8 Benefits of Probiotics for Dogs

When shopping for pet supplies, probiotics for dogs are an essential item to add to your list. A good probiotic is just as important for today's dogs as a healthy and nutritious brand of kibble and an excellent grooming brush. They are a fantastic way to give your dog's digestive health the boost they deserve.

Read on to find out everything you need to know about probiotics for dogs and the many benefits they can provide your furry friend.

What are Probiotics for Dogs?

You've probably heard of human probiotics, whether you've seen a commercial on TV advertising a supplement or tried out a new yogurt brand boasting large quantities of gut-friendly probiotics. When it comes to adding probiotics for dogs to your canine companion's diet, you might be wondering if there's a difference between the two. What makes probiotics for dogs fall under the category of pet supplies? 

The best probiotics are the ones that are made for a species with their particular digestive tract in mind. So a probiotic designed for humans wouldn't have the same digestive support effect on a dog. That's why pet owners need to have specially formulated probiotics for dogs to provide the most benefits possible for their dog's health.

Benefits of Probiotics for Dogs

You may be wondering if probiotics for dogs are really necessary in the first place. After all, dogs are known for eating out of garbage cans and being just fine. But probiotics are essential to ensure a dog is operating with optimum gut health.

If you're asking yourself, how do you know if your puppy pal needs to start taking probiotics, take advice from Veterinarian Shawn Messonnier DVM, award-winning author of the award-winning of The Natural Health Bible for Dogs & Cats and The Natural Vet's Guide to Preventing and Treating Cancer in Dogs.

" [Supplements for pets] are very important. I recommend enzymes and probiotics," Dr. Messonnier said. "The best way to evaluate [exactly what a dog's gut health needs] is with a fecal microbiome test."

But even if your dog's microbiome is doing just fine, there is more to the benefits of probiotics for dogs than simply aiding their digestion.

Probiotics for dogs can have a wide range of positive impacts on your dog's overall health and can benefit both their mental and physical well-being. Here are some of the main issues probiotics for dogs can help your pet deal with:

Treats Existing Digestive Issues

If your dog regularly suffers from digestive issues such as diarrhea, vomiting or gas, you know how difficult it is to see your furry friend suffer from poor gut health. Luckily, probiotics can make a great addition to their daily routine. It can help soothe digestive troubles and provide relief. Your dog will feel better, your house will smell better, and everyone will be happier when tummy issues are a thing of the past.

Boosts Overall Digestion

Probiotics for dogs are also an excellent aid for giving your pet's GI tract the support it needs to stay healthy. By proactively giving your dog probiotics before an issue arises, you can help keep digestive problems from developing in the first place. This acts as a preventative measure by producing short-chain fatty acids inside your dog's intestinal tract, preventing harmful bacteria from growing in the first place.

Benefits Their Immune System

Did you know that the immune system and the digestive system are linked? A boost to one system can positively impact the other as well. Finding a simple way to improve your dog's digestive health also causes their immune system to reap incredible benefits. Probiotics for dogs not only support healthy digestion but also help promote immunity. A healthier pup gut equals a stronger, healthier dog as they age.

Helps with Stress and Anxiety

Some dogs struggle with their mental health more than others. Whether it is general separation anxiety when you leave for work or loud sounds like fireworks or sirens — several triggers can send your poor pooch into a spiral of stress and anxiety.

Fortunately, probiotics for dogs can help lower your dog's stress level and make it less likely that they will suffer from anxiety. A probiotic supplement is also great for dealing with the effects of stress on your dog's body. When a dog feels stress from traveling, boarding or adjusting to a new environment, the gut microbiome can become unbalanced, which can lead to digestive issues (doggy diarrhea after a long trip? Please no). Probiotics for dogs help restore balance and relieve uncomfortable digestive symptoms, easing stress for them and you.

Assists in Post-Antibiotic Use

Sometimes your dog needs to be prescribed an antibiotic after dealing with an illness or infection. While the antibiotic is helping your dog overcome one health issue, it could also be inadvertently causing another by disrupting the balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut. Avoid the onslaught of tummy issues your dog could experience and arm them with the probiotics to help them through the ordeal in one piece. Probiotics for dogs can help your pet's GI tract return to an ideal state with the proper amount of good and bad bacteria to support optimal digestion and overall wellbeing.

Deals with Allergies

If your dog deals with food allergies, probiotics can be a useful treatment option in helping them recover from the effects of allergies on the digestive tract. The first step in dealing with food allergies is typically switching your pet to a food that doesn't contain the allergens they are having trouble with, but a probiotic can also help. Probiotics for dogs can assist in lowering intestinal inflammation and help the GI tract recover after dealing with ongoing food allergies over a long period.

Prevents UTIs

It can be challenging to tell when a dog has a urinary tract infection, but when your dog experiences one, it is very uncomfortable and often painful. Probiotics for dogs can help prevent UTIs from developing in the first place. And if your dog has had a UTI and was treated with an antibiotic, a probiotic can restore the proper balance of gut bacteria and work to keep another infection from occurring in the future.

Soothe Skin Conditions

Many dogs have to deal with the unpleasant effects of skin allergies. Common symptoms include excessive scratching or itching, sores, scabs, irritated or inflamed skin, hair loss and constant ear infections — all of which can be very uncomfortable. By boosting your dog's immune system, probiotics for dogs help both soothe and prevent skin allergy symptoms.

Try Swaggy Tail's Digestive Enzymes for Dogs

There is nothing worse than seeing your fur baby suffer. Adding probiotics for dogs to your pup's mealtime routine can be a simple solution to help with and prevent several unpleasant health issues. 

With Swaggy Tail's Digestive Enzymes for Dogs, you don't have to worry about dragging yourself to the pet supplies store or browsing through pages of pet supplies online. This supplement from Swaggy Tails makes adding probiotics to your furry friend's diet easy. Swaggy Tails Digestive Enzymes contains live, naturally occurring microorganisms — making a great source of probiotics to feed your dog. They come in the form of soft chews, which makes it easy for your dog to eat them — they might even think they are getting a treat!

If you want to give your dog's digestive health the boost they deserve, try Swaggy Tail's Digestive Enzymes for Dogs today!