[#DOGALOGUE_diet] Probiotics for dogs
[#DOGALOGUE_diet]
Probiotics for dogs
WHAT ARE PROBIOTICS?
The word “probiotics” literally means life promoting. It refers to a class of bacteria or yeasts that often naturally live inside of animals, and that play a role in improving or maintaining health.
CAN WE FEED HUMAN PROBIOTICS TO DOGS?
Probiotics is just a general term. There are different genera, species and strains. Probiotics and dosage that help us human may be different from those that help our dogs.
TYPES OF COMMON PROBIOTICS FOR DOGS
1. Dairy/ fermented food based probiotics
- They normally belong to the Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium genera.
- They are easily destroyed by stomach acid, therefore a large amount needs to be fed to ensure effectiveness.
2. Healthy yeast
- Saccharomyces boulardii is effective to treat Candida and other yeast problem.
3. Soil-based probiotics
- They belong to the Bacllus genus.
- They are usually found in the soil or water
- They are spore forming, which protects them from heat, stomach acid and most antibiotics
- A relative smaller amount needs to be fed to be effective.
- It can be fed during antibiotic treatment
HOW CAN PROBIOTICS HELP OUR DOGS?
70% of your dog’s immunity lies in his gut. Probiotics can help keep bad bacteria away, enhance nutrient absorption, promote gut health, ease diarrhea and other illness, improve mood and behavior, as well as ease allergies.
Each probiotic serves a different function. Dogs need more than just one type of probiotics. The more strains a dog can take, the more diverse his gut microbiome can be. Here in this video are some of the common probiotics and how they can help your dog.
PROBIOTICS SOURCE
1. Whole food
- Dairy product such as yogurt and cheese
- Raw goat’s milk
- Kefir
- Fermented veggie
- Sauerkraut
- Kombucha
Even the same whole food has different amounts and types of probiotics. If your dog is healthy in general and you would like to feed him probiotics via whole food, it’s important to provide
[#DOGALOGUE_health]
Vitamin D for dogs – the art of just enough
CAN DOGS GET ENOUGH VITAMIN D FROM EXPOSURE TO THE SUN?
A lot of animals, such as human, have 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC) in their skin, which can be photochemically converted to vitamin D3 when exposed to the sun. Dogs, however, do not have enough 7-DHC in their skin. They can only get vitamin D from their diet.
VITAMIN D IN DOGS
Vitamin D aids in the absorption of calcium and phosphate, increases bone cell activity, influences the formation and growth of long bones, and speeds the healing of fractures. Dogs lacking vitamin D have higher chance to get heart disease, joint inflammation, skin and coat problems, cancer, vision problems, depression, mental illness, infections, inflammatory bowel disease, dental problems, hyperparathyroidism, and kidney disease.
TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING IS BAD
Vitamin D is fat-soluble, which can be accumulated in the body. Too much vitamin D can create heart disease, kidney failure and artery problems as well as anorexia. It can be life-threatening in serious cases.
REASONS FOR OVERDOSE OF VITAMIN D IN DOGS
1. accidentally eating cholecalciferol rodenticides – cholecalciferol is the chemical name for vitamin D
2. taking too much vitamin D supplements
3. eating commercial dog food containing too much vitamin D
RECALLS OF DOG FOOD WITH EXCESSIVE VITAMIN D BY MAJOR BRANDS
In 2018-19, some dog food manufacturers recalled dog food products, including some prescription diets, due to excessive amount of vitamin D. According to FDA, some of the dog food contained potentially toxic amounts of vitamin D, as much as 70 times the intended amount in some cases. Similar incidents also happened in 1999, 2010 and 2016 respectively.
WHY DID IT HAPPEN?
It is said to be a vitamin D formulation error in such dog food. In order to meet the AAFCO standard for “complete and balanced diet”, manufacturers add vitamin and mineral premixes to the food. These premixes are synthetic and
[#DOGALOGUE_diet]
Garlic for dogs, yay or nay?
You may have heard that garlic is poisonous to dogs. It seems that a lot of people still include it as an ingredient in their dogs’ diets. Can dog actually eat garlic?
In the past decades, garlic has shown up in various research and medical articles for its anti-tumour, antiparasitic, immune boosting, detoxing and flea and tick repelling properties, just to name a few.
In fact, there are a lot of commercial dry and canned dog food have garlic as an ingredient in order to provide the above-mentioned benefits as well as to add flavor.
“Garlic (oil) in dog food”: https://bit.ly/33XSldH
Dog food with garlic: https://bit.ly/374Nfyn
A study published in 2000 by the American Journal of Veterinary Research shows that when dogs are offered 1.25 ml of garlic extract/kg of body weight (5 g of whole garlic/kg) intragastrically once a day for 7 days, the dogs will have hemolytic symptoms, without developing actual hemolytic anemia.
Full research study: https://bit.ly/2Irgdy5
How much garlic is 1.25ml of garlic extract per kg of body weight? It is approximately half of one whole garlic for a 4.5kg toy poodle, or 5 whole garlics for a 34 kg golden retriever! The unusual high dose of course will do harm!
Garlic is in fact NOT an essential ingredient in a dog’s diet. Benefits offered in garlic can also be obtained in other food source. If you are worried, just stay away from it. it is totally your decision and I hope you can make a best-informed decision with the info at hands.
If you still want to include garlic in your dog’s diet, you should be aware of the following:
1. Use organic raw garlic. Freshly chopped or crushed. Let it sit for 5-10 mins before feeding to allow time for allicin to release.
2. Allicin becomes unstable in high temperature or after being exposed in air for a period of time. freshly served raw garlic is the best.
3. Puppies under 6 months or pregnant dogs should not be fed garlic.
4. Dogs with
[#DOGALOGUE_health]
Basi has hookworms and how we prevent this naturally
When Basi was around 2, he passed some black tarry stool during our walk, which can be a sign of internal bleeding or tumor. I was very much worried and went to a vet with the stool sample immediately.
After some examination the vet confirmed that it wasn’t internal bleeding or tumor, but some hookworms and eggs were found in Basi’s stool.
Hookworms is one of the common parasites found in dogs. They attach to the intestinal lining and suck blood from the dog, which can cause amenia. Dogs can pick up hookworm larvae from the soil or feces from dogs with infestations, through their mouths or through the skin on their pads.
Besides black tarry stool, lethargy, loss of appetite, diarrhea and pale gum (caused by anemia) are usual sign of hookworms in your dog. Basi has no signs at all other than his poop.
The vet suggested Basi to take a course of dewormer for 3 consecutive days, and faecal floatation in a week. He mentioned that dewormers can only kill adult worms but not larvae and eggs. So there may be adult worms again in 2 weeks. He then suggested that I give dewormer monthly as a regular protocol, as the risk of taking dewormer long-term is still lower than that of hookworm reoccurrence, which causes anemia.
I understand the vet’s rationale but I would hope for a solution that involves no long-term dewormer and hookworms. After some research, I went to another vet for her opinion.
This vet’s approach is closer to my goal. She doesn’t like the idea of using dewormer as preventive. She suggests that we should go for a monthly faecal test for 3 months after the course of dewormer and first faecal test a week after. If all results are clear, Basi is good as new.
At the meantime, she advises us to focus on Basi’s diet. We can give him ground pumpkin seeds. They contain cucurbitacin which paralyzes the worms making them easily eliminated from the intestine. Certainly a nutrit
[#DOGALOGUE_health] Leptospirosis in dogs – does vaccine help?
[#DOGALOGUE_health]
Leptospirosis in dogs – does vaccine help?
There was a small outbreak of leptospirosis (lepto) among dogs in Singapore back in 2016. There were 18 dogs infected in a few weeks, of those 12 visited a dog daycare center for swimming. 7 of the 18 dogs died, some even passed 3 days after showing obvious symptoms.
There are about 10+ cases in Hong Kong each year. What exactly is this horrible disease?
Lepto is a disease caused by infection with Leptospira bacteria. It spreads mainly through the urine of infected wild animal such as rats. The bacteria can survive for as long as 6 months n in water and on soil, particularly in summer and in rainy season. Human and animals can be infected through contact with or intake of contaminated water. If your dog plays in standing water or streams and tends to drink water from it, the chance of getting the disease is a lot higher.
No obvious symptoms show at the early stage, but typical lethargy, loss of appetite, fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Symptoms of organ disease show (blood in urine or jaundice) at a later stage, which can be fatal.
Lepto vaccine is one of the preventions. Here are a few points to note:
1. This vaccine is not a core vaccine, meaning it’s not a must. Dog owners should take their dog’s lifestyle and environmental factor into consideration.
2. There are at least 250 strains of Lepto. Of those, about 5 are known pathogens for dogs. The latest vaccine covers 4 of those strains. So the vaccine can lower the chance of your dog getting lepto, but not 100%. There are vaccinated dogs getting infected in the past.
3. The vaccine is only good for a year, meaning it needs to be re-done every year.
4. Two pharmaceutical companies claim their vaccine can prevent infected dogs shedding bacteria in their urine, which helps prevent further spread of the disease.
5. All vaccines have side effects, discuss with your vet on the risk.
Another prevention is simply not to let your dog play in standi
Hello! He’s Basi, a.k.a. the poodle in the profile picture. I brought him from Hong Kong to Singapore when he was 9 months old and returned together after 2 years. He’s already 5 this year.
Basi is my first dog. For a person who was scared of dogs her whole life like myself, I was very serious about bringing him home. I started reading everything about dogs 9 months before my decision, and realized that there is so much to learn about dogs’ diet, health, training and communications. I would like to share my research and my daily life with basi through this page. There will be links to relevant articles of a shared topic for your further reading whenever it’s possible. Let’s learn together, and let’s start our “dogalogue”!
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