We have reached a point in our home where “blaming it on the dog” has become a regular activity. Harley is an eight-year-old shepherd mix that, up until a few months ago, was super-active. It was this activity that caused him to completely tear a cruciate ligament in his left knee. We’ve dealt with the surgery and recovery so now we’re on to rehab. He’s doing great, but the months of inactivity have not gotten along with his digestive tract. Dogs, like humans, need regular activity to help keep things moving. So now that we’ve started the walks and exercise, my wonderfully loving four-legged companion has turned from Pluto to Gas Giant! (Yup, that’s a little Disney/science mash-up for you.)
For the past few weeks my partner and I have been keeping magazines close at hand to fan noxious odors in the other direction, keeping oil burners going almost 24/7, and banish our loving friend to other parts of the house. We’ve had to even go as far as to sleep with the window open (in March!) to avoid finding ourselves being woken up in a gas chamber.
I know Harley’s food had a major role in his digestive distress but unfortunately due to a special diet and picky eating on his part, changing his food was not an option. He doesn’t eat quickly. He grazes throughout the day. So what to do… Thank gawd for Google!
After reading through piles of fart jokes and seeing the dark side of the internet I found a forum where someone was honestly looking for an answer to the same gaseous problems. Down towards the end of the comments, a poster suggested yogurt as an addition to the dogs food to help get their workings in order. I went back and forth on this for awhile… Harley has been on a strict dog food-only diet all his life, how would his body respond? He’s so picky — would he even eat it? And most importantly… would it work? It was then that a repugnant haze filled the room, and I grabbed my car keys and was out the door.
I ended up buying a four pack of plain yogurt and, with crossed fingers, held the open package out to the dog. I have never seen Harley so excited about food before! It was like he knew that what I was offering him would be the answer to all our woes. For four days our home was flatulent-free and it was wondrous. Until day five… I was out of yogurt.
“Bah,” I thought, “I’m sure it’ll be fine.” Let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, it was not. Within moments of his usual yogurt time, the apocalyptic exhaust was back. And we spent last night breathing through pillows, and again sleeping with the window open.
The next morning, I went straight out to the store, and within minutes of my return, the air cleared. From this day forward we will never go without yogurt again!
Oh man, dog farts. Been there. When we got our pittie from the shelter, it took about a month to find a food that didn’t upset her stomach and in the meantime she just had the stinkiest farts ever. Plus, she’s a snuggler, so she always had to lay right on top of us whenever we were on the couch or bed. Thankfully, we were able to find a food to fix the situation and now she just lets out the occasional toot…and then looks at her butt all like, “did that come from me?”
I’m glad you found something that worked for your pooch though. I can’t imagine living with those stinky dog farts forever.
They always seem so shocked!! It’s hilarious!! Harley startled himself and ran out of the room, we were so confused. . . and then it hit us =o)
Canned pumpkin also does wonders for dogs’ digestion; I’m not sure if it specifically helps with farting. I’m glad the yogurt is working!
Good to know!! That will be the next thing if the yoghurt stops working!
I have a 10 yr old black lab who is on an ultra z/d prescription diet, so its great to hear that yogurt is ok 4 dogs on special diets. The biggest problem is the gas that comes from this diet. How much yogurt and when? She’s about 50lbs. She also has runny poop, so if anyone has dicovered that the pumpkin also takes care of the gas- 2 birds, 1 stone? Also, what’s the pumpkin amount and when? And yeah, it is hilarious when her farts make her look @ her butt w/ curiosity and suspicion!
ity and suspision
Oh no, runny poops- ask your vet about probiotics for pups. I think yogurt would be a big help, and also change the food. I have a 9 yo boxer whom is allergic to meat protein, but vegetarian foods give her diarrhea. 🙁 Talk a custom diet now. Lol. And she used to be super gasy, when she was on foods she way allergic to….coincident, I think not. 🙂 Good luck!
I work at a cat and dog nutrition store, and we’re trained by vets on staff. When it comes to the yogurt, make sure it’s entirely sugar-free. Greek yogurt is fine, plain sugar-free regular yogurt is also fine. Start with a tsp amount a day, and work up to a tbsp amount over the course of two weeks. The yogurt has good bacteria (you will also hear them called “pre and pro biotics”) as well as digestive enzymes to assist your animal (and us!) in getting the absolute best amount of nutrients from their food as possible.
Make sure it’s canned pumpkin and not pumpkin pie filling! There is a difference! It does wonders for dog constipation.
That could get dangerous 😉
Or you might get cinnamon-nutmeg farts!
It stops them up if they’ve got the runs, too. Basically, canned pumpkin is a magical thing for dog butts.
It’s not dog farts I deal with, it’s dog burps. My dog constantly burps a noxious, sulfuric rotten egg, room-clearing burp. She has set meal times and scarfs down her sensitive stomach food in less than 5 minutes. I haven’t looked in-depth for a solution, but it’s starting to get desperate. She has the nickname “Grossie” (her name is Gracie) since she’s just so disgusting. Anyone have a suggestion for that?
I’ve heard that putting a rock or something in their bowl that they have to eat around can slow them down so they gulp less air, haven’t tried it though.
She tried to eat the rocks! I haven’t tried those slow-feeder bowls yet. I do add water to her food to slow her down, but she got used to it.
http://www.amazon.com/Skid-Stop-Slow-Feed-Jumbo/dp/B004HIHW02/ref=sr_1_20?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1364512316&sr=1-20&keywords=slow+feed+dog+bowl
We have this bowl. It works okay. Better than nothing at all. It’s especially effective towards the end of the meal when he has to nose around for those last few bits. We also deal with the noxious burps. They are something else! And he definitely does them when he eats too fast, but thankfully it’s not a regular thing for us.
Get giant rocks – we had only two big ones that took up around 2/3 the surface of the bottom of the good sized dog bowl. It really helped our farty dog situation. Good luck!
I have a 12 yr old springer spaniel who finishes his food in about 45 seconds! I have a slow-feeder bowl but this hardly slows him down. I give him half of his kibble and then make him wait for a few minutes before refilling the bowl with the remaining kibble. He also has awful smelly farts – bad enough to clear a room! I am going to try him with yogurt and see if that helps at all. For the subscriber whose dog has runny poops, I suggest sweet potato. Simply boil or microwave and mash and mix with their food. I have given this to my dog on occasions and it worked a treat. You may need to do this for a few days, but it’s definitely worth a try.
Try using a tennis ball, she can’t eat that and it apparently works better than rocks ….LOL
a can of pop works just as good
Have you tried the slow-feed bowls?
I put part of my dog’s food in her Kong.
Breakfast: She gets part of her breakfast before we leave, part of it in her kong with frozen pumpkin smooshed on the end to keep the food in. It takes her about ten minutes to clean out the frozen kong, instead of under two minutes to inhale her cup of food.
Dinner: Just kibble in the kong and whatever doesn’t fit goes into the bowl. I set the kong on the floor, not in her bowl (one time I didn’t and she accidentally pushed her food bowl off its stool and into her water bowl. It made quite the mess and she was sad her dinner exploded.)
I tried freezing plain yogurt for her morning kong but it was just easier to deal with a can of pumpkin than the yogurt, I think cause the yogurt was too liquidy whereas the pumpkin tends to stay where you glob it. Either way she looooooves it. Now making her morning kong/breakfast bowl is part of my getting ready for bed routine along with letting her out for her last pee before bed.
That would be something worth trying. Gracie has no interest in toys except for a stuffed Domo monster, but I’m betting a Kong with food in it would be a good solution. I think I’ll try that this weekend.
My Piggy (boston terrier) has 0 interest in the kong – unless theres food in it. If theres peanut butter or cheese she will sit there for hours trying to get all the food out.
Awww all I can think of is sad confused puppy face as her dinner exploded.
My male would have thought a pinata was just whacked open or act like a bath salt addict and go ape shit on his meal that is EVERYWHERE!
My cats had similar issues – they would eat so quickly, and then get sick all over. I switched them to a larger kibble that MUST be chewed to be eaten. Can your dog eat a larger-size kibble?
Another suggestion is a change in location of the food bowl. I’m wondering if the dog is scared that something/someone else is going to eat its food, and so thinks “I must eat ALL the foods so the so-and-so doesn’t eat it all first.”
The combination of the two has really worked wonders for my sick kitties.
Our doggie is a fast eater, too. It started out as a way for her to lose a little weight, but we top the kibble with frozen green beans (low calories, extra fiber). She burps, but they don’t smell. I don’t know if this will work for you, but may be worth a try!
5 minutes is a long while to eat one meal. But you can pour the dry food onto a cookie sheet and they have to lick up each piece instead of gulping. 100% plain pumpkin is great for stomach and intestines. Can feed it daily. About a big serving spoon full for a 40# dog.
Slow feed Dog Bowl: http://amzn.com/B0038HLHJU
Also the yogurt may help this as well.
I know this is an older thread, but adding in case it helps. I have 3… 2 Plotts + 1 Dal = >usual gas. The vet told us to add pumpkin, which I do sparingly, enough so I can see that they are “regular”, but that’s the extent of the benefit so I will definitely be trying the yogurt trick for the random expulsions! As for speed, 2 eat very quickly, the 3rd, eats normal to slow and ends up with 2 laser focused observers waiting for her to finish. I tried rocks and tennis balls, but they were onto the trick by the third meal and just took them out of the bowls. I tried a lacrosse ball, they are very firm and much heavier than a tennis ball, but not too heavy they can’t move it around with their noses. For whatever reason, they haven’t thought to take it out, my guess is that it doesn’t come with an added ‘flavor’ that rocks or tennis balls to. And, I can clean them off any time like dishes, especially helpful with the sticky pumpkin. They still eat quickly, but not nearly as fast as before. If this ever stops working I’m another trick I found, an inverted small bowl – acts just like the slow feeder. Calculated self-feeders were also suggested, breaking large meals into many throughout the day (like us). Thanks for the gas tips and good luck with the feeders.
when our doberpup was on an pro-biotic yogurt helped keep his gut working properly…and occasionally it got him interested in food when he didn’t want to eat. yogurt’s fantastic. buy the big containers to save some cash.
Did you know that it’s a WHOLE LOT CHEAPER to make your own yogurt? If you’re going to need to keep it on hand all the time forever, it might be something to look into. (I do mine in the crockpot.)
Can we say “Baskets!!” ?! I can’t believe I never though of that! I’ve tried it before too. Great idea!
I do mine overnight in the oven. Got my instructions from the book Make the Bread, Buy the Butter — she made it so reassuring and easy. And it is way cheaper. Plus the whey I get from draining the yogurt a little (to get a thicker yogurt) is fabulous in breads, bagels, and even baked goods.
Hi. I just saw this post about the yogurt and was wondering if you still give your dog yogurt and if so how’s it going. Our Rottie has terrible gas so I’m thinking about trying the yogurt. He’s so picky so I’m not sure I’ll get him to eat it. Crossing my fingers.
My dog loves the yogurt more then her food. We also changed her food and cut out any extras on her food. We would give her leftovers in the fridge. She used to be able to digest the leftovers, but she’s old and can’t now. These changes have made a difference.
My dog is super picky too, but he love the yoghurt right away. We used plain but I know people who use vanilla, cause it smells more enticing. We’ve tapered him down to about a cup every couple of days and it’s still working!! Though I really dont want to risk taking him off of it completely
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Our dog has had the nastiest smell coming from his butt for the past two months. As soon as I read your post I jumped up and served him strawberry yogurt. He loved it. Praying that this is the answer to our poor noses and his poor belly.
Maybe you could submit a post on how you do this?
It’s so easy! All you need is a cooler, jars, and a thermometer. I made a video of the process, and linked to the recipe:
I have noticed that my staffie’s gas is much better when he eats yogurt. I didn’t put it together until now…
How about cats? One of my cats has a big farting problem. I know cats are lactose intolerant but do they tolerate yogurt better than milk?
I can’t help on the topic of yogurt but my cat has terrible farts if she has beef in her food, have you tried different meats/consistancies to see if its a particular ingredient?
I wouldn’t recommend it, but a grain-free (wet/canned) food might work wonders. It did for my cat. She also lost some weight. She was 14 lbs and should be 10-11. I’m not sure how much she weighs now, but it’s definitely less. I can actually see her hips!
I have to admit I laughed out loud at the unexpectedness of the title. But as I lived with cat’s farts for a quite a while after we adopted our kitty, I know what you’ve been through (on a smaller scale, maybe). Good on you for finding a way to stop the farts and improve your dog digestion!
Was your dog on any oral antibiotics after his surgery? Antibiotics can mess up digestion sometimes because they kill the bacteria that live in the gut and help with digestion. Antibiotics are an absolutely wonderful thing, when you need them, but a bit indiscriminate in their bacteria killing:p
If that was the cause, it would make sense that yogurt helped. Eating yogurt after being on antibiotics is often recommended because the bacteria cultures in the yogurt replace the bacteria that were killed off by the antibiotics.
I was at a local pet supply store this weekend, and in the bulk dog biscuit area they sold charcoal dog biscuits! I bought a couple because I was curious, and my dog ate the one I gave her (but she does eat almost anything).
So they seem useful for either bad breath or gassy stomachs, but I would not feed my dog too many of them because charcoal can bind up vitamins and nutrients. And I would probably still go with yogurt over these, but maybe these could help with stinky burps.
There’s more info at these links:
http://www.vetinfo.com/charcoal-dog-biscuits-for-bad-breath.html
http://www.wisegeek.org/what-are-charcoal-biscuits.htm
So I just want to thank the OP from the bottom of my heart! I’ve started giving my smelly, burping dog a scant tablespoon of Greek yogurt on her food. Not only has it slowed down her eating, her gas has nearly completely disappeared and her breath is exponentially better. I never EVER thought to try this before. Thank you 🙂
You could also try buying some probiotics pills – they can be sprinkled on the dog’s food (or put in peanut butter or whatever your favorite pill-pushing technique is) and probably better as dairy is difficult for most pets to digest.
Why don’t you make it at home? Use plain unsweetened/unsalted/non-flavored curd to curdle a new batch (?) of milk. If it’s cold where you are then put the milk in the oven overnight or near a heat source. Takes upto 12 hours for curd to form but well worth it
Hi ive got a border collie who totally stinks. Hes got epilepsy and some of the medication irritates his tummy and makes him windy(what we call gassy in the uk). Il try the yogurt as this will be ok with his meds. Ive heard charcol biscuits can also help but cant be eaten if the dogs on oral medication.
Sweet potato is also very good for their poos but not the farting, apparently. Fresh not canned sweet potato because of the sugar. I’m going to try yogurt also, her farts are getting bad. But I think it’s the broccoli we put in her food, that is about to stop.
Green beans could replace broccoli. My dog loves them right from the freezer. They were recommended by our vet to help her lose the extra dog-weight.
Never thought of sweet potato before. . . though I know Harley wont eat them raw (He’s to much of a princess). .I wonder if they’d still help cooked, or if they’d be better that way anyways.
You have to cook the sweet potato. I put in microwave or you can do a few at a time in oven. Now I’m mixing yogurt with the sweet potato. What a gooey mess, she loves it.
That’s sounds great, in a “he’ll love it and I wonder if that would work on my dude” kind of way!!!. 🙂
Omg I’m trying this right now I’m up in the middle of the night because I can’t handle my 11 yr old lab/pit mix, Trucks farts no more the big bedhog has been stinking up the whole house for weeks now its so weird nothing has changed in his diet or treats so I’m figuring it’s him getting old:( If anyone else knows why he is farting all day/night please help I’m getting worried thank you
I think it’s age also, they can’t digest as well. It’s all I can think of. My lab is 15. I changed her food as well to nutro senior. So far so good. Sure she still poots but I can sleep thru the night without noxious gases waking me.
Oh wow, I stumbled upon your article while searching for a solution for my cat. I don’t know when I’ve laughed so hard, lately–literally until tears ran down my cheeks. Of course, the whole time I was laughing, cat was watching me curiously and just farting away …
I’ll try the yogurt. Thanks for making me laugh about this revolting problem, Stephanie.
It’s not such a laughing matter when you have to sit with a gass mask on whilst watching TV with a stinky Cavalier King Charles plonked on your lap. I’m going to try the yoghurt .
You should consider switching him to homemade food (just do lots of research first to make sure u cover all the vitamins etc your dog needs), food that he eats now is obviously not good for his belly. I just did that with my pup, he’s a picky eater as well, and now he basically inhales his food, no more (atomic bomb) farts, he doesnt stink anymore so no more washing him every week, also all the scratching and munching has stopped. its awesome and cheap and takes me 5mins of chopping and 30mins of cooking for 2 weeks worth of food.
Freezing yogurt in ice cube trays makes perfect kong treats (or just straight treats). Just pop one or two out whenevs. We mix in peanut butter or banana chunks for extra special goodness. Our fart-master loves it.
Hmmmmm, maybe yogurt is an answer to my boyfriend’s gas problems, too!
I’m gonna try yogurt but my dog has to have her butt wiped or she drags her butt on our carpet. Often we find something that looks similar to blood though its not in her stool. Any comments?
We have a 9yo female black, not spayed. She had some weird discharge, not poo, not blood, not even in heat. She started getting lethargic and not eating, so I took her to the vet. Turns out she had a uterine infection, nearly killed her. Had to get emergency surgery. She’s all better now, but don’t mess around with weird discharge stuff, take your pup to the vet.
Haven’t read through all the comments but kefir is very high in probiotics and seems to help with ahem.. digestive issues… Thankfully my dog rarely farts… Praise de Lawd!
We have a pug x and for such a small dog, what smells she produces is unbelievable!!! Thank you for sharing your yogurt trick, I will try this tomorrow!! She also unfortunately eats her own poo!! And burps!!! Hopefully the yogurt might stop that too!
This is hilarious. “Woken up in a gas chamber”. LMAO.
We have a Boston Terrier that is the same way. Run you out
of the house! We have used Yogurt for awhile here too. Thanks
for the information, and laughs.
Bill
Hendersonville, NC
http://www.crankinoldies.com
I have two dogs, I used to fed them the same food. But the male dog is the one which had the worse farts. I have changed their diets and tried a lot of other stuff. BUT NOW I GIVE THEM HOME MADE YOGURT. I now fed them KEFIR milk yogurt with pumpkin and sweet potatoes and frozen beans for treats. It works wonders. Milk KEFIR is very high in probiotics. (Google milk Kefir and you will find out more about this magic yogurt) You can buy live milk Kefir from Ebay and start your own. Goooood Luck to all the owner of the farting dogs. You may sleep well tonight…..
Thanks Rita. Very interesting. I’ll try that.
Bill