Rescue Dog, Foul Burps!!! Foul is being kind!

[chevyfreese]

4 weeks ago I got Max,  I do know a little about his past.  He is an 18month old GSD.  He is currently 60.6 lbs.  He was 40lbs when I got him.  We feed him raw Whole prey method and he gets satan balls (which now that he has put on all but 10lbs of his normal weight we will go slowly and monitor what he eats to monitor his weight. Now with all this going on.  He has burps. they are room clearing.  It is a rotten egg smell.  Sour stomach.  He has had this for a long time.  Now 3 days ago he did get a pizza crust.  (yes he has his bad moments).  We dont know if the pizza crust 3 days ago caused this or if it is something from his past (ie 40lbs is 1/2 is adult weight! he was starved!)

[ginger899]

I would definitely get him checked with the vet for possible parasites, as he is a rescue, and you have no idea of his history. This could maybe be done using a stool sample, but see what your vet suggests,
.

Also if he scoffs his food very quickly without much chewing he could be swallowing air and that would cause much more burping.

Dogs can be quite horrible eaters. If he is fed whole prey, there is a high chance he is swallowing very large chunks of it, bones and all, without much chewing, if any. They are hard-wired from their wild roots it seems, to be able to do that in order to cram down as much food as possible so some other creature or pack member won't get it!
But it can play havoc with their digestion
Also if he is a rescue dog he might have picked up a "wolf it down" habit because food was scarce for him (?)

Just as it is with us, saliva and chewing are the first stages of digestion.


Or it may be because there is something he is finding indigestible in his diet. I doubt if a bit of pizza crust would cause it (unless he was fine until he ate that?)
Of course it's not "healthy" for dogs to eat pizza crust often, but a bit occasionally won't do any harm usually. It's basically only flour and water with a bit of oil  and dogs as omnivores can usually handle that on the odd occasion.

I would say -speak to your vet  but in the meantime you could perhaps run his food through a mincer and see if that makes any difference?

[chevyfreese]

He has been to the vet 4x since I got him a month ago.  has had exrays and all kinds of tests.  All neg.   I didn't go into full detail because I really wanted to just focus on the burps and Because his weight was so low I want people to understand he was a rescue.   Whole prey feeding,  Yes, he is not getting the "entire" prey at 1 time but his diet consists of whole prey food.  We have him in training so all is cut up and fed from the hand a piece at a time.  


I did not fully explain everything that is my bad.  I hope this information is a little more detailed and will help someone be able to answer better.

Thank you for helping and the information.  I will make sure I look into another form of probiotic.  I was hoping the other person, or someone else in a similar situation could say yes, we did XYZ, or there is a light at the end of the tunnel!

I am struggling to look for answers.  I am not rich and I can not afford to keep taking him to the vet.  I pay 70 to 80$ a visit for them to give me some advice and listen to the dog's heart..  It's such a disappointment that an office visit doesn't cover heart, lungs, anal glands and nails and ears anymore.  they charge you 70$ to talk and everything else but listening has a charge.  

[ginger899]

I would say -definitely try a good probiotic. Live yogurt is the cheapest one but not such a great idea for dogs who are lactose-intolerant, basically.  Some dogs handle lactose better than others but it's not a good idea for them.

A probiotic capsule suitable for dogs (maybe available from your vet -or online?) -which can maybe be opened and sprinkled on food, might be a better plan.