Gastro- intestinal upset : how can we prevent?
More and more people use a health drink on a daily basis. Now, prebiotics are also used to boost dogs’ natural defences.
Pro- or prebiotics?
Probiotics are a food supplement of live microbial organisms with a positive effect on health. Prebiotics are indigestible food components, such as inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides, which stimulate the growth and/or the activity of bacteria in the colon and thus improve health.
Beneficial to microflora
The microflora of a dog’s colon consists of a varied ecosystem of micro-organisms that are extremely important for health. They can ferment proteins and complex carbohydrates and convert them into short-chain fatty acids, among other substances. Prebiotics can have a positive impact on the microflora during a change in nutrition or environment, or the weaning of pups. The addition of prebiotics, such as in Viyo drinks, not only stimulates the growth and the activity of beneficial bacteria, it also reduces the odour of faeces and the cholesterol level in the blood, improves vitamin synthesis, increases the uptake of minerals and boosts the immune system.
Short-chain fatty acids
Prebiotics do not have an adverse effect on nutrient uptake, digestion or evacuation. On the contrary: they contribute to higher concentrations of short-chain fatty acids in the faeces. These are beneficial to general health and have other specific positive effects. Moreover, fructo-oligosaccharides can reduce the faecal concentration of pathogenic bacteria.
Is there a difference between the intestinal flora in dogs and in humans? What is the difference between Viyo Elite and yogurt (probiotics) or can we expect the same effect?
At the moment there are about 30 known varieties of the bifido-bacterium (the most known and main ingredient of the majority of human yogurt), and those in humans differ from those in animals. So we are talking about host-specific bacteria. Where the number of bacteria is concerned, there are a lot less bacteria in animals than in humans. This results in a higher sensitivity of animals to diet changes as a result of the creation of specific flora in function of the diet. Therefore the best thing to do is to offer more than probiotics only to optimize the condition of the gut. We may conclude that the most important reason to use products that support the gut function is not only the fact that living bacteria (probiotics) play a role in a healthy gut condition (the same effect results from prebiotics) but that other nutrients stimulate the gut health like prebiotics and certain amino acids. In short, supporting a healthy gut requires more than probiotics only and a more complete formulation like Viyo Elite offers a better support of the gut condition for pets.
Dr. Wim Van Kerkhoven – Viyo International
Website : www.viyo-elite.com
Very interesting. Perhaps if I had supplemented the Orijen puppy chow with an enzyme and probiotic digestive supplement, he would not have suffered the terrible days of diarrhea. Apparently, the highly recommended Orijen (large puppy) dog food, with 38% protein, had too much protein in the dry form for his pancreas to digest.
I had switched him from Dr. Becker’s raw diet (which he had done extremely well with, to the Orijen, because we were leaving on a trip and wanted him to adjust to the dry food for travel. Well, even though the raw diet is also very high in protein, it is apparently much easier for his immature digestive system to handle. After spending $$$ for vet and lab fees (they even looked for Giardia!), we switched back to raw. Within one day, he improved dramatically, and his bowel movements are perfect again now.
We had to cancel our trip, but I don’t care. I am just so glad he is better. Besides, he absolutely loves every single recipe in that darn book! After all the difficulty I had trying to get him to eat the Orijen, it looks like Dutch knew it was bad for him, at least for now.
Does anyone (Karen???) have any tips on how to feed raw when traveling?
I really like the Honest Kitchen food, the “Love” or “Embark” I do often add more meat to it and salmon oil.
Batman loves Love. He gets it with a squirt of krill oil, salmon oil, hemp oil or coconut oil at every meal.
Plus in every bowl he gets: a 1/2 t Wholistic Pet Organics Digest-All Plus (human grade digestive enzyme and probiotic recommended by Food Guru Karen), 1/2 t superfood spirulina powder, 1 tsp HK Perfect Form, 1/2 scoop Osteo Bi-Flex for his joints, and 1/2 capsule of glucosamine chrondroitin MSM.
Meanwhile, I have a gummy multi-vitamin and call it a day!
Hi Bev!
That is just horrible! Poor Baby!
The first thing I’d do is scan the upc code and get the date and batch info off of the bag and email it to: Bonnie Gerow from Champion Foods bonnieg@championpetfoods.com and let the company know about everything that went on with Dutch, even the vet test etc. These companies need to know when there is an adverse reaction. One of Carole’s students had the same problem with Orijen last year.
I’m sure you switched him over slowly but some dogs/pups need an even slower change. I’m not saying that that was the problem; it was no doubt something with the food, as he was refusing it. When a person gets a new dog or pup, and you are not really sure how their system works yet, changes to the diet, whether food or supplement, should be done slowly.
It’s always good to include a digestive enzyme and pro-biotic no matter what you are feeding as it keeps their gut healthy! The food we feed, whether raw or kibble does not contain fur, which provides roughage/fiber, or real intestinal guts that would provide the bile, hydrochloric acid, amylase, lipase and protese to enhance the digestion process (pg.128 Becker). When it comes to the vitamins, it’s kinda up to the pet parent whether or not to include a multi-vitamin when feeding a commercial kibble that already has added supplements. For me personally, I would use a 1/4th to ½ the rate, but that’s just me. I have trust issues! :}
I do “travel food” 3 different ways.
#1.Raw: I make up my meat/veg mix and then put enough for 1 feeding into one zip lock bag. I make up enough bags for however many feedings I’ll need. After filling the bags I push out the air as I flatten out the bag and freeze them flat. Then, when we’re ready to go, we take a cooler with a bunch of ice packs, some on the bottom, then the meat then more ice pack’s on the top. If I have enough time, I get dry ice instead. We seal the edges of the cooler with wrapping tape or silver duck tape and take extra with us. When we get to the hotel I take out the baggies for the next day and reseal the cooler. Surprisingly enough, they stay frozen for a couple of days!
#2.Honest Kitchen Mix: I will mixing Honest Kitchen with raw meat about a week before we are due to leave, to let the dogs systems get adjusted to it. I will either freeze individual measured baggies again with just ground meat (not meat mix), or purchase ground sirloin at our destination to mix in. We are getting ready to leave for the Kentucky Cluster in two weeks, so I’ll be starting it this weekend. I lost my chart so I emailed Kat Penick from The Honest Kitchen to ask the ratio again. Here is her reply: “For every 1 dry cup of Thrive, Love or Embark, you can add ½-1 cup of meat. Then, to compensate for the meat, you will want to reduce the dry mix by ¼ – ½ cup. Here is an example: 5 cups of Thrive + 2.5 cups of meat – 1.25 cups Thrive = 3.75 cups Thrive (dry) and 2.5 cups of meat per day. “
#3.Honest Kitchen: The easiest way is just to do total Honest Kitchen. Just don’t forget bottled water (dog’s sometimes have a problem with water from sources other than home) & your measuring cups! 😉
I trust Honest Kitchen product’s completely when it comes to the vitamins, but I’d still add digestive enzymes and a pro-biotic.
Hope this helps!
When traveling, if you don’t have access to cold storage for a chicken thigh or two, you can just feed Honest Kitchen. You can pack it in a zip top bag, throw it in your suitcase, and just add water whenever it’s feeding time. Next best thing to raw there is. If you don’t regularly feed it, I would start mixing in graduating amounts of it into his meals for a week or so before your travel dates. I always fed this to mine, and it was the perfect food for those deep woods camping trips.
I’m still processing this information, Julie, and it occurred to me that I was giving Dutch enzymes, probiotics, vitamins, bone meal, etc. with his raw diet. I stopped all the supplements when feeding the Orijen because Orijen is supposed to include all the nutrients required, and I didn’t want to overload him with additional supplements.
My last trip to Germany I brought some kibble with but I always run out, so I just end up making frequent trips to grocery stores. They were fed Turkey legs, beef hearts, tripe, cheese, chicken parts, bread, apples, yogurt. I found a Russian grocery store in Germany that had all sorts of strange meat cuts and lots of fish. This is where I bought the tripe. It wasn’t green tripe so I am not sure if it had the normal benefits of feeding tripe.
They don’t sell green tripe for human consumption, at least I have never seen it, not even at the Korean grocer, and we eat everything!
Jennie you are right…about not selling it for human consumption. My dogs love chicken feet, I know that is an Asian favorite. When they are bleached and cleaned they look like little hands it really creeps me out feeding them to the dogs. But it is great source of glucosamine.
Ewwww. I am the only Asian in the DFW complex who hates shopping in the Asian grocery store. I don’t like seeing dead animals. I prefer to see them nicely packaged in a chub.
Funny story- Andy and I were in Bali and I had ordered crab- they brought this big aquarium full of crabs for me to choose from. I told the waiter that I don’t want to see them alive and looking at me before I eat it- just pick one for me.
Andy asked the waiter, “if I order a steak, are you bringing me a cow?” — the Indonesian waiter didn’t think it was funny. I thought it was! LOL!!
I make up my own vitamin mix and it contains lactobacillus acidophilus a pro-biotic and I also add diatomaceous earth (human grade).
Thank you! Honest Kitchen sounds like it would be easy for him (and me!) when we travel. We don’t have any further plans to travel until this summer, but I’ll get it now to see if he tolerates it – and likes it. Do you add supplements to HK?
I add coconut oil and/or salmon oil and my own vit mix.
WTRanger has been eating Honest Kitchen Thrive mixed with his Earthborne Holistic Puppy Vantage kibble. His bag of kibble is finally almost gone so he’s transitioning to 100% Honest Kitchen Thrive. He likes the Thrive. It’s so easy too. While making soup the other day I mixed his Honest Kitchen with fresh-from-the-stove chicken stock (instead of the usual warm water) and he loved it even more!
Oh, and I should add, the HK boxes make A LOT of food, and I was afraid what would become of me if WTRanger didn’t like it and I had the equivalent of 40# of dog food he won’t eat. We purchased our initial HK Thrive in sample packs for a few dollars each.
Who wouldn’t Kirsten!
I just found out what Honest Kitchen looks like today. It looks like my rose fertlizer mix.
So Orijen is not good for young pups? Oh darn….. I just bought a big bag for my sister’s pups. They are golden retrievers, does it matter??
Karen had recommended Orijen, but the all life stages, not the puppy. Libby loved it and was doing very well on it.
Josie, Orijen has an extremely high rating, but apparently the pancreas in some puppies cannot produce sufficient proteases to metabolize all the amino acids in that very high protein dog food. As a result there is a greater load of undigested protein delivered to the middle and distal small intestine comprised of the undigested protein. Because protein is a colloidal agent, it creates a high osmolality of the intestinal fluid creates a gradient that draws fluid, vitamins, and electrolytes into the gut. This is then passed on to the large intestine. It cannot be dehydrated by normal colonic action, resulting in liquid stools.
That’s what my (M.D.) husband explained to me. I was adding “Wholistic digest-all-plus” to the raw food I make. It has 11000 HUT of protease per
(continued from above) per scoop. Scott said to try to balance his protein naturally without adding protease to his diet. Apparently, if it is added, his own developing pancreas would not need to produce as much protease due to the supplementation, and he could develop an insufficiency in the future because of the negative feedback of early requirements.
Beverly, you had me wondering just who in the family is the M.D.! Very informative comment. Thank you for sharing.
As an unnecessary side-note to this blog posting….
My eyesight isn’t so great and when I first saw the title of this post I thought it said, “Gustavo-intestinal upset…”. I’m glad I was wrong. Poor Gustavo. Maybe all he needs is a little canned pumpkin…
LOLOL!!! If you ladies have given Gustavo intestinal upset, send him to us. We know how to treat him right! 🙂
Karen, remember last summer when Grizzly had problems while on Orijen? John switched bags and then he was OK but recently has had problems again. I am beginning to wonder if Orijen has modified the ingredients? It would not be the first company that has quietly changed the ingredients.
You KNOW I’m gonna be on that today! :-}