Your Dog's Poop Can Teach You How To Improve Their Health

It should be obvious – if we are to tell how well our dogs’ guts are doing, we ought to look at the byproducts that said digestive system produces! Most people, however, don’t really think about this. After all, isn’t it just waste?

In reality, it’s important to examine your dogs’ health by making sure that their gut microbiome is in good health. These colonies of microbes, bacteria, fungi, and viruses are responsible for helping your dog break down and digest their food properly, and are unique to each dog. Sometimes, your dog’s inability to digest a certain mineral may be caused by the lack of the appropriate bacteria!

However, these helpful gut-based microorganisms are susceptible to a lot of factors – poor diet and stress can cause rapid growth or the death of certain microorganisms in your dog’s gut. This upsets the delicate natural balance within, which can cause all sorts of illnesses and bacteria that were previously kept in check overtake the digestive system.

Thankfully, there are testing kits out there that can help you check in on the state of your dog’s gut microbiome health. Just collect a sample of their excrement, bag it up per the kit’s instructions, and ship it off to a lab for analysis. You’ll quickly get back a report that tells you about your dog’s gut microbiome in great detail!

What should you do if something is already wrong? Thankfully, gut microbiome imbalance can be improved with some diet changes. Just talk to your veterinarian to discuss your options and plans!

Feature Image Source: Pixabay