Canine Gut Biome
You can feed for a healthy canine gut biome.
What is the Canine Gut Biome?
The Canine Gut Biome is the naturally occurring community of microorganisms that live in your dog’s intestines — such as bacteria and fungi.
Why do we care about the Canine Gut Biome?
This community needs to be healthy for your dog to have healthy
- Digestion, obviously!
- Skin
- Immune system
- Moods
- Sleep
Where Does the Canine Gut Biome Come From?
This little squish eats fresh food.
The original biome comes from your dog’s mother. During the birth process, puppies are given healthy bacteria from a healthy mom. Nursing & eating healthy food keeps the Gut Biome diverse & optimal.
If your dog’s mom was not healthy, if your dog was stressed by a puppy mill, homelessness, or early puppyhood common illnesses like worms or kennel cough, the Gut Biome is unlikely to be healthy.
Courses of antibiotics are a common puppyhood stressor that can cause Gut Biome dysfunction for months or years. Antibiotics for puppy diarrhea treatment also cause an unbalanced bacterial Gut Biome community to emerge.
What happens if the Canine Gut Biome is not healthy?
A host of uncomfortable symptoms develops when the Gut Biome is unbalanced.
Sometimes the imbalance is so severe that a dog gets recurrent bouts of multi-drug resistant infections, worms, salmonella or even pathogenic e coli.
Most times, we see symptoms of imbalance such as allergies, diarrhea, vomiting, gas, restless sleeping, anxiety, recurrent skin and ear infections, paw licking and itchiness.
If these symptoms are not addressed or if they are treated repeatedly with no ultimate resolution, dogs may develop inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune or endocrine disease or severe anxiety disorders, or even cancer.
What can we do for a healthy Gut Biome?
This husky-mixed breed puppy is super cute!
Test and adjust! Technology now exists where we can use a fresh fecal sample from your dog to test what your dog’s Biome community looks like. We also know what a healthy Biome looks like for dogs fed raw diets or prepared diets. (hint: it is a little different!) We compare your dog’s Gut Biome to a healthy standard. Based on the results, we design a treatment strategy.
Are Gut Biome treatments complicated?
They are not complicated. Depending on the Gut Biome community that your dog is hosting, we want to welcome the healthy members and disinvite the unhealthy members.
The treatment programs generally consist of testing, starting fecal matter transplantation (FMT) enteric coated oral capsules, starting healthy fiber food for the gut and a detox protocol of 1-2 supplements for support and cleaning. After 30 days of treatment, we retest the Gut Biome to assess our progress toward a healthy Gut Biome.
What was missing before Gut Biome Testing?
Individualization and customization was missing. We can now test, target, treat and test again until we have a healthier Gut Biome and a healthier, happier dog.
Gut Biome testing is available to Dr Truli’s registered clients. If you live in the Tampa Bay Florida area or can travel here, inquire today about testing or to become a holistic lifestyle client. Email DrTruli@VetVMD.com
If you live elsewhere and cannot travel to see Dr Truli, ask your veterinarian about Biome testing.
Dr Truli’s gift to you: pdf to download: 2023 Canine Gut Biome Newsletter
