Canine Probiotics: Raising the Bar

Jun 03, 21 • Adored Beast Apothecary - Julie Anne Lee

Do Animals Know Best?

Our animals are so smart and can teach us so much, if only we knew to just pay attention. Dogs have a habit of eating their own poop, even the poop of other animals, and it was just considered a neurotic behavioral issue, some vets still believe this, but, what if there was more to that?

What if the gut of the poop-eating dog is unhealthy and losing major nutrients passed through his stool? What if the dog instinctively knows that he needs that nutrition or the good bacteria from the stool? What if the so-called behavioral problem actually stems from the gut-brain axis? Why do dogs eat the poop of other animals? It should be perhaps considered, and perhaps assumed, they know it is packed full of friendly, beneficial bacteria. If so, it would then make total sense that they seek out and eat what they need the best way they can, because they are lacking the healthy gut flora that is the cornerstone of their immune system, digestion and ultimately their longevity.

You can feed the absolute best nutrition on the planet, but without a healthy gut, much of that nutrition goes to waste along with the time, money and concern you spend getting the right food for your dog’s optimal health.

Canine Probiotics: The Basics and Importance

Over 80 percent of the immune system comes from the gut and the vast majority of microorganisms exist within the digestive tract. A normal digestive tract contains both “good” and “bad” (pathogenic) bacteria. Digestive or intestinal upsets, as well as a wide variety of diseases or conditions, can cause the digestive tract to become “unbalanced”. Pathogenic bacteria then take over the environment and create poor gut health as a result.

It is estimated that bacteria account for 0.5 to 1 percent of our pets’ body weight. For a 9 kilograms dog, the estimate is 45 to 90 grams. That 45 grams of bacteria equals billions and billions of organisms!

Harm to the Gut

There are many things that damage the gut environment and create much of the chronic disease in dogs today.

antibiotics
non-steroidal anti-inflammatories and steroids
over-vaccination
processed food
stress
grains or beans (anything with lectins)

Gut imbalance can result in reduced food digestion and vitamin production, especially vitamins B and K, leading to serious malnutrition, even causing your furkid to be susceptible to infection by harmful bacteria. Furthermore, a poor microbiome can result in a weakened immune system.

Digestive disorders like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), chronic or life-threatening diseases like cancer and autoimmune disease (including skin disease and hypothyroidism) can all be linked to an unhealthy gut.

The intestinal balance of microorganisms performs many functions:

fermenting dietary fiber
synthesizing vitamins
modulating the immune system
limiting the growth of harmful organisms
producing hormones that support metabolism and neurological functions

Intestinal microorganisms adapt as a result of diet, age, exposure to antibiotics and other drugs.

Species-Specific Bacteria

There is no doubt that good quality probiotics on the market are empirically beneficial for your dog. For years we have seen positive changes in the gastrointestinal tract, energy and skin. Yet one of the problems with current probiotics for dogs is that the research has always been done on humans, making it difficult to really know which bacteria strains are best for dogs. As dogs’ digestive tracts are quite different from humans, we have never really been sure that existing probiotic strains can withstand the activity, acidity and environment of a dog’s gut. However, ground-breaking new research, which has analyzed dogs’ feces to identify which bacteria are beneficial for dogs, has changed all that.

Probiotic bacteria evolve host-specific traits – meaning you want to find a strain or strains that have optimum efficacy for the host, body or species it is intended for.

We now know that while there is some commonality of intestinal bacteria between species, each species of animal has its own specific microflora.

Modern science has borne out that species-specific probiotics for our furry friends are worth aspiring to and would have the following specific features.

Host Specific Traits

Survive gastric acid digestion when taken orally.
Improve digestion and production of key metabolites.
Positively impact the immune system.
Support the gut-brain axis (positively influence the neurological system).
Produce substances (inhibitory metabolites) that impair the growth of harmful bacteria such as clostridia, salmonella and E. coli (hopefully supporting the feeding of raw food diets to skeptics).
Do not contribute to antibiotic resistance.
When given regularly, help support the digestive system as well as re-establish a healthy gut after disease or distress.

They now Exist!

The bar has been substantially raised through the development of biologically species-appropriate probiotics. These probiotics of canine (poop) origin have been isolated, further developed, replicated and grown in human grade fermentation facilities for quality control and assurance; and they have already been tested in feeding trials. They are also combined with prebiotics to maximize their potential to positively colonize and stabilize in the gut of your dog.

To sum up, what this research has done, is open the door to many more exciting formulations that will be specifically species-oriented for your canine family member. We know the importance of species-appropriate diets for our furry friends, so is certainly noteworthy and worth a little celebration that a species-appropriate probiotic has been isolated to better our furry friend's good health!

You can purchase Fido's Flora, Love Bugs and Healthy Gut together from JJ E-Homez Holistic Pet today!

"Canine Probiotics: Raising the Bar" curated and sourced from Adored Beast Apothecary is written by :

Julie Anne Lee, DCH, RcsHOM, has been the owner and practitioner of some of the busiest and long standing holistic veterinary hospitals and clinics in North America. This includes founding the first licensed strictly holistic veterinary clinic in Canada. She developed and taught a three year post-graduate program for veterinarians at the College of Animal Homeopathic Medicine. She also presented lectures for the American Homeopathic Veterinary Association on homeopathy and functional pathology, the British Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons Association on treating chronic disease, the Canadian Society of Homeopaths on clinical comparisons of the treatment of human to animals, P.E.I Veterinary University on the gut microbiome, and many more over the last 20 years.

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This blog first appeared on the Adored Beast Apothecary website, where this article "Canine Probiotics: Raising the Bar" was curated and sourced from.

Original source: https://blog.adoredbeast.com/probiotics-for-dogs-the-power-of-poop/

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