Tucker enjoying his daily kibble plus the Daily Dog probiotic supplement from FullBucket Health.
Probiotics for Dogs – The Basics
Probiotics for Dogs – The Basics
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[list_item icon=”fa-paw” color=”696868″]A healthy immune system requires a healthy digestive tract.[/list_item]
[list_item icon=”fa-paw” color=”696868″]Probiotics are a key component in healthy digestion.[/list_item]
[list_item icon=”fa-paw” color=”696868″]These beneficial bacteria are known to improve the overall immune system in dogs by limiting the amount of negative bacteria in the digestive system.[/list_item]
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If you’ve been researching advice on how to raise a happy, healthy dog you’ve no doubt entered into the great debates between kibble, whole foods, and the raw diet advocates. We’re not here to take sides and simply applaud anyone taking the time to research ways to make their dogs healthier and doing whatever they can to make improvements.
What all these various nutritional plans agree upon are the beneficial support received through the inclusion of proper probiotics. It’s hard to make any arguments on what a dog should eat if you’re not also making sure what they consume is actually digested.
In the raw feeding world much of these are received through the organ meats, such as pancreas, gall bladder, liver, etc. The whole food world leans more toward the dairy-based such as found in cottage cheese and yogurt. Regardless of diet, almost all dogs suffer from digestive issues at times and often a good probiotic supplement is just what is needed to provide some help and relief.
Your dog’s gut is tough. It has been found to be loaded with good bacteria that works hard to aid in digestion, pull energy from the good food sources, and block toxins. However, as we all know, a dog is a natural scavenger, and as our own vet has pointed out on multiple occasions they’re instinctual logic is to ‘swallow first, let the gut sort it out later’. Sometimes this results in just gas, or constipation. Other times it gets worse with diarrhea or vomiting. And sometimes, when the bacteria gets too far out of balance and the bad stuff is more plentiful than the good ones, it means a trip to the vet’s office.
If that trip requires a round of antibiotics, now you’re even further behind in getting your pup’s digestive system back on track with plenty of good bacteria and a healthy microbiome. As most probiotics are bacteria-based, those antibiotics will wipe them out just the same. We’re not saying to skip the antibiotics. They are an important part of the process and you should listen to your veterinarian.
You can help your dog taking antibiotics by supplementing with a yeast-based probiotic such as Saccharomyces boulardii. Our product of choice is FullBucket Health and their FullBucket Health Daily Dog probiotic supplement.
We did the research. What many of the pet food labels and treat companies advertising ‘probiotics added’ or ‘with probiotics’ won’t tell you is that as hard-working as bacteria can be, they are also quite sensitive to their environment and only really work if they can first get to where they are needed, which in the case of dogs is the lower intestine, or ‘hindgut’. They certainly do not survive the production process for most kibble, and even when added after there is concern about making it through shipment and shelf-life. Finally, it has to survive the hardest trip of all; into the mouth, down the throat, and past the stomach of your dog.
FullBucket Health Daily Dog probiotic supplement is micro-encapsulated to help protect it and ensure it is effective once it gets to where it is needed in the digestive system of your dog. Without it, you may as well scoop some of the other products on the market into the wind for all the good they’ll do you and your dog.
