Pet Tips
Tip 79 – Flatulence in dogs – dog farting – treating dog farts
Although most dogs seem to enjoy the smell of a human flatus or fart, the reverse is rarely true. Dogs suffering from excessive flatulence (farting) can quickly pollute the air quality in a room. Although not harmful to human health, the smell is often horrific and can it create some embarrassing moments, especially when guests are around.
The most common causes of bad flatulence in dogs include;
- Eating too fast – When the dog eats too fast, swallowed air (aerophagia) makes it to the intestines very quickly and in a more concentrated quantity.
- The natural processes of producing the gas through food digestion and absorption within the digestive and eliminatory tracts.
- Eating foods that are known to cause flatulence (beans, cauliflower etc).
- Eating a poor quality dog food.
Tips that can help diminish the severity of dog flatulence:
- Instead of feeding your dog 1 or 2 portions of food per day, divide the daily ration into smaller portions and feed the dog more frequently.
- Sometimes dogs eat too quickly because they fear their food will be taken away, so feed your dog in a quiet comfortable area.
- Exercise the dog more frequently to stimulate its intestines.
- Choose a premium brand of dog food that is highly digestible.
There are products on the market that can can be added to dog food in order to reduce farting but these should only be used after consulting your veterinarian. Activated charcoal is often used in this regard and it does absorb the bad smelling gasses that cause bad flatulence. It must be used with caution and only occasionally however, since it can also rob the dog’s body of the nutrients it is getting from its food.
It should be noted that although bad flatulence can be reduced, all dogs (just like all humans) experience daily flatulence and it should never be your intention to get your dog to stop farting altogether.
i have heard rawhide chews cause gas.
Debra, Thanks for the comment. I’ve been surfing the web looking for help regarding my puppy’s gas and lo and behold – your one short sentence is
probably the solution to my (puppy’s) problem.
my dog is a pit bull and he farts alot. We NEED to know why. Why dosn’t he shed?Why does he fart?Why does my german sheperd not get in the bath?
Dog probably farts because of the food. Better quality food leads to less gas.
Please contact your vet for the other problems.
Good luck.
Hi I have a 14yr old chow dingo half and half he has been on 2 medications and now he is gassy and boy does he stink is there anything I can do or give him to stop just alittle bit or should I be concerned and call my vet. thanks for any help
Given that the vet prescribed the meds, I’d probably just call my vet and see what he/she says about this.
I have a 6 month old pitt/boxer/lab. He farts all the time and it smells so bad. We feed him Blue Buffalo food, so not the cheap stuffn and they still smell so bad. We don’t know what to do
I recommend you post this in the dog food section of our pet forum. Lots of knowledgeable people there can give better advice than I can.
Good luck!
Rawhide chews were the likely problem with my German Shepherd. No chews, no gas. Also, it helps to supplement her regular dog food diet with boiled chicken or cooked ground beef once a week with a spoonful of yogurt or cottage cheese.
Debra, ive smelled they, espially after your comme.t,, i came here to find how mypoor dog got so gassy, yup. Rawhide bones. Anybdy know if its ok to give her a tums or rolaid? That wont hurt a 60 pound dog? Ill look around before i give her a tums. Hey all get farts sometime
My german shepherd has had bad gas since we got him from his previous owner, over a year ago. We switched his food from Bill jack (what his orevious owner fed him) too blue buffalo per vet recemendation. First we tried the chicken brown rice but He was a little under weight so he suggested thw high protein blue buffalo, he loves it…i keep reading that dog food is a main cause of smelly gas but i thought that was a good kind for dogs. We spend alot on it and i thought it would help but its not at all, he goes on at least one if not 2 walks daily!
For better food suggestions please post this for free in our dog food forum. Good luck
http://www.pets.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=53
Please post on our forum for better feed recommendations from people in the know.
Good luck.
Hi does human chocalate give dogs wind, and also smell awful,
I went shopping today, and our Staffordshire terrier,
Sniffed in the shopping bag and found our, two finger Kit-Kat.’s.
So i let her have one as she had it in her mouth,
Since Chocolate is POISONOUS to dogs and cats, farting is the least of your worries.
Death a greater concern.
Please do not give any chocolate to dogs or cats.