Probiotic Supplements

A few months ago I decided I wanted to start using a probiotic/prebiotic supplement for Milly. There are many, many, many reasons for this, the most important being that most commercial diets are cooked at such a high temperature that the healthy digestive enzymes are cooked out of the food. Probiotics can help with overall digestive health.

Milly, while having a strong stomach, does have some digestive issues, the most noticeable being fairly frequent impacted anal glands (about once a month). Having your dog on probiotics also can “strengthen their stomachs” and prevent an upset tummy should your dog ever need to be treated with antibiotics. The last thing I would want, especially with a senior dog, would be for her to ever need to be treated with a course of antibiotics and not be able to keep the medication down, or weaken herself by vomiting or having diarrhea because her digestive tract was not ready for such harsh medicines.

Once I decided I would start feeding probiotics as part of her daily diet I began researching various companies, and trying to weed through all of the options on the market. Going through all of them was enough to make my head spin, and at times I even wondered, is this worth it? But, I do see the value in feeding them, and know adding them to her diet will enhance her overall health, and will even be noticeable in her coat, which has been rather lackluster these days. After lots of research and speaking with an animal nutritionist, numerous breeders of top AKC show champions, and my vet I settled on Nature’s Farmacy DOGZYMES Digestive Enhancer. The product has received rave reviews, and it seems very cost effective at about 5 cents a day for a 50 pound dog.

I ordered it this week, and hopefully it will be waiting on the doorstep when Milly and I return from our long weekend in the Midlands of South Carolina – we leave tomorrow at 4:00am and we’ll be there until Tuesday. I will let you know how she likes them, and what health changes I see after feeding them for six weeks! If you own a dog that is on a kibble and not a raw meat diet, you might want to talk to your vet or an animal nutritionist about adding probiotics to their diet too.