7 Reasons Your Dog Needs Probiotics

Probiotics are the "good bacteria" that support your dog's gut, immune system, skin and overall wellbeing - they're found in their billions in the lining of their gut. 

Now to begin with, you may not know that your dog’s gastrointestinal (or digestive) tract is actually the largest immune organ in their body.

However, for a healthy immune system, it’s important to maintain a healthy level of ‘good bacteria’ in order to aid digestion. So why should you introduce daily probiotics into your dog's diet?

Many different factors can disrupt that important balance and possibly lead to other health problems.

1. Physical or emotional stress (sometimes caused by a change in routine or environment)
2. A sudden change in diet
3. Some veterinary drugs – such as antibiotics, steroids and vaccinations.  It has been reported that the earlier in life that an animal is prescribed antibiotics, the greater is their risk of developing obesity, diabetes and liver disease. Plus if they've recently undergone surgery.
4. Poor quality diet, or inappropriate diet
5. Pica (that’s eating non-food items like sticks, faeces, or pebbles etc)
6. Inflammatory bowel disease or other gastrointestinal diseases
7. Ingesting pesticides, insecticides or fertilisers or drinking contaminated water

Probiotics help your dog to maintain a healthy level of ‘friendly’ bacteria in the gut and to discourage the increase of possible ‘unfriendly’ or ‘pathogenic’ bacteria.

Your dog’s digestive tract is designed to cope with the bacterial load from their food. But studies have shown that dogs who do not have those friendly bacteria, or who have a poor balance of good and bad gut bacteria, are at an increased risk of developing digestive other health problems from allergies to autoimmune disease.

If physical or emotional stresses upset that bacterial balance, it can lead to nutritional problems such as poor nutrient absorption and occasional or even chronic diarrhoea.

Dysbiosis – ‘leaky gut syndrome’ can be another issue; and could allow partially digested amino acids and allergens into the blood stream. 

Hopefully you can see just how important probiotics are for our dogs' health, and how an unhealthy gut can be caused for several reasons, meaning there's a high chance your dog really does need probiotics!

If you found this helpful, check out our other blogs on how to support your dog's gut health each day.