Food For A Hound Whose Gas Makes Birds Fall From The Sky

[GreytNut]

Our new addition Sarge needs some assistance. He has gas that can peel paint from the walls, kill birds as they fly overhead and make his humans' eyes water and noses bleed. The whole house smells like poop, and it's just from his gas.

 

Any ideas for food for a gassy hound? We are feeding Taste of the Wild High Prairie and we do prefer a grain-free food, but at this point we'll feed him whatever will keep him healthy and stop the gaseous emissions. He has some loose poo as well... not exactly diarrhea, just a bit loose. He tested negative for parasites. Riley does great on TOTW High Prairie, but it just isn't working for his new brother.

[Feisty49]

Annie has gas so seldom that I can almost say never. She used to have soft poo issues but no longer. She is fed 3 cups of food a day, split 1-1/2 cup each for breakfast and supper.

 

Each meal is: 1 cup of Iams Proactive (Iams in the Green Bag) and 1/2 cup of Natural Balance LID Sweet Potato & Venison Formula.

 

Once I got her on this combo, her poos, which had been OK on Iams in Green Bag, firmed up even more. Since she likes the combo and does well on it, I don't even think about changing anything.

 

Good luck!

[ramonaghan]

Have you tried adding a tablespoon of plain yogurt to his meals? Sweep's generally not gassy either, but on the rare occasion that she is, that seems to do the trick.

[galgrey]

If he's a new addition, I would have him checked again for parasites. When I first got Princess, she had horrific gas and unformed stools. She had false negatives on two fecals, but the third one showed hookworms. Her gas never returned once she got rid of the hooks.

[Guest k9soul]

I'm not sure how long you have had him, but I've found sometimes it takes dogs awhile to adjust to grain-free or to a "richer" food. I've found it sometimes takes a bag or two of the food before things seem to improve. However, your guy does sound particularly bad, so the fecal check is a good idea, and he may be intolerant to something in the food like potatoes (which grain-free formulas often have).

[Houndtime]

You might want to add a probiotic to his food. I use Natures Bounty, human product, which I purchase in Walmart or the supermarket. It's about $6.99 a bottle. Sometimes they have buy one, get one.

[Time4ANap]

We've had excellent results from the Precise line of pet foods. There are a number of options, but the basic Precise Foundation Chicken Meal and Rice is always a good place to start. It's a very digestible food. I order ours from Wag.com.

 

If he is recently off the track or kennel, you might see if you can find out when he was de-wormed, and if more than 3 weeks run another course of Panacur or or your vet's preferred de-wormer. We've never had a positive fecal test, but have had a time or two when another course of Panacur cured the issue. Actually getting a positive fecal is very hit or miss depending on which type of worm or parasite you are dealing with, and you might have better odds of winning Powerball than actually having a positive fecal test.

 

I try to avoid too many additive or additions to food until the diet is under control, but if the gas is that bad, maybe try a regular Gas-X if you hear his tummy squealing or you think he has any gas pains.

 

Good luck!

[greysmom]

Do a round of de-worming. Fecal's can be false-negative as well as false-positive.

 

Gas indicates something is off. Most usually it seems to be too high a protein content in the food. He may be a dog that does just fine on a lower quality dog food. I also agree with adding a probiotic. Good gut bugs help stop gas.

[Guest skinnerjenna]

The best advice I ever got was from a lady that started a frozen raw diet company for dogs. She said if you can't afford the best food or don't have time to cook for your dogs, what ever you feed change it every 6 months, or mix two foods together because they are all missing something. How would you feel if you ate only hamburgers every meal for your whole life? We always wanted to give our greys a no-filler high quality food. We found that they need some fillers or they have wicked gas and loose stools. Plus I have been told that you should keep the protein level under 26%. We settled on feeding two kibbles and amending with green beans, yogurt etc at dinner time for some variety. Every six months we switch out one of the two kibbles. We have a list of 4-5 star rated foods, and we cycle through them. They love the variety.

[GreytNut]

Well, Sarge had to go to the vet for an unrelated issue so while we were there he got wormed just so we can rule that out. Since we wormed him we also wormed Riley. He's still got gas but it doesn't seem as bad. Not sure if that's due to the worming or that he's getting used to his food. We're giving him a couple more weeks on TOTW High Prairie before we pull the plug and find another food.

 

He is on Keflex for an infected sheath now, so that should also do interesting things to his GI system. We will put probiotics in his food (any suggestions for what kind / how much?) but I think the Keflex will kill them as fast as we put them in.

Edited November 15, 2014 by GreytNut

[Remolacha]

While he is on the antibiotic you might just want to add some plain yogurt to his food (as long as he isn't lactose intolerant!). There are about a million probiotics out there. Charley takes NaturVet Digestive Enzymes which has a probiotic and a prebiotic. Sallie had different issues, more poop related, so she takes Thorne Bacillus CoagulansVET. I get both from Amazon.

[Guest Wasabi303]

My girl was the exact same when I fed her TOTW. She now eats Iams Green bag, and gets Olewo's carrots with every meal. I haven't smelled a fart in two months. The carrots are truly magic and her coat looking amazing. Plus she loves the taste of the carrots. She has even been on a ton of medication lately and no upset tummy at all. I am so impressed with Olewo's. They are cheap and they work and they are natural. What more could you want?

[Guest Scarter55]

I find that Greek yogurt helps with gas as it helps keep the intestinal bacteria healthy, particularly if they are on antibiotics. Good for us humans as well.

 

I like the idea of cycling the food. We try to keep Ladys food quite varied.

[GreytNut]

I just bought some probiotics from the pharmacy with several different strains, although it was so cold in the car that when I came back from my second grocery stop everything was frozen (it's subzero in western South Dakota right now). Hopefully that doesn't kill them off.

 

Olewo carrots are on order from Amazon. We'll add them to his food and see if that helps him out. Actually both dogs would probably benefit from it.

[lukasmom]

Since we have been giving Luka cooked sweet potatoes and both Luka and Carter are getting Olewo carrots the gas problems are gone and the poops are wonderful.

[Guest FosterMom2014]

My girl was the exact same when I fed her TOTW. She now eats Iams Green bag, and gets Olewo's carrots with every meal. I haven't smelled a fart in two months. The carrots are truly magic and her coat looking amazing. Plus she loves the taste of the carrots. She has even been on a ton of medication lately and no upset tummy at all. I am so impressed with Olewo's. They are cheap and they work and they are natural. What more could you want?

I too found Olewo's carrots a great addition. In my guys case, 2tbls. was too much for him to swallow(1 cup warm water and wait 10 minutes, was around 2 cups of hydrated carrots). So I called the company and they said to use whatever water( 1/4 cup if that will hydrate the 2 tbls.) I feel he will eat after the hydration happens, so I do just 1/4 cup with 2 tbls. and it worked! After mixing it with his kibble he gobbles it down and no gas whatsoever. Good luck.

[Guest FosterMom2014]

Since we have been giving Luka cooked sweet potatoes and both Luka and Carter are getting Olewo carrots the gas problems are gone and the poops are wonderful.

Have you noticed them eating their poop? I don't understand why this is happening, could it be the carrots?

[tra708]

I had the same issues with Connie. Bad poops and horrendous gas. I feel your pain.

What eventually solved the problem was sweet potato/bison kibble, instead of fish or chicken based food. That has been just my experience.

Everyone's suggestions above are good, too. I think it's just a trial and error thing....each dog is different of course.

Keep going and don't give up hope.

[lukasmom]

No, neither of my hounds eat poop after eating the Olewo carrots.