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Salmon-based kibble made him smell so bad!?


Shepsky5

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I tried switching my dog to a salmon-based kibble, thinking it is healthy and that huskies traditionally ate a lot of fish, so it should agree with him. He was fine - active, great poop, fur looked great, etc.

But after a week or two, I noticed he had a horrible sour smell - I sniffed him carefully all over and it was not his ears, not his paws, not his back end...the smell is strongest actually on his back! It is a strong sour pungent smell almost like cider vinegar, but worse! ( I knew it was bad because when we boarded him for Thanksgiving, they offered to give him a free bath...:-)

We switched him back to his usual lamb&rice kibble and the smell is slowly fading...
Was relieved it was not some kind of skin infection or health condition.

But I don't know how a different kind of kibble could make him smell so bad?

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I would not blame the fish, remember that huskys etc for many years lived on a fish diet (rivers were full of them and it was easy to catch and dry/smoke)

I personaly feed raw food, monday it might be chicken  tuesday beef wednesday tripe, thursday chicken and beef

My supplier does full range of plain meats and mixes, so every day they get something different, added to the meals  can be lumps of liver heart tripe  even frozen fish. along with every couple days a squirt of cod or salmon  oil along with raw eggs every few days

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Well...actually we realized the smell is not really fading...our noses might just be getting used to it. 😞
After a few hours away from him, if we sniff along his back  fur(along spine), it's a horrible sour rancid strong smell still!
His head / neck area has the smell too, but much fainter. Paws and tummy, can't smell much. Hmm, hard to tell.

Going to bring him into the vet...he may have some kind of skin infection?
At boarding, they did say that he got wet every day (it rained a lot that week, and it's the kind of boarding kennel where they go out for a few hours every day in a big yard with other dogs).

But I'm a little puzzled because he is not scratching, not scooting his butt, no headshaking, no head tilt, no ear scratching...in fact he acts like his usual calm comfortable self.  Somebody said maybe he rolled in something smelly...but with a foot of snow on the ground here, I would definitely know/see it on his fur if he was rolling, and he is not.

Anyway I'll update on his terrible smell. Maybe it wasn't the salmon kibble to blame!

(PS He was always eating kibble since we got him, and has been pretty much odorless until these past few weeks!  I might change to feeding raw...need to research how it can be done around here.)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, just an update - his bad sour odor wasn't because of the change to salmon-based kibble!

It was from spending 4-5 days at boarding and being wet a lot of the time. The dogs went out in the big yards as usual, and played in the warm rainy weather - when we picked him up, they did mention that he had been wet a lot. For a double-coated dog with thick fur, once he gets really wet, it is hard to get him really dry again. So apparently those warm moist dark conditions under his fur made the perfect climate for some kind of yeast or bacteria to grow...

Although he was not acting itchy, the vet prescribed a shampoo which is antifungal/antibacterial and told us to wash him and let the shampoo foam on him for 10 minutes before rinsing it off. This worked great to rid of the funky smell. There is just a faint whiff of it left. So we may repeat again this weekend, and hopefully we can get rid of it for good!  I'm also going to try using a vinegar/water spray every once in a while. 

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