Nutrition and dog odor? UPDATE!

There are some other simple foods that would probably work just as well. Don't get me wrong, CA Natural's my favorite, but there are others. See if they can get Natural Balance or my new find, Pinnacle closer to them. Cherokee's eating Pinnacle duck right now. Just started 2 days ago, so I don't know the results yet, but she likes it. She seems to have an issue with rice, so California Natural was out, and I like Pinnacle's ingredients a little better than Natural Balance's. My only issue with these "simple" formulas is they're all fairly low in protein, so I wouldn't feed them long-term, but that's just me.

Maybe the smell is from an allergic reaction

ORIGINAL: jode88

Too many things are attributed to food allergies.  I don't think odor is attributable to that.

Do you think it could be the food? 

It very well could be.

Im flying back out there Friday and was going to stop at the feed store and pick up a bag of California Natural. 
I think that food would be the best option right now...what do you think?  

California Natural adult is pretty low in protein.  I do not have a toy breed but would guess that a higher protein food would be better.

I like the Calif Natural too, but I feed puppy formula for higher protein and he's still under a year old anyway.  I could check out the local feed store to see what they have.  They would be more likely to stick with the food if its easy to obtain.
 

It could very well be the food.  My friend has a shih tzu who was eating ProPlan, and although he overall appeared fine (energy was fine, coat looked good), he always had a foul odor about him--kind of a "doggie, yeasty " smell. She would complain about the smell all of the time, so I finally suggested they switch foods--they switched to TO Bison--and the smell was gone within a week. 

jode-- how is the dog's teeth?  Sometimes small breeds can accumulate a lot of bacteria in their mouth and under their gumline.  I see this frequently attributes to small breeds that have that "funk" you can't seem to get rid of. [] 

jode88,
Don't have any info for your question (I'm still a "puppy"), but I do want to comment on Sampson...absolutely beautiful.  I love his coloring.

Breed and genetics can contribute a LOT, as can general health, but within those parameters you can tweak things quite a bit with what you feed. I rescue mostly within a single breed but I've seen huge differences in odor. I keep the rescues inside and I'm sensitive to that doggy funk. It usually goes away within a couple weeks of being on a decent food and raw. The more raw the less funk.

One of the signs of Ben's problems flaring up is body odor. Weird but true. He came back with a doggy shampoo smell but overnight it transformed to his oily, doggy smell - and by that afternoon he was tearing out hair from his tail and butt. He's still trying but the tea tree oil I've applied back there is deterring him. Now he smells doggy and earthy from the tea tree oil. [8D]

     Funny this topic should be brought up ...
I recently purchased a young adult bitch from a rabbit hunter. She had such a strong doggy odor that if you so much as pet her it rubbed off on your hands, your clothes. We had to Febreeze the rug and furniture after having had her upstairs for all of a half hour! We bathed her, thinking she had simply messed herself during the plane trip. Nope. Still stank so horrendously that one night (after said bath) I had her outside, and when I opened the window to check on her, I caught a strong whiff of her [sm=eek.gif]
     Her previous owner had sent us a sample of the food she'd been eating in a sealed ziploc, which had a strong, unplesant smell even through the bag. Was greasy, too. We put two and two together, stopped giving her that kibble (don't know what brand it was but am going to find out) and volia, the doggy odor gets less and less every day. We've had her for a bit over a week & since we tossed the old food, have been giving her leftovers mixed with Euk dry food. She still has a smell of bad breath, but you have to dig your nose in deep to smell any B.O.  []
     So yeah, food definitely does determine how clean a dog smells - and doggy odor is NOT normal.

I might add, by the way, that sometimes it's the type of food, too - I put a particular superpremium in the rotation, oh, I think it was early last year, and the dogs almost drove us out of the house! My dogs don't do well on rice, and this food had rice in it. I think Maggie was fine on it, and possibly Ann and Jen were OK, but I wasn't really taking names to be honest - I simply swore never to use rice again!

Thank you all for the replies. You are such a helpful group.
Papillion - I don't know what shape her teeth are in, I'll have my sister
               look while I am out there. She is probably 12yrs old though.
               She is a long hair Chihuahua and mean as ever!
 
Her odor is bad enough that the family can't touch her without the odor
being on them.  I do recall my sister saying the dog gets real oily too.
 
I sure hope we can help out by switching food.  She is probably so mean cuz
she cant stand how she smells []
 
Thanks you guys.....

I'd be willing to bet money the problem is his teeth, especially in an old, small dog. I spent about 2 years trying to get my parents to  take our old Eskie in for a dental because his breath was so bad I couldn't stand to be in the room with him. They started giving him greenies last summer, and by christmas he didn't stink anymore. What changed... it wasn't the greenies, all his rotten teeth fell out!! Now that the dog no longer has any incisors, his breath is much better.

If the dog gets oily and stinky, it's probably too dry. I know that makes no sense, BUT, the skin overcompensates. I'd do a food swicth, add some sort of oil supplement, and have the teeth checked. Those three things made Teenie's odor and oily/flakies vanish.

When I fed Purina, my cockers reeked.  Not just the funky ear smell, but all over stink.  When I went to a better quality food, only Misty was still with us and the change in odor was dramatic.  Thor and Sheba (gsds) smelled like dogs on purina as well, and now, I live with SIX german shepherds and don't smell dog at all.  Nor does anyone else who comes into my house.

Those of you that thought it was her teeth, you were right.  My sister said the vet pulled her teeth out about 3 weeks ago and no more odor.  I guess her teeth were all rotten and grown really long but wouldnt fall out.  It was when she stopped eating they took her to the vet and they figured out
it was her teeth.  She had been having trouble eating for a long time now...so they had her on soft food only, then she finally stopped eathing that too.  She's probably a happier dog now that those teeth are not hurting her anymore.