Uck - why is Marty sooo stinky!?Question:Just recently Marty has a distinct cat-littler smell basically all over his body. He has no access to cats or cat littler boxes so we're trying to figure out why he's smelling like this. We've bathed him twice, both Friday & Saturday and he was basically odorless - and then today he reeks of the cat-littler smell when you get down to pet him. Is this a "natural" doggie smell?! :eek: I really hope not! lol What are the possibilities for this?, other than an ear infection or peeing in his crate - which doesn't seem likely as he wakes us up when he has to go and theres never a mess to clean up - could he possibly be soaking up the pee by laying in it! :p: Answer: what are you feeding him and how often does he get a bath? poor quality food can cause a dog to stink, as can overbathing. has he ever had his anal glands checked by the vet? how about his collar, is it clean? our dogs get stinky collars sometimes. Answer: I would start by giving him a good bath. A "distinctive odor" could be the sign of a skin condition ( possibly mange?). Is he losing any hair in spots? It also could be the result of a poor quality food. (I don't know what you are feeding) but if it is poor quality, you may want to consider switching his diet. If it the smell continues, I would suggest a Vet visit. A healthy Lab should be pretty much odorless. Answer: Others have mentioned on this forum that certain foods make their dogs stink, I have not found that to be the case. I would suspect that your dog needs his anal glands expressed or a couple of baths with anti-bacterial shampoo. It usually takes more than one bath treatment and you will have to get the shampoo from the vet. I use ChlorhexiDerm by DVM and my dogs don't seem to mind it as it doesn't have an overwhelming scent. Follow the instructions and a bath or two should do the trick. Answer: We're feeding him Natural Balanace at the moment - but he's been eating that for over a month now. We're scheduling a vet appt. for tomorrow sometime. missretta: I would suspect that your dog needs his anal glands expressed or a couple of baths with anti-bacterial shampoo. It usually takes more than one bath treatment and you will have to get the shampoo from the vet. So will he carry this scent all his life? And this shampoo gets rid of it for how long? lovemylabby: A "distinctive odor" could be the sign of a skin condition ( possibly mange?). Is he losing any hair in spots? He isn't losing any hair anywhere - except for where his collar rubs on his neck during walks, such a puller! The only other odd symptom with him is that he'll sometimes get little red bumps inside his ears & if enough of them develop it looks like a rash - but it goes away and comes back. I'm wondering if it could just be from his ears being rubbed along the carpet when he's rolling around and playing or is this a symtom of an actual problem with his ears? Thanks for your help! :thumb4: Answer: We're feeding him Natural Balanace at the moment - but he's been eating that for over a month now. We're scheduling a vet appt. for tomorrow sometime. missretta: So will he carry this scent all his life? And this shampoo gets rid of it for how long? lovemylabby: He isn't losing any hair anywhere - except for where his collar rubs on his neck during walks, such a puller! The only other odd symptom with him is that he'll sometimes get little red bumps inside his ears & if enough of them develop it looks like a rash - but it goes away and comes back. I'm wondering if it could just be from his ears being rubbed along the carpet when he's rolling around and playing or is this a symtom of an actual problem with his ears? Thanks for your help! :thumb4: I had the same problem as you do. I had just changed dog food brands and was feeding 2 dogs on the new brand for around 30 days when one of them started smelling horribly. I would bathe her and the smell would go away for about a day then she was offensive smelling again. Both the old food and the new food was lamb & rice only different brands, neither dog was smelly on the old brand, same protein. I took her to the vet where they gave me the shampoo that I mentioned above. It took 2 baths to get rid of the smell for good. I always thought she got her bacterial condition from constantly being wet as she's hard to keep out of the pond. Now I'm thinking the food change may have made her system change, maybe her pH. She has since been constantly wet from swimming (still) and her offensive smell has not returned so I think it has something to do with the food change. I believe my senior didn't get it because her mature immune system is more capable of handling the change. When there is a strong odor it's hard to tell where it's coming from, are you sure the smell isn't coming from your dogs ears? Don't let him pull. Take action to make the correction now. Obedience training, proper collar, socialization....work him. Answer: When there is a strong odor it's hard to tell when it's coming from, are you sure the smell isn't coming from your dogs ears? His ears do smell - but we can't tell if the source is the ears or just his body - you can definitely smell it on his back or his tummy and then on his head too. Thats good to hear that the shampoo took care of the smell! Hopefully it'll be just as easy to clear his up too. We're looking at changing his food to a more specific puppy formula from Orijen. Right now he's on Natural Balance & it says puppy to adult, but if he eats it 3 times a day like he's supposed to he gets diarrhea. Don't let him pull. Take action to make the correction now. Obedience training, proper collar, socialization....work him He's in a puppy training class and each time he pulls we stop walking and walk backwards and then walk forward - and just repeat and try to keep his attention with treats. Answer: Mine smelled all over too. I think it's their overall skin. I thought my girl's smell was coming from her anal glands as I thought it was stronger smelling near her rear but the vet examined her anal glands and didn't even express them, said they were normal. It wasn't her anal glands. How old is Marty? Answer: Hum-cat or dog pee smell? Completely different. Either way, not a pleasant smell! I have two dogs, Molly I have had since a pup. she only smells when she has an ear infection and it is directly related to the ear area. Phoebe, who we adopted last year, has ALWAYS smelled. Her paws always smell like corn chips. She smells much more! We changed her food and still notice it. The only difference I can think is their skin/pigment and also the fact that Phoebe runs around outside and gets into stuff where Molly tip toes out and does her business and right back inside. I wouldn't bathe more than every 3 weeks or so. Check with your vet and their next visit. Answer: Sorry I'm slow at putting up responses! :p: How old is Marty? Marty is 15 weeks old - we took him to the vet this past Tuesday and it turns out he had an ear infection in both ears. Odd thing about it though was the vet didn't detect a yeasty odor she said it was more like a sour smell, they could only tell he had an infection by taking some swabs from his ears and looking at it under the microscope. So we got some cleaning solution and the ear drops to help with the infections. But he still smells!? I'm assuming the smell won't clear up until his ears do? We go back to the vets next Tuesday the 20th for his last set of shots and they said they'll check up on his ears then. Thanks for the help! :thumb4: Answer: Sorry I'm slow at putting up responses! :p: Marty is 15 weeks old - we took him to the vet this past Tuesday and it turns out he had an ear infection in both ears. Odd thing about it though was the vet didn't detect a yeasty odor she said it was more like a sour smell, they could only tell he had an infection by taking some swabs from his ears and looking at it under the microscope. So we got some cleaning solution and the ear drops to help with the infections. But he still smells!? I'm assuming the smell won't clear up until his ears do? We go back to the vets next Tuesday the 20th for his last set of shots and they said they'll check up on his ears then. Thanks for the help! :thumb4: One quick question - does he wear a collar? Collars can pick up very unpleasant odors, and it sometimes takes quite a bit of washing to remove the odor. Answer: Hi ~ Since Marty is only 15 weeks old, this probably isn't the case, but....Is the cat-litter odor you're describing the urine/ammonia smell or excrement? When an animal has kidney failure, there's a very distinct ammonia smell to the body and breath. I'm assuming Marty was carrying this odor when you visited the vet...or had you just bathed him? Unless the vet knows for sure exactly what the odor smells like and isn't concerned, past the ear infection, I'd have bloodwork done to make sure his kidneys are functioning properly. This can occur in puppies. I hope this isn't it. Barb and Baffle Answer: One quick question - does he wear a collar? Yeah he does - i'll try washing it and see if that helps I'm assuming Marty was carrying this odor when you visited the vet...or had you just bathed him? We hadn't bathed him but the scent wasn't as potent as before - of course the minute you say something is wrong with your dog they prove you wrong! :p: Are there signs or symptoms of a kidney problems for dogs? Answer: I would not think kidney failure or disease on such a young pup. However, he could have something wrong with them or one from birth causing them not to function properly. Blood work would show you that or ultra sound. Signs would be excessive drinking, excessive urination, foul breath as mentioned, lack of apetite and weight loss. Talk with your vet about checking BUN, Creatinine, phosphorous levels thru blood work and specific gravity of urine if you suspect kidney issues. Hoping its just the ear infection or the food. If his body is harboring yeast I would think that could cause the odor but I would also think he would be scratching a lot. The idea of trying the Orijen puppy you mention is a good one. |
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