Tummy Troubles

Things to consider. If your dog is having tummy troubles? Whether that’s loose stools, being sick or gurgling, windy tums, here are some things you will need to look at to find the root cause. 70% of our dogs immunity lays within the gut, so keeping the microbiota strong and healthy is imperative if you want a healthy dog. There are many things that can affect the microbiota, including poor diet, food intolerances, vaccinations, chemical treatments and environmental toxins. Here is a more in-depth look at what you can do to help.

FOOD. It’s extremely important to feed dogs a fresh species appropriate diet. It is impossible for your dogs microbiota to be fully functional and healthy when feeding ultra processed, high carbohydrate foods that are laden with toxins. If your dog is suffering any tummy troubles we need to consider food intolerances also, so an elimination diet will be needed. Feeding single protein foods, no chicken, beef or tripe initially and cut out veg to start with, also look at novel proteins. Remember that changing food alone in many cases isn’t enough, you must heal the gut too. We have a blog on how to do an elimination diet properly.

TOXINS AROUND THE HOME AND GARDEN

It’s very important to remove as many toxins as possible from your dogs life. Remove all chemical floor cleaners, plug-ins, scented candles, sprays and fabric softeners and use natural products around the home. All chemicals are very damaging to the gut; use a steam mop instead or use ingenious probiotic cleaning range Evaa. Don’t use any chemical treatments on your lawn, gardens or patios; all of the above have a detrimental effect on the microbiota, which in turn can lead to leaky gut, sensitives and allergies.

CHEMICAL FLEA AND WORM TREATMENTS

Not only are these unnecessary but they are extremely dangerous to our dogs as in some cases they can cause neurological issues like ataxia, seizures and even death! Flea and worm treatments are powerful toxic pesticides, they can damaging the microbiota and the one cell epithelial layer that regulates stomach acid is also damaged, once damaged this then allows bad bacteria and yeasts to flourish. Once you have leaky gut and the microbiota is out of kilter we end up with acid reflux, loose stools, vomiting and IBS symptoms.

VACCINATIONS

The world small animal association guidelines (WSAVA) clearly states that vaccinations should not be given needlessly, they also state that core vaccinations (parvovirus, hepatitis, distemper) can last up to the life time of the pet from just their puppy vaccinations. Giving boosters if your dog already has immunity is not only pointless but extremely detrimental to your dogs health; it is impossible to “boost” the immunity of an already immune dog. All that will happen is the dogs antibodies will block the vaccination from working BUT you are still putting all the unnecessary and potentially dangerous adjuvants into your dogs body and over stimulating the immune system.

ALWAYS TITRE TEST before giving a booster.

WATER It’s really important to give bottled water ideally OxyPet, if not use a good filtered water to remove chlorine and any other toxins from tap water as these damage the microbiota. We recommend the Zero Water jugs or Berkey water systems or water2 system for filters.

WORKING ON THE GUT

The integrity of the gut is key! You need to help to heal, sooth and replenish the gut. Depending what the issue is with the gut a good place to start is with a quality soil based probiotic, and a demulcent like slippery elm or marshmallow root powder. By Karla Pearson, NO BULL just natural health for dogs

EATING GRASS

As if by magic the yearly grass eating sessions have commenced right on time for Hadēs.

Every spring he makes a beeline for the long grass on our walks and has himself a good old munch. Is this normal or should I be worried? There are a few reasons our pups decide to tuck into the greenery, and some are quite interesting!

• Enrichment

Some pups just simply enjoy a good much on grass, especially at this time of year as the grass is quite sweet! So they are just giving themselves a nice refreshing and cleansing snack. Nutrition Some pups may have a deficiency in chlorophyll - a green pigment found in plants. So they are self selecting to eat grass to fill this need. Unfortunately grass isn’t a great source for chlorophyll as dogs can’t actually digest grass fully - so usually comes out looking the same to it going in…. So if your dogs’ diet doesn’t include green veggies and they start munching on grass routinely, you might want to look at adding some of the below, either lightly cooked or steamed and see if the grass eating subsides.

• Kale

• Broccoli

• Spinach

• Green beans

• Curly parsley

• Spirulina Digestive Upset Some pups eat grass when they aren’t feeling well knowing it will help them vomit out the toxins in their stomach. If this is the case the vomiting will start within seconds/minutes of the grass eating. Signs to look out for are: • Drooling

• Lip licking

• Acting differently

• Leaning forward face down to the ground

• Stomach clenching

• Dry heaving

If this is the case you’ll need to get to the bottom of the upset and look at doing some work on the gut with pre and probiotics. So yes, grass eating is totally normal as long as they don’t appear to be desperately eating it and looking unwell. My only caution would be to make sure the grass your pup is eating is free from pesticides and chemicals as these can do serious harm to your pups!

 More reading on grass eating can be found in the below links.

https://mypetnutritionist.com/post/5-reasons-why-your-dog-eats-grass/?

https://healthypets.mercola.com/.../why-dogs-eat-grass.aspx 

https://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/why-dogs-eat-grass/ 

© Karla Pearson, written for NO BULL just natural health for dogs