Ok...I've had it...why do my dogs stink??? = UPDATE

 What about the Orijen or Acana fish? Acana also has a lamb/sweet potato version that doesn't have chicken. They're made by Champion Pet Foods, the same people who make Orijen. It's a little higher carb, but still a grain free kibble, and significantly less expensive.

I can't find those products here locally. I've looked forever!

The only fish Rivers can seem to have is Salmon, herring, and trout; Mackeral sent him to ER seriously a few weeks ago. He swelled up like a balloon.

Can't remember now what kind of fish is in the Orijen, stopped researching it, cause I can't find it anywhere, and shipping charges are off the charts. The stores I go to say they themselves are having a very difficult time getting it.

Do you know of a cost effective place to order it without robbing the bank?

 Poor Rivers!!! The store I work at (which is a Pet Supplies "Plus";) carries Orijen and Acana. That's why I knew about the varieties. Emma can't eat any of it, LOL.

Pet Food Direct has Acana (and is one of the two places I've ordered online and been happy with, food wise). The Grasslands is lamb and sweet potato. It also has walleye and pike. The Pacifica is salmon and potato, with herring. Their prices aren't bad, especially when you get the sales that basically mean free shipping. 

Just looked at Pet food direct, would like to try Acana salmon version, but they want to add an extra $20 just for shipping....ouch!

How about trying Nature's Variety Instinct Rabbit, or Solid Gold Barking at the Moon?

You know....he did WONDERFUL on Nature's Variety Rabbit, but when I found out they source their rabbit from China, I didn't want anything to do with it.

 I feed Orijen which I get at K9 Cuisine - free shipping if you spend more than $50 (which is like, one bag of Orijen).

.I could see how his minerals would be off if I wasn't feeding him a variety; he does get mostly chicken, but he still gets plenty of beef heart, and so forth. I also give them a human formulation of a powdered multi-vitamin, they don't get it every day; but rather just a few times a week.

Ben ate nothing but red meat, raw, mostly rmbs supplemented with beef heart and organ meats. I still had to supplement zinc and a couple other things. If everything you feed supplies no more than 80% of a mineral, per item (as lamb rmbs do), then it doesn't matter how much variety you offer, your mineral balance will be short. And chicken has like, um, 5% of the major minerals a dog needs. If that.

If I remember correctly without looking it up, Ben, eating all red meat, still needed ten to fifteen milligrams of zinc. Don't take that as gospel - I don't have his chart in front o me. The other dogs, eating about a third poultry and a third pork and a third beef heart, needed about three times that supplemented.

Human multimins are typically quite low in zinc, for safety's sake.

See...this is all the reason behind why I was using Honest Kitchen as a base. This way I didn't have to be too paranoid, as the base mineral amounts were present.

By the time I add up the cost of all the supplements individually, along with assorted veggies, I'm back to the basic cost amount of what the Honest Kitchen cost to begin with.

I will definitely take a look at ordering his Orijen fish, if I can find it, and get Rivers started on that. The little guys are currently eating Thrive (from Honest Kitchen) with extra meat added in, they are doing fantastic.

If you suspect that he may have a chicken sensitivity, and you like the Honest Kitchen, why not continue to feed HK, but add a different meat, such as lamb, beef, etc......If you need to add in kibble for cost issues, I think the Cal.Nat. Lamb is a good, simple choice if he can tolerate the rice---it's likely cheaper than the Orijen fish.

I checked his anal glands yesterday, they were fine. You can definitely tell his butt is sore, so I think the best thing to do is wipe everything off the chart and start over.

I can see how his minerals would be short, I guess, seeing as how our own foods aren't as mineral rich as they used to be; I'm just glad I understand that now instead of feeding him a complete raw diet for years without extra supplementation, which so many upon thousands of people do.

I also know a lot of people have resorted back to half kibble/half raw for similar reasons, uncertainty in 100% balance.

My thoughts are to put Rivers on a simplistic, very affordable kibble; i.e Cal Natural puppy version lamb/rice to calm things down for a while; and because I would like to be able to afford to give him homecooked just as often.

With the cheaper cost of the Cal Natural versus Orijen, I can keep up with the Honest Kitchen varieties as a base for the homecooked version for all 3, rather then just the 2 little ones.

As of yesterday morning, I stopped the Orijen completely, as he had the pooies really bad again; I fed him a sweet potatoe with half a can of salmon last night as well as this morning.....no pooies thus far.

I will elimate poultry in general for a few weeks and see what becomes of it.

Any other thoughts would be great!

willowchow

grab01

Also, a good diet will help with odors. That said, there are many types of good diet and not all work for every dog.

I agree with this. 

Me too. Apollo smelled terrible (gas) and had the worst runny/soft, yellowish poops when he was on Solid Gold "Wolf King". He's always had somewhat soft poop ever since I got him. We tried so many of the better dog foods out there; Candiae ALS (before they changed), Blue Buffalo, Wellness Core, Canidae Grain Free, and Solid Gold. All with basically the same results (BB also gave him dry flaky skin).

On a whim I decided to try Purina Pro Plan Sensative Stomache (I know, not the best food) BUT- his poop is small and dark and hard, he poops less, he doesn't have gas, AND he stopped rubbing his face on stuff! ETA: I give him real meat toppers, too. Usually salmon. I just started giving him Purina Pro Plan Sensative Stomache last month.

I have Patty and Molson on Canidae Grain Free Salmon and they're THRIVING on it. Their coats look great, poop is small and dark, no gas, teeth are clean, all around great results. But, when we tried Apollo on it he had bad results.

BlackLabbie

On a whim I decided to try Purina Pro Plan Sensative Stomache (I know, not the best food)

Not to hijack this thread, but I think the Pro Plan Sensitive Stomach and the Pro Plan Selects Salmon are really quite nice foods----the ingredients are decent.  I'm not normally a fan of Purina, but have known many owners who have tried multiple foods then switched to one of these Pro Plan formulas with great results.

brookcove

I feed Orijen which I get at K9 Cuisine - free shipping if you spend more than $50 (which is like, one bag of Orijen).

Me too.  The free shipping on orders over $50 is not a special, either...they've always had that offer since I've been buying it from them.  I feed the 6 Fresh Fish variety, and I double-checked, it does not contain any mackerel. 

Here's a list of the fish elements in the food: Fresh salmon (includes chinook. coho and sockeye species), salmon meal, herring meal, fresh lake whitefish, fresh lake trout, fresh Northern walleye, freshwater cod, fresh herring, salmon oil (preserved with mixed tocopherals, a natural source of vitamin E), crab shell

I just placed an order with them on Saturday.  Since it was a weekend, they're shipping it today.  If you order on a weekday, they almost always ship the same day.  It usually only takes 2-3 days for me to get my orders.

As far as anal glands...Harry sometimes get that stink on his butt, too.  I talked to my vet about it, and he said it was probably due to the way he may have laid down that put a bit of pressure on the glands, causing them to express slightly.  He said as long as they are expressing, not to worry.  It's when they don't express that you have a problem.  But the smell is gagging, for sure.  Of course, his stink butt is only every once in a while, so I'm not going to worry about it unless he shows signs of discomfort back there.  I can usually make it a little better by washing just his butt area, or scrubbing a little with a Nature's Miracle pet wipe.

My fear with Pro plan and Canidae is they have yet to ever prove that their fish does not contain Ethoxiquin. The only company I know 100% that does not contain ethoxiquin is Orijen/Champion products.