Question:
I have a 4-year-old purebred male Basset hound. I feed him Purina One dry food. Twice a week, I mix it with Alpo wet food. The problem is that his fur stinks terribly. It would be an improvement if it were a doggie smell or "an open bag of chips" smell -- the hallmark smell of a Basset. But this smell he has will send people running out of a room. We wash him once a month with an oatmeal shampoo and rinse him well. Two days later, he smells like a dog; one week later, the smell is an atrocious, pungent odor. Someone told me it could be his anal glands, but the smell is nowhere back there -- it's all over, and the vet can't tell me why. Any suggestions?
T.M., Middletown, NJ Nov 15, 2009
Answer:
You should consider transitioning your dog to a homemade diet or try other brands of canned and dry dog foods (listed on my Web site) that contain whole-food ingredients, ideally organically certified. There are even frozen-raw and freeze-dried pet foods with human-grade quality ingredients that can make a world of difference to a dog's (or cat's) vitality, health and odor. I would also give your dog raw organic yoghurt and probiotic capsules to help improve the health of his digestive tract flora/bacterial population.
Most highly processed pet foods contain various human food- and beverage-industry byproducts and are subjected to high temperature processing. They are equivalent to human junk foods. Healthy animals smell good, so take it as a warning when the smell of your pet is sickening. A bad smell can mean liver or kidney dysfunction, chronic dental problems, dysbiosis (abnormal/imbalanced gut bacteria populations) and general toxicity. For more details, check my book "Not Fit For a Dog," co-authored with two other veterinarians who share my concerns about the health hazards of many manufactured pet foods.
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