Gassy dog? Try Pork Chomps as an alternative to rawhides

Consider yourself warned: this blog post talks about dog bodily functions. The less than pleasant variety. But it’s a fact of life, everyone farts–even dogs.

 

Excuse me, I pooted

Now who wants to read a blog post after that disclaimer? This is actually a review of a product we found that helps gas from our dog, Jazzy. No it’s not like Beano, it is just an alternative to what she was eating that was giving her the gas (by gas, I mean like fill the whole 3-bedroom house variety). Read on to learn more about Pork Chomps.

Whew! Rawhides caused smelly dog

We noticed that Jazzy would get the worst gas and had really soft stools so we discussed it with the vet. We tried changing her diet and even ran samples to make sure she didn’t have a physical problem. We finally figured out by process of elimination that it was the rawhide chews that we were letting her and Flower chew that was causing the problem the whole time.

We tried letting Jazzy chew on the “indestructible” chew toys that they sell in the pet department but there is no such thing as indestructible with Miss Jazzy involved. We didn’t mind so much that she was tearing them up until we realized she was ingesting them. That didn’t seem like a good thing for a dog to eat rubber or plastic so we talked to the good folks at PetSmart about it. They recommended alternative rawhides and so we bought a couple of kinds of alternative rawhides at the store. Our dogs loved them. And no gas!

The problem was, alternative rawhide is expensive, especially for something that is designed to be consumed over time. We looked for alternative rawhides at all the stores we frequent and were delighted to find Pork Chomps at the local Dollar General.

We love Pork Chomps alternative rawhides!

Pork Chomps pressed bones in bacon flavor (2 pack)

The Dollar General in Elkins sells two varieties of the pressed bones from Pork Chomps, the long 7-inch kind and the shorter 4.5-inch kind that comes in packs of two. The packs of two are $1.50 and the single big ones are $2 at Dollar General. We wanted to research the brand and discovered on the Pork Chomp website that not only can you purchase these lifesavers online, you can find all kinds of chews made from alternative rawhide.

“It’s easy to see why more vets are recommending dog chews made with pork skin, instead of rawhide. They help maintain oral health and satisfy the urge to chew, but unlike rawhide, pork skin is easy to digest and has a naturally delicious flavor that dogs love.” -Pork Chomps website

So why do we love Pork Chomps?

• Our dogs love them. When our dogs are chewing on these, they are cleaning their teeth while not chewing on our stuff (or pestering our cats)
• They are affordable. We figure that the smaller ones are a $1.50 to provide for our two dogs for a couple of days or $4 to buy two big ones to last our two dogs for at least a week. It’s more than rawhide, but we don’t mind considering how much healthier it is for our dogs (and a lot more pleasant for us).
• They last a lot longer than other varieties we’ve tried. We have tried several alternative rawhides and the ones from Pork Chomp just last longer. They are still digestible, but they are pressed pork hide baked into layers so it takes a long time for the dogs to dismantle and chew each portion.
• The chewed up pieces aren’t gross and slimy like regular rawhide.
• They don’t splinter like rawhides and real bones can. Splintering can be dangerous for the dog.
• Did I mention the lessened gas thing?

Pork Chomps bacon flavor pressed bone alternative rawhide

So what do we not like? Well, like I said they are more expensive than rawhides but not enough to make it a problem. The only thing I don’t like is that as the dogs are dismantling the various layers they have a tendency to leave the pieces all over the house. Who am I kidding, though? The humans in this house leave their stuff all over the place so the dogs should be allowed to do it too!

So do your dogs like to chew? Don’t want them have gas but do want them to have healthier teeth? I suggest you start looking for some Pork Chomps!

(FCC disclaimer: In case anyone is wondering and think I forgot, I wrote this review on my own free choice and have not received anything from Pork Chomps or Dollar General.)

(oh, and both images of the products are from the Pork Chomps website but link to the Facebook page to give them maximum exposure. The dog picture is Jazzy, the gassy one.)