Why does My dogs but smell like poop

Many pet parents love how their dog smells after a good shampooing. But if your dog doesn’t have that usual fresh scent following a bath, you’ll want to look into it. There are several root causes of lingering odor that not even the best odor-control shampoo can defeat.

Three common areas can be found in the skin, ears or anal glands. We’ll discuss these three areas, how they cause persistent odors and what you can do about it.

Why does your dog’s skin smell bad?

Get up close and personal with your pet. Do you smell something musty or even yeasty? If he’s also biting and scratching at himself more than normal, the source of your pet’s unique smell may be caused by an allergy that’s making him uncomfortable in his skin. If you look closely, you may notice redness and flakiness.

What happens in an allergic reaction is your dog’s immune system overreacts when the body is exposed to an allergen and has an unnecessary response to something harmless. When your dog is having an allergic response, it can cause inflammation in the skin, and sometimes trigger odor-producing oil secretions. (It doesn’t just happen to dogs. Mouse studies show that inflammation can cause changes in body odor, suggesting that ailments and allergic reactions can be detected in numerous ways in many animals, including humans.)

What causes allergies in dogs?

Environment: When your dog inhales pollen, dust and dander, that leads to a skin condition called atopy.

[Learn more about how to treat seasonal allergies in dogs]

Flea bites or flea allergy dermatitis: Not only is your pet itchy and uncomfortable from the flea bites, his allergic reaction causes these raised, itchy welts that your pup can’t help but scratch and bite at.

[Get the dirt on the best flea treatments for pets]

Diet: Certain proteins of insect, plant and animal origin can make your dog feel uncomfortable in his skin. Root causes can include filler ingredients in bargain brands, such as corn, or he may need a change in animal protein.

Why are your dog’s ears stinky?

If your dog still smells even after a bath, the ears are another area to check. Healthy dog ears don’t produce odor. But if you’re getting funky bacterial smells like morning breath or pungent cheese, there’s a problem. Smelly ears can be caused by allergies, yeast, infection, fleas and even ear mites. As the inner ear becomes inflamed and produces discharge, this also produces pungent odors.

Aside from odors, these are signs of an ear infection in dogs:

• Pain and sensitivity.
• Pawing and scratching at the ears.
• Rubbing head and ears on floors and furniture.
• Red inflamed areas and visible signs of discharge.
• More frequent head shaking.

If your dog is in pain — maybe he jerks away when you offer his usual ear rub — take him to the vet immediately for diagnosis and treatment. With a full-blown infection, cleaning won’t help. You’ll do little more than contribute pain and irritation. Without proper treatment, ear infections can result in hearing loss.

How to keep your dog’s ear’s healthy

To get proactive with smelly ears, you’ll want to get familiar with your pet’s “normal” ear scent. So when you’re snuggling, go ahead and check. When you start to notice a change, apply a dose of gentle ear cleaner and monitor his progress. If yeast or a small amount of material gets lodged in the ear, a quick assist from the cleaning solution can fix him right up, and keep you a step ahead of infection.

A dog’s ears are normally self-cleaning. Cleaning them more frequently than needed will only irritate the skin in the ear canal and set you back to square one, where your dog spends a lot of time scratching and shaking his head.

Which breeds are most likely to get ear infections?

Some dogs will need more frequent ear check-ins than others. If your dog is a spaniel, retriever, terrier, poodle or bulldog breed or blend, keep an eye on those ears.

What makes these dogs more susceptible to ear infection is long, floppy ears, or narrow ear canals or hair in their external ear canals. This environment can create the conditions for a buildup of ear wax, oils and debris (like dust and dirt from being outside). Then add darkness and moisture, and you have the perfect breeding ground for yeast and bacteria.

When there’s warm, humid weather or if your dog suffers from allergies, these can make ear infections occur more frequently. So if you’re spending extra time outside in the summer, or if your dog just suffered a recent reaction, these are both great times to check in more often.

How to get rid of the fishy smell from a dog

Time to get to the bottom of it. If your dog’s post-bath scent is on the fishy side, that’s a strong indicator that he’s having gland issues.

Fish smells happen when your dog has blocked anal glands. When they’re functioning normally, the glands secrete a small amount of pungent oil when your dog does his business. This scent serves as your pet’s calling card to other dogs — alerting them they just entered “their” territory, but also saying, “I was here.” This can explain why dogs sniff each other’s bottoms.

Just about every dog gets compacted anal glands at one time or another. As the glands experience a buildup, it can progress to an infection. But the buildup also can cause a pungent smell that’s difficult to ignore. Your dog’s vet can express the glands and make sure they’re healthy.

What causes compacted anal glands?

In order to understand this, we can’t avoid talking about your dog’s poop. Firm, normal-size stools put pressure on the glands so they can secrete normally.

But if your dog has bathroom issues for a few days, such as a bout of diarrhea, the glands won’t discharge and the result is a buildup in the glands. This causes pain and discomfort in your dog. You may find him seeking relief by scooting on his bottom.

If tummy issues and the eventual compacted glands are an ongoing thing with your dog, a change of diet is often the best remedy. There may be a filler ingredient, such as corn, that makes your dog’s system overreact.

[For more detail about the anal glands, read “Why does my dog’s breath smell like fish?”]

Diet: The key to a healthy, fresh-smelling dog

While bathing and regular brushings are ideal, a fresh-smelling pooch starts with a healthy body. Switching to a high-quality diet can help you better manage some of your dog’s smelliest issues. Here are three things to look for in your pet’s diet.

Protein: Digestible animal protein that’s bioavailable to your dog’s body lets him access the amino acids. Amino acids provide the “good stuff” that builds skin, bone and muscles but also helps cells function, without going to waste in your backyard. NutriSource’s high meat Element recipes contain at least 83% animal protein, sourced from our carefully vetted suppliers to ensure the quality of the ingredients.

Quality ingredients: Food allergies and sensitivities to certain ingredients, whether it’s corn or a specific animal protein, can trigger an overreaction in your dog’s system. Switching to a high-quality diet and trying novel proteins can bring your dog some much-needed relief from itchy skin and tummy issues.

Probiotics: Good health starts in the gut! Healthy bacteria in probiotics support the immune system, so your best friend can better fight off infection. Our proprietary new Good 4 Life Plus system has added digestive benefits to support the proper digestion of high-meat diets and gut health.

Learn more about NutriSource’s Element Series, and watch for it in 2021 in your community’s independent pet supply store.

As a vet I often get dogs brought to me because they have a bad smell. Here I’m going to lead you through every common reason for a dog to stink even after a bath.

While not all are simple to fix, after reading this you should have a good idea of what to do. I’ll rank them in rough order of frequency.

Before the list though, you need to do something unpleasant: make a close inspection of your dog’s body using both your eyes and nose. Pay particular attention to the crevices like armpits, groin, feet, ears, mouth and lips. We’ll use this information in a minute.

Skin Disease

The skin of dogs with chronic dermatitis almost always has a bad smell. You might describe it as ranging from an extreme ‘doggy’ smell to old socks. This is probably due to an overgrowth of secondary yeast and bacteria taking advantage of the skin’s weakness.

Affected skin often looks thickened or wrinkly, and may have a greasy or flaky surface. It can also become red or even black in colour.

Uncomplicated dermatitis on its own does not smell, and so an odour is a sign that the condition has progressed. The solution is never as simple as using antifungal or antibacterial shampoos. You will need to address the underlying skin problem, which you can read about here.

Ear Infections

Infections inside the ear canal are a specialised form of skin disease complicated by severe yeast or bacterial overgrowth. They nearly always smell strongly, and if you put your nose right up to the canal it there’s no mistaking the origin. Sometimes the infection is so deep that the ear canal looks normal on the outside.

Never, never just put cleaner into a smelly ear without your vet checking it first. As it’s probably infected by now, cleaning alone won’t work and it will sting harshly. Once you do this, your dog won’t trust you and treating the problem properly gets a lot harder.

Ear cleaners are great for prevention, but first read about the treatment of ear infections here.

Oral Disease

If you have identified the smell as coming from inside the mouth, there are still quite a few causes. The first is advanced periodontal disease, which is inflammation and infection of the junction between the teeth and gums. This is the most common cause of bad breath and tooth loss.

Once dental disease develops, you will need it treated under anaesthetic, but it can also be effectively prevented afterwards.

Any infection or ulceration in the mouth will also smell bad, so other causes I have seen include oral tumours, foreign material caught in the teeth or mouth ulcers from kidney disease. A smell from the mouth has never in my experience been caused by any area lower down like the stomach.

The smell from bad breath is often described as ‘fishy’ or ‘metallic’, leading to confusion with the next cause. The clue is to look at the location.

Anal Glands

Anal glands are special scent glands found just inside the anus. When a dog defaecates, they release an odour onto the poop which other dogs can detect. Anal glands malfunction when they release this scent at any other time.

The classic anal gland leakage situation is your dog sleeping on your lap and suddenly you smell a horrible rotten fishy odour. You might find a drop of brown fluid. Many of these anal glands are too full and not emptying by themselves.

If so, all you need to do is get your vet or groomer to express them every 3 months and the problem goes away. However others leak when they aren’t full, and these are much harder to fix. Some have infection inside, others just seem leaky. Read about their treatment here.

Skin Folds

Fold pyoderma is a localised infection in folded skin. It’s notorious in short-faced breeds like Bulldogs, but this is easy to see because the hair is short.

The more insidious form is found in dogs like Cocker spaniels and Golden retrievers. The lower lip often droops as they age and a fold forms which traps saliva in the hair. These can get very badly infected and smell like rotten meat.

The trick to finding them is to not just look inside the mouth, but also stretch out the skin on the upper and lower lips. Treatment involves antibiotic tablets or creams, then prevention with antibacterial wash and barrier ointments. Severe cases require a small facelift!

Flatulence

Passing smelly gas from the bowel is a common noxious odour, but at least no-one has trouble identifying it. The solution is almost always to find a food that agrees better with your dog’s digestion. Or put up with it, as the dog is usually untroubled!

Urinary Incontinence

Around 2.5-5% of dogs will develop urinary incontinence. In some females it can start very early, and may be more common after desexing. It is also common with urinary tract infections.

The stale ammonia smell is usually quite distinctive, but I see many dogs whose owners have got used to the scent until I point it out. These dogs can almost always be cured by either fixing an infection, removing a bladder stone or medications to prevent leakage.

Faecal Soiling

Having poop stuck in the hair might seem like an excessively obvious cause of bad smells. However, I see it regularly, especially with new owners of Poodles and Poodle crosses. The hair can quickly get thick and long around the anus to hide the buildup of soft faeces.

If this isn’t addressed urgently with a gentle bath and dry, you often end up at an overnight emergency vet. The faeces end up blocking the anus, and the resulting rash can be terrible.

Prevention is of course all about having a good relationship with a trusted dog groomer, and starting as early as possible. It’s also about avoiding soft faeces by the use of high quality diets.

Normal Doggy Smells

The last cause is the hardest and saddest. Never assume this is what is causing your dog’s bad smell unless you have consulted a vet first: it’s very rare.

Every now and again I see a dog owner who is disgusted by their dog’s terrible odour. Except that I can’t smell it at all, and neither can anyone else in the clinic.

These dogs smell normal. Nearly all of us with dogs have tuned out the natural odour of dogs and can no longer detect it. However, for an unlucky few it remains thick and intense.

I have no solutions for these people, as a bad smell can’t just be hidden under cologne or other scents. Putting a dog outside is definitely not the answer.

But let’s not be negative. Eight of the nine causes of bad smells on dogs are fixable, and the ninth isn’t a problem to the dog. Good luck working it out!

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By Andrew Spanner BVSc(Hons) MVetStud, a vet in Adelaide, Australia. Meet his team here. The information provided here is not intended to be used as a substitute for going to the vet. If your pet is unwell, please seek veterinary attention.