New foster dog has horrible gas

[Spazzergasm]

He's been here about a day and a half... His gas is awful! He farts a lot and my whole living room has smelled like them all day.
Is it because he's eating slightly different food now, and the water is different, and he's in a new home? His poos are light brown and like soft-serve, but not runny.

 

[Marinegeekswife]

Is it because he's eating slightly different food now, and the water is different, and he's in a new home? His poos are light brown and like soft-serve, but not runny.

Likely yes. Food needs to be changed slowly, usually over about 2 weeks. Water also needs to be slowly mixed until they are drinking only the new. It could also very easily be from the stress of changing up homes and people. Has he been wormed? That is another possibility. Give him a little time to adjust and keep an eye on things. Some dogs also have grain allergies or sensitive digestive systems that can manifest like this. We feed Tripett's Green Tripe because our male has a very sensitive stomach and this is the only thing to really reset his system and keep it healthy.

 

[Nick]

Probably due to him switching diet. If he has gas, it's a good thing. Means there's no obstruction, and poop is better So, take a big whiff and a big sigh of relief that there's he doesn't have an obstruction

 

[Spazzergasm]

This is true, I'd rather him have awful gas then get bloat!

I'll ask the rescue lady if he's been de-wormed recently. I unfortunately can't really change his water slowly, I have a feeling the place he was drinking from before had a well, and I use city water. I'll see what I can do about his diet if it doesn't relax in a bit. Man his poos are huge. Like twice the size of my sister's pit bull I lived with!

 

[Rits]

Definitely what Jess said. Another thing is, is if he has a sensitive stomach, definitely do not give him any table scraps. One of mine... if she eats something off the ground outside or if one of us forgets (usually my husband) not to feed her any people food, we will pay for it later(Java too obviously) with awful awful gas and runny poos.

 

[Marinegeekswife]

Man his poos are huge. Like twice the size of my sister's pit bull I lived with!

That is common of the lower nutrition foods. They have so much filler that the dog's digestive system cannot process that it just passes through resulting in large poop. That is why people say you actually get more for your money with the better nutrition foods. You feed less and they absorb more. Of course the volume of the food you're feeding makes a difference, too.

 

[Spazzergasm]

Ahh, okay. He's not eating too much food, do you think if I switched out some of his meal with healthy things like green beens, scrambled eggs, fish, chicken, sweet potatoes... he'd be a bit better off? I don't eat very unhealthy so it would be easy to simply prepare some of my food differently for him.

 

[Marinegeekswife]

Ahh, okay. He's not eating too much food, do you think if I switched out some of his meal with healthy things like green beens, scrambled eggs, fish, chicken, sweet potatoes... he'd be a bit better off? I don't eat very unhealthy so it would be easy to simply prepare some of my food differently for him.

I wouldn't at the moment. Give his system some time to adjust to the food he's on then evaluate. They have to be on a food a minimum of 2 weeks for their system to fully adjust. If he's still having problems then you can consider mixing in other things. But a dog needs certain things in certain proportions that are different from human needs. Do some research on raw and see if that helps you figure out what to give. As someone else mentioned giving a dog with a digestive issue people food can actually make things worse.

 

[Spazzergasm]

Alright then. I'll stick to dog food and the treats the rescue lady gave me. Maybe a small extra thing once in a while as a motivator.

 

[Rits]

To help pick out a decent food or to see what rating the food he is currently being fed is, you can check out the site I link below. It also gives details about ingredients, which in turn, is good for learning how to read ingredient labels. Usually anything in the 3-star rating is a good medium to feed.

http://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/dog-food-reviews/dry/

 

[Spazzergasm]

Wow, that's an incredibly informative and useful link! Thanks! I can't believe some of those foods just contain grain and meat flavours essentially...

 

[Suri&Simon]

Man his poos are huge. Like twice the size of my sister's pit bull I lived with!

Yes I know! When I first got Suri I was worried because of her farts and the huge poops... The poops of my other dog are half-sized :S and he is not a small dog... but well I think thats normal on a doberman LOL.. by the way my baby girl STILL farts very often..

 

[Suri&Simon]

I do not have that much money either and my babies eat dog chow.. even though many people say that is not good its the best I can afford.. and my dogs have great coats and they love it ...if for some reason I need to change it momentarily (this because I buy my dogs food in Calexico,CA.. the dog food here in Mexico is too expensive) they do not want to eat dog food of another brand.. C:

 

[Spazzergasm]

Hehe, they sound picky. I really wish I could just buy everything myself, but yeah... I mean, a bag of good dog food is like 50 bucks! that's like half of my spending money each month.

 

[JanS]

A few of the better quality foods that aren't as pricey are Taste of the Wild, Merrick or even Purina Pro-plan and they'll all give you much more bang for your buck since you don't need to feed nearly as much without all of the fillers.

 

[Spazzergasm]

Alright, I'll look into that. I also found one, Kirkland signature brand grain-free food that's rated 4 stars on that website, and apparently isn't too expensive. Maybe I can get my uncle with a costco card to buy me some, and I'll pay him back in cash!

 

[Rits]

I've heard good things about the Costco/Kirkland brand of dog food so I think that would be a good choice!

 

[Spazzergasm]

Me too! I just need to go see the price, and when I leave for vacation and return Rocky, I can donate it to the dog shelter.

 

[kaloric]

That is common of the lower nutrition foods. They have so much filler that the dog's digestive system cannot process that it just passes through resulting in large poop. That is why people say you actually get more for your money with the better nutrition foods. You feed less and they absorb more. Of course the volume of the food you're feeding makes a difference, too.

So, when the topic of food came up in a different post, I went looking for mentions of Kirkland to see who else might be feeding it or other thoughts, and came across this thread.

Anyway, I fed my previous Dobe Pedigree for years, didn't really know better and she did alright on it. But after becoming more educated on dog food several years ago, I started checking the ratings & writeups for various foods and made the switch to Kirkland dry, since it tends to be pretty high on all the ratings & is at the store I seem to shop at the most. I can attest to the accuracy of MGW's statement-- Pedigree, being mostly filler, always resulted in gigantic turds. I had to feed large quantities of it too in order to maintain her weight. I found the right amount of the higher-quality food was slightly less than 2/3 the amount of the low-quality chow. The net of it was, the cost was only slightly more for the substantially better stuff, meaning the only advantage to feeding the crap food was the workout that carrying the giant bags around was giving me. The pros: less poop to scoop, healthier dog, and less bulk to have to handle. Wish I'd done my homework sooner than that. I don't even know why I fed Pedigree, I guess the folks I got her from had been feeding it.

 

[Ingrid H]

I'm thinking the stress of a new place might have something to do with the farting too. The food is probably the bigger cause, but stress can cause tummy troubles too. Good luck with your new foster!