How to improve dog gut health?

Improving your dog’s gut health involves a combination of dietary adjustments, targeted supplementation and lifestyle management to help support a diverse gut microbiome. Since approximately 70% to 80% of a dog’s immune system resides in and around the lining of the gut, maintaining this balance is critical for overall well-being.

What is poor gut health?

The single most common cause of all dog health issues relates to just one thing. Poor gut health.

The gut, or gastrointestinal tract, is a dog’s digestive system. It breaks down food, absorbs essential nutrients and eliminates waste. The gut is also home to trillions of bacteria (collectively known as the microbiome) that manage immunity and influence health.

An estimated 80% of dog health problems including digestive issues and skin and coat problems have at their heart, that one thing. Poor gut health. Improve your dog’s gut health and most problems go away. Ignore the gut, fail to address the underlying cause of most dog health issues and those problems not only persist, they get progressively worse over time.

Somewhere between 70% and 80% of a dog’s immune system lives in its gut. Even when there are no obvious signs of GI distress such as loose stools or diarrhoea, if a dog is suffering from allergies, chronic itchiness or recurring ear infections, poor gut health is the first thing that should be considered.

In fact whatever a dog’s health condition, whether it be heart disease, arthritis, seizures or any other chronic health condition, the gut is always the best and first place to start.

A dog’s gut is a miracle of evolution. It is not just responsible for digesting food, it also plays a major role in immunity, nutrient metabolism and mental health. It acts in conjunction with the trillions of microbes known as the gut microbiome.

What does the gut do?

Your dog’s gut plays a number of key roles, including:

1. Digestion and nutrient absorption

The stomach and small intestine use enzymes and acids to break down food into smaller, more absorbable components known as nutrients. The small intestine is the primary delivery vehicle for absorbing nutrients, minerals and vitamins into the bloodstream.

The large intestine (colon) meanwhile contains bacteria that ferment dietary fibres and complex carbohydrates that the body cannot digest on its own. It also absorbs water and salts and turns waste matter into stool for excretion.

2. Immune system regulation

A dog’s gut is its primary immune organ. It is the largest immune system organ, housing up to 80% of the body’s immune cells. It acts as a barrier against bacteria and viruses, using mucus and beneficial bacteria to fight off pathogens. A dog’s gut microbiome is so awesome, it helps train the immune system to distinguish between harmful pathogens and harmless or beneficial bacteria.

3. Metabolic and nutritional function

Gut bacteria produce essential vitamins, including vitamin K, vitamin B12 and folate. This is known as vitamin synthesis.

Microbial fermentation in the colon produces short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate, which provide energy for the gut lining cells and help maintain a healthy environment. The gut microbiome also breaks down bile acids, allowing them to be reabsorbed and recycled by the liver.

4. Mental health

The gut produces neurotransmitters, including 90% of the body’s serotonin, which influence mood and mental health. Through a system known as the gut-brain axis, the gut communicates with the brain via nerve signals, influencing emotions and cognitive function.

5. Other crucial functions

The gut is the largest endocrine system in the body, releasing hormones that regulate metabolism, appetite and fullness. The microbiota aids in the development and maintenance of the intestinal wall, ensuring structural integrity (that the barrier remains intact).

The gut plays a role in managing blood sugar levels and insulin sensitivity. A healthy gut, characterised by a diverse and balanced microbiome, is essential for these functions, while an imbalance (dysbiosis) is linked to conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), obesity, diabetes and even neurological disorders.

Dog gut health signs

If, as a pet parent, you are hearing more and more about dog gut health, reading more and more articles on how to improve dog gut health, there’s a very good reason for it. The world at last seems to be waking up to what dog nutritionists have been banging on about for what seems like decades. The importance of dog gut health cannot be overstated. Without good gut health, you cannot possibly have a healthy dog!

The key to good canine health is good gut health. Put another way, you cannot expect to have a healthy dog if your dog does not have a healthy gut. And a healthy gut does not come from a bag of dry dog food. That’s one of the reasons gut-related dog health problems have seen such a massive increase in recent years.

No, good gut health comes from feeding your best friend healthy fresh food. Food that will protect its gut, not food that will likely contribute to inflammation and gut dysbiosis.

Gut related health problems in dogs

So what sort of dog health problems are we suggesting are related to poor gut health? Well, just about everything really. Because around 80% of a dog’s immune system, its first line of defence, is in its gut.

So feed it highly processed commercial dog food that causes inflammation in its gut, and you leave a dog wide open to diseases as disparate as liver and kidney disease to cancer, diabetes and pancreatitis.

But the signs of ill health pet parents are most likely to see first are external problems like paw licking and ear scratching. Signs of inflammation. External manifestations of internal problems.

But gut-related dog problems don’t end there. Far from it in fact. There’s a whole raft of digestive problems to boot. That diarrhoea your dog keeps suffering from — that’s a symptom of poor gut health. And that diarrhoea is not going away unless the dog’s gut health is addressed once and for all.

All the dog health problems so far mentioned, those and many, many more, IBS included, all relate to gut health.

How do you make them go away without medication which will only make the matter worse? By feeding proper food. Food that will not cause inflammation. Food that will not necessitate destroying the delicate bacteria balance in your dog’s gut. That’s why so many of today’s dogs suffer from debiliating life-long health problems.

Read on to learn more about how to improve dog gut health!

Gut dysbiosis and leaky gut syndrome

There are two key issues relating to a dog’s gut that are ultimately responsible for all the canine health problems mentioned so far.

They are gut dysbiosis, the imbalance between the good and bacteria in its gut. The imbalance that sees the bad bacteria overwhelm a dog’s beneficial good bacteria. And the related gut health problem, intestinal permeability, also known as leaky gut syndrome, whereby the previously mentioned bad bacteria manages to break through a dog’s gut lining, enter its bloodstream and ultimately wreak havoc all over its body.

And that by the way includes the itching, scratching and biting. The skin and ear infections, the paw licking and ear scratching that sends so many people unnecessarily scurrying to their vets.

Without addressing the twin problems of gut dysbiosis and leaky gut syndrome, you are never going to have a healthy dog. And there’s no better placed person to help you address these issues than a dog nutritionist.

How can I improve my dog’s gut health?

Still looking to improve dog gut health? There are a number of ways pet parents can help improve their dog’s gut health:

1. Dietary improvements to achieve better dog gut health

To improve your dog’s gut health, focus initially on feeding a high-protein, low-carbohydrate, fresh food diet using high quality ingredients. This in itself often goes a long way to improving a dog’s gut health.

Dry dog food is often too high in carbohydrates. These can feed bad bacteria and lead to the inflammation that results in leaky gut syndrome.

There are a number of high quality, commercial fresh food dietary options that are complete and balanced, although studies show that a homemade diet is most likely to improve canine gut health.

2. Probiotics to achieve better dog gut health

In recent times, it has become commonplace to incorporate specific supplements into a dog’s diet to support a diverse gut microbiome. Key amongst those are probiotics, live, “friendly” bacteria or beneficial yeasts that live in a dog’s gastrointestinal tract and that nourish friendly bacteria and help maintain a healthy balance in the gut microbiome.

While probiotics may indeed be beneficial, modern thinking is that this can sometimes result in a worsening of symptoms, especially in the case of a dog suffering from small intestinal bacterial overgrowth otherwise known as SIBO.

So before simply giving your dog probiotics, perhaps consult with a dog nutritionist who will advise you whether or not probiotics are the best option for your individual dog. In most cases they are not. Most pet parents would be better supplementing their dog’s diet with prebiotic fibre — effectively, food for good bacteria rather than good bacteria in its own right.

3. Prebiotic fibre to achieve improved dog health

Prebiotic fibre is a type of non-digestible plant carbohydrate that passes through the upper digestive tract to fuel beneficial bacteria in the gut. It acts as a food for good bacteria, improving digestion, immune function and nutrient absorption.

Common types of prebiotic fibre include inulin, fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) and galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), which are naturally found in foods like chicory root, garlic and green bananas, all of which are completely dog-safe.

Foods such as steamed or pureed carrots, broccoli, green beans and leafy greens like spinach and cabbage provide prebiotic fibre.

4. Faecal microbiota transplant

Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is a procedure that transfers processed, healthy bacteria from a carefully screened donor dog into a client dog in order to restore gut balance. Most commonly today, FMT is provided in capsule form.

FMT is widely considered the most powerful and effective microbiome-targeted therapy available to dogs, because it transfers a diverse, living ecosystem from dogs with a perfect gut microbiome rather than just a few isolated bacteria strains as is the case with standard probiotics.

5. Lifestyle changes

Daily physical activity strengthens the immune system and promotes healthy bowel movements in dogs. High cortisol levels from stress can damage gut health. Endeavour to provide a calm environment and use enrichment toys to ease anxiety.

Hopefully you will now have a better idea of how to improve dog gut health.