Gun Dog Forum

I have been researching on here about dog gas/farts. The info I have been reading says it might be the dog food or eating fast.

My puppy has been on the same dog food, Diamond Puppy, since i got her. She is now 10 months old. She started getting gas around the end of October. She eats extremely slow, like watching grass grow. I don't believe it is the dog food but I could be wrong. If i remember right she started getting gas before I opened the new bag of dog food so it wasn't a bad bag I don't think. Her stool looks as good as poop can. It does smelly very strong when she first starts thou.

What maybe causing the gas? Normally I don't care but it is really starting to get old.

It could be that the food no longer suits the dog. People can develop allergies later in life; so can dogs.

If you don't think consuming air is the issue, I'd put my money on the food. One reason why I switched from Innova - a fairly respected brand of chow -was because I noticed impurities in the food and, so you know it wasn't just my imagination, I noticed issues develop in my dogs; yeasty ears and all the females cycling weird. The Innova company has a disclaimer on the bags now, that they do not contain this impurity a person reported, but my dogs are telling me that the impurity is or was there, and I am not willing to fool with it any longer, ie my brand loyalty is gone. Another story similar, a friend fed Kirkland chicken and rice, for year with good result, and then her dogs seemed to lose condition, coats were looking patchy, dogs had loose stools. The company said nothing was wrong, but she had the food tested and found a fungus in it; company says the fungus can be there at the level found and not be an issue, but her dogs were telling her different. She switched diets and the problems resolved. So, its possible something in the food itself has changed and your dog is telling you so.

Also, I believe low levels of parasites like giardia can cause gas. My fru-fru dog was particularly susceptible in his first year, but was very gassy and under stress/dog show - would break with giardia. As a mature dog it doesn't seem to be an issue, but as a puppy it was. Gosh did he crack some rank ones his first year! I notice if my adults get on my grassy yard (the dog yard is pea gravel but the 'human' yard is turf) they will graze and nibble and not sure if they are eating up a bunch of parasites or bacteria or what, but they will be rank a few days after munching on the lawn or digging in the fresh garden plot.

And, do you feed any treats or table scraps? I tend to feed my dogs alot of healthy left overs and broccolli sure makes them stankier than usual! I know if they eat anything like a pigs ear they smell FOUL.

Switch to a Diamond adult formula such as Premium or natural. Too old to be on a puppy formula anyway, and there isn't much difference anyway. Sometimes a subtle difference helps. If not better, could try some probiotic or digestive enzyme supplements.

The chances of this being a food allergy is almost nil. I would just cut back a little on the amount you are feeding especially at one time and if you think you need a few more calories add a shot of vegetable oil. Gas is producedmore often when the dog is over eating a little so try to cut back and see if it helps.

Ezzy

Theresa wrote:It could be that the food no longer suits the dog. People can develop allergies later in life; so can dogs.

And, do you feed any treats or table scraps? I tend to feed my dogs a lot of healthy leftovers and broccoli sure makes them stankier than usual! I know if they eat anything like a pigs ear they smell FOUL.

The only treats she gets are a couple meaty bones (brand) a day and the only table scrap she has had is one kernel of popcorn that she got to before I could.

big steve46 wrote:Switch to a Diamond adult formula such as Premium or natural. Too old to be on a puppy formula anyway, and there isn't much difference anyway. Sometimes a subtle difference helps. If not better, could try some probiotic or digestive enzyme supplements.

I am a firm believer in feeding puppy chow until age 1 but I will look into other puppy foods.

ezzy333 wrote:The chances of this being a food allergy is almost nil. I would just cut back a little on the amount you are feeding especially at one time and if you think you need a few more calories add a shot of vegetable oil. Gas is produced more often when the dog is over eating a little so try to cut back and see if it helps.

Ezzy

I feed her twice a day, 1 cup in the morning and 2 cups in the evening, most of the time she barely eats the 2 cups in the evening unless we went hunting or did a lot more running then she normally does, before she ate. I honestly wish she would eat more because I think she is on the thin side for her height.


She seems very healthy and her coat is nice and shiny, has no ear issues or anything like that. The only thing that I can think of that has changed her diet some is she started eating acorns off the ground, but she started doing this longer then a month ago.

I wonder if its the Meaty Bone biscuits?


FEEDING INSTRUCTIONS:
Meaty Bone® dog biscuits are designed as a snack or treat for dogs of all ages and are not intended to be fed as the sole diet for dogs.

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS:
Crude Protein ........................1.0% Min.
Crude Fat ..............................5.0% Min.
Crude Fiber ...........................4.5% Max.
Moisture ................................12.0% Max.

INGREDIENTS:
ground wheat, grain sorghum, animal fat (bha used as a preservative), beef and bone meal, meat by-products, salt, sodium tripolyphosphate, cracked wheat, caramel color, animal plasma, beef, potassium sorbate (used as a preservative), natural smoke flavor, red 40, minerals (ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), vitamins (vitamin e supplement, vitamin a supplement, niacin supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin d3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin b12 supplement). ad08.1131

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Ezzy may know more about this, but I thought "meat by products" were things like road kill and euthanized animals from the pound and the DDD animals. Something to consider in evaluating the gas IMHO.

I feed her twice a day, 1 cup in the morning and 2 cups in the evening, most of the time she barely eats the 2 cups in the evening unless we went hunting or did a lot more running then she normally does

This is exactly what I thought. Cut the 2 cups back a little that she really doesn't want. You are doing nothing wrong but 99 times out of a hundred gas is being produced because he dog is eating a little more than it wants or needs.

Try it and see what happens. Because you cut it back a little now doesn't mean you will have todo for long. She may even want a little more in the morning if she is just getting 1 cup then. My Brits are eating 1 cup in the morning and a 1/2 cup at night and have never had a gas problem.

Ezzy

Theresa wrote:I wonder if its the Meaty Bone biscuits?


FEEDING INSTRUCTIONS:
Meaty Bone® dog biscuits are designed as a snack or treat for dogs of all ages and are not intended to be fed as the sole diet for dogs.

GUARANTEED ANALYSIS:
Crude Protein ........................1.0% Min.
Crude Fat ..............................5.0% Min.
Crude Fiber ...........................4.5% Max.
Moisture ................................12.0% Max.

INGREDIENTS:
ground wheat, grain sorghum, animal fat (bha used as a preservative), beef and bone meal, meat by-products, salt, sodium tripolyphosphate, cracked wheat, caramel color, animal plasma, beef, potassium sorbate (used as a preservative), natural smoke flavor, red 40, minerals (ferrous sulfate, zinc oxide, manganous oxide, copper sulfate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite), vitamins (vitamin e supplement, vitamin a supplement, niacin supplement, d-calcium pantothenate, riboflavin supplement, pyridoxine hydrochloride, thiamine mononitrate, vitamin d3 supplement, folic acid, biotin, vitamin b12 supplement). ad08.1131

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Ezzy may know more about this, but I thought "meat by products" were things like road kill and euthanized animals from the pound and the DDD animals. Something to consider in evaluating the gas IMHO.

I stopped giving them to her for a while (week and a half) and it didn't make a difference. Besides I don't think 2 a day would cause paint peeling gas.

ezzy333 wrote:

I feed her twice a day, 1 cup in the morning and 2 cups in the evening, most of the time she barely eats the 2 cups in the evening unless we went hunting or did a lot more running then she normally does

This is exactly what I thought. Cut the 2 cups back a little that she really doesn't want. You are doing nothing wrong but 99 times out of a hundred gas is being produced because he dog is eating a little more than it wants or needs.

Try it and see what happens. Because you cut it back a little now doesn't mean you will have todo for long. She may even want a little more in the morning if she is just getting 1 cup then. My Brits are eating 1 cup in the morning and a 1/2 cup at night and have never had a gas problem.

Ezzy

I will cut back the food for a week and see what happens. She doesn't eat all 2 cups of food in the evening if she doesn't want to. It will sit there until morning and that is what she will have in the monring I don't give her anymore. I will try 1 cup morning 1 cup evening and see how it goes. I guess I don't see how cutting back on food will help gas but I will try it and see what happens.

Thanks for all the replies.

"Paint peeling gas" - ROFLMAO!

I do notice with a few of my dogs if they are getting too much chow they get loose stools w/gas.

Mike it could be the breeding, Jill has bas gas too.........

Chip

lvrgsp wrote:Mike it could be the breeding, Jill has bas gas too.........

Chip

Dandy!

How much are you feeding Jill on a normal day to day?

Theresa: Lucy has not had any problems with loose stools. They seem pretty normal for any dog but they smell worse then normal poo can smell I think. My other GSP's stool doesn't even smell compared to Lucy it is like rose pedals.

My GSP's were peeling the paint off the walls when they were younger. I had them on Diamond Puppy. When I switched them to the Diamond Premium adult they stopped cutting those high powered poots in about a week.

Told you so! You need to get off the belief that your dog needs puppy food.

If changing to adult food doesn't work for the gas problem I would try a bottle of PROZYME digestive aid. http://www.prozymeproducts

Just a 1/4 tsp per cup of food each meal will solve the problem for sure.

The Gas is most likely caused by the grain like corn, wheat, etc in the food.

The Gas is most likely caused by the grain like corn, wheat, etc in the food.

How did you determine what causes it? And what difference does it make? I think gas is a by-product of digestion but most times when it becomes a problem it is from over eating.

Ezzy

Maybe I could cut back my problem eating smaller dinners, Jan would be happy.

Just kidding, kind of.

I was looking at my Dogs food (Eagel), the performance and the puppy, They were so similar that I stopped the puppy food feeding. She is still alive and doing well. Have done it with my other dogs as well when pups. All did well.

Jan and the rest of us too!

I hve seldom used any puppy food but when I did it was just one bag and that didn't last long.

Ezzy

Well it has been a week since I cut her back on the dog food. No change, in fact now she is always looking at the door where I keep her dog food looking like she is still hungry. I will try this until she runs out of food which should be close to a week maybe 5 days more. If that doesn't work I am going to try switching dog foods.

Sounds like a plan to me.

Ezzy

Diamond Puppy first 3 ingredients are Chicken by-product meal, whole grain ground corn, wheat flour. Way to much grain to meat percentage in my book. NO real meat source. More like chicken flavored cereal.

If you changed to the Diamond Naturals Adult Chicken/rice formula the ingredients are: Chicken, chicken meal, whole grain brown rice, white rice, cracked pearled barley.

I bet your dog wouldn't have any gas of that formula. I would sure give it a try and see.

Really strange Diamond would make such a crappy puppy food but have such good adult feed. Either feed looks good, just different. That doesn't mean one is better than the other but it would be an option that might work. Rice is a poorer carb source but is very bland. The chicken would amount to a very small % of the feed and the chicken by-product meal and chicken meal are almost the same. So the different carb source may help with gas problem. Worth a try.

Ezzy

Update:

Well cutting back on the dog food didn't seem to work for my dog. She still had the gas problem and I didn't really notice any change.

I have changed to Iams puppy food just to try it out to see what would happen. after three days of eating it she no longer seems to have gas. It seems like she has been belching a lot more lately thou. If it isn't one end it is the other. I don't know if it is from the food or all the show she tries to eat.

I don't know if i want to keep her on Iams food or not. My older dog has been on it her whole life and has done really good on it thou. I may try to go to the Diamond adult food after the small bag of Iams puppy is gone. If she starts breaking loose again I don't think I will ever buy Diamond food again. I like the paint on my walls.

If anything else changes I will update this thread again. Thanks for all the suggestions I appreciate the help.

Update:

I can for sure say it was the Diamond dog food that gave my pup the gas. After she was done with the small bag of Iams I put her on a small bag of Nutro puppy, no gas. I figured I would try the adult food as recommended in this thread. I bought a 20lbs bag of the Adut Diamond food. Three days into the bag she started ripping again. I fed that for a couple more days to see what would happen and the gas didn't go away. I have now switch to Nutro Natural Choice Small Bites Lamb Meal & Rice Formula and she seems to be doing well on that. I think I may put her on the Hi-Energy to see how she does. I think she is still on the skinny side but she never stops running.

What do you folks think of Nutro Dog food? There hasn't been much posted on here about it.

Sorno wrote:Update:

I can for sure say it was the Diamond dog food that gave my pup the gas. After she was done with the small bag of Iams I put her on a small bag of Nutro puppy, no gas. I figured I would try the adult food as recommended in this thread. I bought a 20lbs bag of the Adut Diamond food. Three days into the bag she started ripping again. I fed that for a couple more days to see what would happen and the gas didn't go away. I have now switch to Nutro Natural Choice Small Bites Lamb Meal & Rice Formula and she seems to be doing well on that. I think I may put her on the Hi-Energy to see how she does. I think she is still on the skinny side but she never stops running.

What do you folks think of Nutro Dog food? There hasn't been much posted on here about it.

I use large breed Nutro Naturals Lamb and Rice, if my feed store is out of the Diamond Naturals Lamb and Rice. They do well on it. I switched to the Diamond Naturals line last summer. My GSP's had the same gas problem with the Diamond Puppy. I went with the advice on this fourm and moved the pups to the Diamond Premium I was feeding my oldest dog. One of the pups has an itchy scratchy allergy to some ingredient that was in that feed. Since the switch to the naturals line the gas and allergy stopped.

In the days when NUTRO MAX (wheat based food) was popular my Rottie had awfull gas. I switched to Natures Recipe Lamb/rice/barley and she never had another gas attack. Since then I have never used a food with wheat, corn, soy, glutens etc. Experience has been my best teacher.

It couldn't possibly be the grains in the food.......
Why would Diamond make a food that would make dogs fart?
All those grains are put there for a reason, they balance the amino and omega acids and compliment the non fillers in the food.

Just kidding being slightly sarcastic couldn't help myself. LOL....

My pup turned into a lethal gas bag right around that age also. There is an old thread on here somewhere, same subject, you may want to look it up for additional insight. At 12 months I switched off the puppy food. It took some of the ill wind out of him.

Now he's just a normal GSP gasbag markerdown

awg's comments make a lot of sense. Plus, if you don't let your dogs in the house, you don't have to worry about flatulence.

Your dogs fart? Here, I was blaming it on the wife the whole time

I was blaming the husband! But you know, maybe there was a reason I saw a "Beware Farting Vizsla" sticker for sale on EBAY.

Carla

Sorno,
Now that you know for sure that ingredients in dog food does cause GAS in your pup you could just stick with Iams or Eukanuba. But you will pay way more per pound.

If you can find CANIDAE in your area it would be a great food for your pup. The 4 meat protein formula is much higher calorie per cup than the High Energy by Nutro Natural Choice. Their Chicken/Rice is their highest calorie food. Your pup WILL NOT have gas with CANIDAE.

Canidae is NOT sold in Petco or PetsMart. Only private feed and pet stores. It is the best priced and highest quality food still sold in 40# bags today.

There is a store locator in their site that will help you find a store in your area. http://www.canidae.com

Just my opinion from more than 10 years experience feeding CANIDAE.

Hope that helps,

Glad you got the gas undercontrol. It's always seemed strange that a certain feed will cause gas in one pup but not the rest. I have never fed the Iams or Euk so I can't vouch for them but I have a couple of friends that did switch off of the Canidae because of the gas. I think more often than not it is a puppy thing and many times from overeating. Just because he has gas now doesn't mean he will always have it even eating th same food.

Dogs are like people and we are all individuals with our own little quirks. Glad you solved your problem. I've fed a lot of different feeds over the years but have been lucky to not have a problem that lasted more than a week or two.

Ezzy

Hey Sorno, Just to let you know Jill my dog, your dogs littermate, has bad gas as well, must be a puppy thing, I had her on Black Gold puppy, and then switched to Black Gold Sig. Series Chicken & Rice adult, it helped some, I think it is just a puppy thing, and not to worry Jill is real thin as well they are kind of going through that stage where the grow up and then fill out some. Hope this helps some. How did your pup do this hunting season?

Chip

MikeB, My feedstore sells Canidae, so I will check it out re formula, cost, etc. There are a lot of good feeds out there, and I always like to look at different ones.

Update:

Since I have switched her to the Nutro Aludt she hasn't tooted once that I have been able to smell. Also in the same time she has been starting to loose her shine. I think I am going to buy a bag of the 30/20 Nutro Max and mix some of that in there. I don't want to feed her the super high protien since she isn't running in the field as hard and it has been so cold for her to be outside for long periods. I have had a couple people tell me to switch to Black Gold. I don't know to much about it thou, must do some reseach.

Sorno wrote:Update:

Since I have switched her to the Nutro Aludt she hasn't tooted once that I have been able to smell. Also in the same time she has been starting to loose her shine.

How long has she been eating the new food? I dont think you'll be able to tell a difference in her coat, in such a small amount of time. plus she could just have alot of dust in her coat. Mine always gleem after a bath.

How soon after changing feed did you noice the change in the coat condition?

Just another note, milk and milk by-products tend to produce gas and I think you will find them in puppy feeds sometimes.

Ezzy

Never did like diamond, too greasy.

I use PMI nutrition. No puppy food here either, dam eats it and costs more.

For a good coat use cow livers boiled in water then add a few cups of rice to absorb the water, chop the liver up and mix it feed that to your dog and she will glow.

All animals fart, you do dont you? Old movie had a Priest old guy sitting on a sofa, he lets one rip, dog runs away, nun tells guy they used to beat the dog when he farted........

I use the deer livers for treats when getting dogs ready for the ring and when showing. The dogs love it but I never noticed the better coats. I probably never fed enough to show.

Ezzy

Yes we also use the deer innards, my bud has shot 5 so far, lots of scraps to the dogs, that deer meat is so rich a little goes a long way. I also do steers, save the innards for dog food, ox tails etc. They like it all, tongues, kidneys stuff I just cant eat anymore....or less

Too much deer meat dogs fart up a storm. Whew leave a window open ma

MarkJ, How do you like the PMI feed? I have been kind of curious as how it was working for people? What is your cost?

Thanks, Chip