Managing Dog Flatulence: Causes, Symptoms, and Effective Treatments

Although most dogs seem to enjoy the smell of a human flatus or fart, the reverse is rarely true. Dogs suffering from excessive flatulence (farting) can quickly pollute the air quality in a room. Although not harmful to human health, the smell is often horrific and can it create some embarrassing moments, especially when guests are around.

The most common causes of bad flatulence in dogs include;

• Eating too fast – When the dog eats too fast, swallowed air (aerophagia) makes it to the intestines very quickly and in a more concentrated quantity.
• The natural processes of producing the gas through food digestion and absorption within the digestive and eliminatory tracts.
• Eating foods that are known to cause flatulence (beans, cauliflower etc).
• Eating a poor quality dog food.

Tips that can help diminish the severity of dog flatulence:

• Instead of feeding your dog 1 or 2 portions of food per day, divide the daily ration into smaller portions and feed the dog more frequently.
• Sometimes dogs eat too quickly because they fear their food will be taken away, so feed your dog in a quiet comfortable area.
• Exercise the dog more frequently to stimulate its intestines.
• Choose a premium brand of dog food that is highly digestible.

There are products on the market that can can be added to dog food in order to reduce farting but these should only be used after consulting your veterinarian. Activated charcoal is often used in this regard and it does absorb the bad smelling gasses that cause bad flatulence. It must be used with caution and only occasionally however, since it can also rob the dog’s body of the nutrients it is getting from its food.

It should be noted that although bad flatulence can be reduced, all dogs (just like all humans) experience daily flatulence and it should never be your intention to get your dog to stop farting altogether.