Transcription
What's up guys? I'm Dr. Lindsay Butzer, a small animal veterinarian practicing here in South Florida. And you landed on this video because you want to know what are the best probiotics to buy for your dog's gut. And this is a really important thing. And a ton of veterinarians and pet owners are starting to put their dogs on probiotics to help heal their gut. So I'm going to share a personal story. And that is that I went through leukemia cancer about four years ago. I literally had five rounds of chemo put through my arm, um, that went down into my heart and basically scorched my bone marrow and my gut. So I have been on a gut healing journey myself and I totally believe in probiotics. So hang tight. In this video, I'm going to tell you guys why your dogs need them and how often you need to be giving them.
[Music]
I didn't mean to leave you with that cliffhanger there. I'm doing amazing. I've been practicing now for three years. I ran a half marathon, um, and my results have been coming back cancer-free. So thank you guys for all your wishes. I know there's going to be a bunch of comments below. Um, if a family member or someone you know has had leukemia, um, I only like positive thoughts, so you can put those below.
There's a few reasons you may be turning to probiotics for your pets. They may be having diarrhea or vomiting without any clinical illness, like they have a sensitive stomach. They maybe just had Giardia or hookworms, intestinal parasites that tore up their gut and you want to restore their gut. They may also be having skin allergies, like swollen eyes, red armpits, red bellies. Um, they get hives often. For those like Bulldog or Boxer breeds, probiotics have been proven to help these dogs from the inside out.
So what are probiotics anyways and prebiotics? We hear people talk about this all the time. So probiotics are bacteria. So this can be 50 billion strains of bacteria. They're microscopic bacterias that go into their gut when they eat a supplement or they eat a specific food that has this bacteria in it. That helps support their gut biome, which is like a little colony, a little party of, uh, city of bacteria in their gut. That is a happy colony. And then there's ones that are angry that hurt your gut. So you want to get more of those happy colonies of bacteria in your pet's gut to help their entire body function properly.
And then prebiotics are what feeds those bacterias. So prebiotics can be like a banana, an apple. These are great prebiotics that feed good bacteria. So that's really all it is. People get so technical about it, but it could be literally a banana, like I said, and that's a prebiotic. You could put slices of that on your dog's food and you just gave give them a prebiotic.
So don't go running to cook for your dog or look for a food that's full of probiotics or some homemade human food brand. Just stick to a quality kibble dog food brand. I'm a big believer in kibble. My dogs have lived on it their whole life and I'm just telling you to add things to their kibble. You can add toppers. I love that stuff. And then the supplements that I'm going to link below, you just buy those and add it to their food and that's adding a probiotic to your dog's daily life to help them feel better. So I'm going to link everything below. You guys can click on those products. Those are ones that I've personally picked out that I would recommend to you if you were my client.
And then here are some things you could buy at the grocery store. So the first one that actually my husband Tim is obsessed with lately is kefir. Kefir is a thick raw milk type of product. And a lot of times it will say for dogs and cats only on the B, but actually it's for human consumption. But they have to put that because it's not pasteurized for safety concerns for people buying at a grocery stores who are immunocompromised or something who could get sick from the bacteria. But it has like 30 to 50 billion probiotics in it. And we love putting a fourth cup of this onto our dog's kibble and they go nuts for it and it supports their gut and it helps their poops look nice and healthy.
Another product you can find is raw goat's milk or regular goat's milk. Another thing that drives my dogs crazy, they love this. It also comes in powders. I'll link some of those below too that you guys can, um, order and it'll just get shipped to your front door. Uh, but goat's milk, you can also just put a half a cup or a fourth cup of that onto their food. You can also buy Greek yogurt, plain yogurt, the really thick Greek yogurt. Make sure there's no fake sugars in it. Do not get any sugar-free things for your dogs. If it has Xylitol or any other sugar-free things, it could kill them. So please read the back of your labels when you're going to pick up these, uh, dairy products for your dogs.
And then another great one is cottage cheese. So they love cottage cheese. Another dairy product that has a lot of probiotics in it. And for those dogs that are prone to pancreatitis from high fat foods, pick the low-fat option of the cottage cheese and the Greek yogurts.
All right guys, so that is it for this video. I hope you learned a lot and I hope you guys go buy some of these probiotics, try them out with your pets, see if their skin gets better, if their poops get more firm, and their gut gets healthier. All right everyone, I will see you next week with another veterinary video.
[Music]