywhere around the house because I though he had weed... he hadn't, it was just him. He has been here less than 24 hours and I have already washed his bed, it is that bad.

 

Also, his urine in general is very strong smelling. I walked outside this morning and could smell it in the back yard.

 

I have only had one other male that smelt this bad and a little while after he was desexd and with a few more baths he was fine.

 

Is this an entire male dog thing?

 

For those who foster can you relate with me?

 

What can I do about the strong odour in the garden. I'm talking about in the actual garden beds and grass. If he goes on the pavers I can put chemicals on that and hose that, but on the grass the water alone does not seem enough. I can still smell it

 

Hope you can offer help for my smelly dog.

[GeorgeofNE]

Male dogs shouldn't smell any different than female dogs unless they're peeing on each other.

 

Sounds like a possible urinary tract infection to me. I'd have the vet test his urine.

 

We've had dogs my entire life, and only two of them have been female. I've never felt that a dog smelled male or female. The typical Greyhound doesn't smell much at all, what with their naturally dryish skin and short coat.

Edited October 15, 2011 by GeorgeofNE

[Guest IrskasMom]

I had/have only Male Greys and honestly they don't smell.

[Guest verthib]

Well, welcome to my world. We have a female and a male. (greyhounds). My male has been bathed twice since we've had him (5 weeks) and he still stinks. My female has had one bath 3 months ago and there is barely any smell to her. We joke that our male is just a stinky boy...he's all boy... Our house definitely smells like dog now that he's here. We wash all of their bedding and crate liners weekly just to keep a handle on it. If we didn't, I don't even want to know what my house would smell like. He's also VERY gassy lol. My girl is just a little lady, no gas, no smell.

After all, girls are made of sugar and spice, and everything nice. Boys are made of....snails. LOL

[kudzu]

So I gather he isn't urinating on his legs? My boy does that sometimes & I just wipe his leg with a baby wipe. Though even if I don't you wouldn't smell it the way you are describing. We've had 2 male Greys & 3 male foster Greys as well as multiples of other breeds. All were neutered & none smelled any different than the girls.

 

Really think it more likely you are dealing with a health issue. I'd get a urinalysis done first to check for UTI or another cause for the odor. If he didn't have CBC & blood chemistry. We usually do a chem 25 (like a SuperChem) but even a chem 10 would be better than nothing.

 

On the gas issue, it might be parasites. Another likely cause is his food. You may have to try a different food for a while to see if that helps. For my girl I ended up going with a grain free food. That was the solution. She can have some treats with grains but if she gets too many of those... ugh! The stench.

[AEB]

This sounds very much like our situation when we got Kevin. He stunk- like an oily smell. I also felt it was because he was a boy- it came from his parts area. He would turn over and air his bits and that's when you'd really get it. His urine smelled strong too. I thought my dog this beast is funkifying my whole house. Sadie never did this!

 

THis slowly changed and now he has no odor, but his feet still smell like greyhound feet, which smell like Fritos. Now I like to smell his head. He smells good. He has not had a bath since January.

 

I think what changed is:

-he grew fur where he was bald so his skin did not seem oily anymore;

-his food- we feed him very high quality food and I wonder if that helped;

-and we had his anal glands expressed about every 5 weeks when we first got him- he would get a fishy smell and get fussy and after he was expressed it was gone. We started giving Missing Link supplement which I saw someone else mention as being a help with the anal glads (probably helping to firm the poops so the glands empty). Anyhow, once we started giving him that we did not have to have him expressed again.

-he had what might have been a skin infection this summer- antibiotics for 6 weeks. but he was de-stunk before that, but I wonder if the staph had something to do with it in the beginning.

-he settled-in. i often wonder if adjustment and change and the stress that comes with that can have this affect. it can make skin flaky so why not stinky. i can smell a change in breath when my dogs are stressed.

 

Many feed raw here and have found it resolves a lot of issues, like skin problems. I feed part raw. I hope some of this was of help.

[Sighthounds4me]

Having had a few intact males, and hanging around with more, I agree - the urine is strong. But, as has already been said, the dog himself should not have that odor. Even my guys with long hair that gets peed on do not smell that bad, and clean up fairly easily.

 

I'd get him checked out by a vet.

 

*ETA: I have definitely noticed that neutering help this odor. Manero's urine had such a foxy odor to it, my whole backyard stunk. When he was neutered in January, the odor disappeared very quickly, and now he has little "extra" odor to his urine at all.

Edited October 15, 2011 by Sighthounds4me

[GeorgeofNE]

Well, welcome to my world. We have a female and a male. (greyhounds). My male has been bathed twice since we've had him (5 weeks) and he still stinks. My female has had one bath 3 months ago and there is barely any smell to her. We joke that our male is just a stinky boy...he's all boy... Our house definitely smells like dog now that he's here. We wash all of their bedding and crate liners weekly just to keep a handle on it. If we didn't, I don't even want to know what my house would smell like. He's also VERY gassy lol. My girl is just a little lady, no gas, no smell.

After all, girls are made of sugar and spice, and everything nice. Boys are made of....snails. LOL

 

It's truly not normal for a greyhound to smell bad. Has he been checked over thoroughly?

 

Most greyhounds don't need a bath more than annually.

[Guest zombrie]

Well, welcome to my world. We have a female and a male. (greyhounds). My male has been bathed twice since we've had him (5 weeks) and he still stinks. My female has had one bath 3 months ago and there is barely any smell to her. We joke that our male is just a stinky boy...he's all boy... Our house definitely smells like dog now that he's here. We wash all of their bedding and crate liners weekly just to keep a handle on it. If we didn't, I don't even want to know what my house would smell like. He's also VERY gassy lol. My girl is just a little lady, no gas, no smell.

After all, girls are made of sugar and spice, and everything nice. Boys are made of....snails. LOL

 

It's truly not normal for a greyhound to smell bad. Has he been checked over thoroughly?

 

Most greyhounds don't need a bath more than annually.

 

I thought the same thing... I don't think that's normal for any dog, let alone greyhounds. I work at a Greyhound kennel and even with all those male dogs in there, it doesn't stink. Even when my dogs (2 males and 2 females) need a bath, they still don't stink, they just feel greasy.

Maybe there are hounds who just stink and I just haven't come across one

[Guest verthib]

Well, welcome to my world. We have a female and a male. (greyhounds). My male has been bathed twice since we've had him (5 weeks) and he still stinks. My female has had one bath 3 months ago and there is barely any smell to her. We joke that our male is just a stinky boy...he's all boy... Our house definitely smells like dog now that he's here. We wash all of their bedding and crate liners weekly just to keep a handle on it. If we didn't, I don't even want to know what my house would smell like. He's also VERY gassy lol. My girl is just a little lady, no gas, no smell.

After all, girls are made of sugar and spice, and everything nice. Boys are made of....snails. LOL

 

It's truly not normal for a greyhound to smell bad. Has he been checked over thoroughly?

 

Most greyhounds don't need a bath more than annually.

 

Yes we have, and he's healthy. I think there are always exceptions to what people classify as 'normal'. There might be cases of anything that are less common, but it doesn't necessarily mean there's something wrong. I think it's inaccurate to say NO greyhounds should smell like dog. They're still dogs, and there are variations in each individual dog. It's like saying all greyhounds roach, or all greyhounds have bad teeth. Just not so...

[JJNg]

-he settled-in. i often wonder if adjustment and change and the stress that comes with that can have this affect. it can make skin flaky so why not stinky. i can smell a change in breath when my dogs are stressed.

I definitely believe this is true. Stress can cause physiological changes (shedding, flaking, odor), as well as affect the immune system and predispose to infections and cause flare-ups of allergies. Any dog who is adjusting to a new home will be experiencing some stress, and it's not unusual to notice signs like this.

 

Would second the advice for a vet visit to make sure there's not a health problem, but this may just take some time to clear up. Both posters who have mentioned dogs who smell bad have dogs who are new to their homes. It'll be interesting to see if that odor decreases as they settle in.

[Neighsayer]

You could always get an intact male goat. Next to him, your dog would not smell at all!

[GreyWrangler]

i read the topic and thought 'hmm the only difference between my males and females over the years was the boys feet smelled like fritos while the girls didn't.'

[Guest Swifthounds]

You could always get an intact male goat. Next to him, your dog would not smell at all!

 

So true.

 

Intact male urine will have a noticeable difference from that of a neutered male, but the only time I've known an intact male dog itself to smell is either infection or stress.

[Guest verthib]

You could always get an intact male goat. Next to him, your dog would not smell at all!

 

Lolol

[Guest jedortia]

Thank you all for your response. I agree that he probably shouldn't smell. And I have had several entire male foster dogs come and have not been like him.

 

He has been living in an outside run for the last few months before I got him, perhaps he has been sleeping in his own urine at times.

 

I like the suggestion that he might be dribbling down his leg. I think this is in fact the problem.

 

He is going to the vet on Tuesday to get desexed and I will have a talk to them about it and get them to check his urine and skin.

 

I think also he may have a bit of a skin issue going on. It is very dry and flaky. Hopefully with a change in diet, lots of soothing medicated baths and lots of TLC he will be smelling beautiful by the time he goes to his forever home.

 

I should point out that although I have a multiple dog household and do a lot of fostering I am very sensitive to doggy smell. I have a small house and a small yard so have to make sure everyone and everything stays clean.

[Guest june]

You might try using a yard (weed and feed) sprayer (DO NOT USE THE WEED AND FEED SPRAY) filled with a mixture of Dawn dish soap and water. Using the sprayer "wash" your grass. It shouldn't hurt your grass. I use it sometimes where my dogs go regularly to help with odor.