Did you know that we have 7 different probiotic formulas at Adored Beast??
It’s true. And because of the variety, we continually get asked which one is the best probiotic for dogs? Or are certain ones better for certain scenarios?
We’re breaking it down to make it really easy for you to find exactly what your dog (and their gut!) needs.
But first, a little back-to-basics…
Why are Probiotics Important?
Over 80 percent of the immune system comes from the gut. A normal digestive tract contains both “good” and “bad” (pathogenic) bacteria.
And when the gut is healthy, it helps the whole body not only stay healthy, but thrive!
Unfortunately, there are many things that damage the gut environment, causing it to become ‘unbalanced’ and creating much of the chronic disease we see in our dogs today. This includes:
- antibiotics
- non-steroidal anti-inflammatories and steroids
- over-vaccination
- processed food
- stress
- grains or beans (anything with lectins)
These things can cause the bad bacteria to start overwhelm the good bacteria, the gut can really start to take a beating.
Enter probiotics!
Probiotics, or “friendly” bacteria, act like the gut’s defence system against “bad” or dangerous disease-causing bacteria. They are the gatekeepers that stop intruders and keep the mucosal lining healthy. It’s also paramount in converting and metabolizing our food into vitamins and bioavailable nutrition.
For example, when you eat a carrot (packed with vitamin A, C, K1, calcium, iron, biotin, potassium…!) there’s a complex process that happens to allow your body to use that nutrition.
The facilitation of this process is one of the important jobs of the friendly gut bacteria.
A gut that has a bountiful amount of this healthy, friendly, live bacteria enjoys wonderful health benefits.
As our fearless leader Julie Anne Lee always says, “You can feed the absolute best nutrition on the planet, but without a healthy gut much of that nutrition goes to waste along with the time, money, and concern you spend getting the right food for your dog’s optimal health.”
That’s why we’re such huge proponents of probiotics. It’s also why we’ve created four different probiotic formulas, each one unique in its design, to cater to the different needs of our beloved canine beasts.
The Best Probiotic for Dogs
For over 20 years, gut health and research has always been a passion of Julie’s. Each one of these formulas comes from the knowledge, expertise, and experience of working with probiotics in her veterinary clinic. She has handpicked each individual ingredient. This includes each and every probiotic strain for its effectiveness with particular diseases she saw in her practice. In our opinion, each of these top the list of best probiotic for dogs.
1. Love Bugs
This is our flagship pre and probiotic blend. It features 14 diverse strains with 30 billion colony forming units (CFUs). We also added larch arabinogalactan for its potent prebiotic properties. And that’s important – prebiotics feed probiotics, allowing them to flourish in the gut and deliver those benefits you’re looking for.
Love Bugs is ideal for minor health concerns like mild itching or tummy issues. It supports the gut, the immune system, and can be very helpful for allergies.
Love Bugs = a good choice for daily proactive health.
2. Gut Soothe
This one starts out with Love Bugs as the base, but we’ve added several different anti-inflammatory herbs and nutraceuticals, such as slippery elm, aloe vera, l-gluatmine amino acid, and marshmallow root, and more!
Gut Soothe is more tailored to those dogs with tummy troubles. It can help significantly with things like diarrhea, leaky gut, vomiting, allergies, lung issues, irritable bowel disorder (IBD), acid reflux, and just general inflammation of the digestive tract. For example, think of the slippery elm as aloe vera for your dog’s digestive tract. It soothes the “burn” and helps provide relief.
Gut Soothe = use it regularly, or even just keep it on hand for flare ups.
Our Feline Gut Soothe can also be really helpful for cats with hairballs!
3. Healthy Gut
This formula also starts out with a Love Bugs base, with the added benefits of digestive enzymes like bromelain, papain, and pancreatin.
Heathy Gut is really good for all animals who are eating kibble. It’s helpful for those dogs who have trouble gaining weight, have large stool volume, or are malnourished. The digestive enzymes help your dog’s body to absorb the nutrients from their food.
It’s also really good for healthy dogs though! Even dogs on raw food lack the digestive enzymes they would be getting from whole-prey nutrition. Therefore, Healthy Gut gives the added boost they need.
Healthy Gut = use it regularly, or rotate with the others on this list.
4. Easy Peesy II
With this formula, we again start with a Love Bugs base, but then add special herbs and nutraceuticals like cranberry and n-acetyl glucosamine that target the urinary tract.
Easy Peesy II is helpful for both dogs and cats who’ve struggled with urinary tract or bladder infections in the past, whether regularly or intermittently. It’s also particularly beneficial for senior dogs to help strengthen the urethra and sphincter, two muscles that can weaken with age.
Easy Peesy can help to decrease pain/discomfort and inflammation in the bladder wall and smooth muscle, and support the transportation of bad bacteria out of the bladder through the urine, while slightly shifting the urine pH, thereby making conditions for bacteria growth less favourable.
Easy Peesy = use it regularly to give the bladder some love, or rotate with the others on this list.
5. Fido’s Flora
With this formula, we start with the Love Bugs pre and probiotic, but then boost the probiotic power with 2 canine species specific probiotic strains. That means that we have scientifically isolated the strains from the feces (yes, poop) of healthy dogs. Sounds weird, we know, but research shows using these species specific strains allows for unparalleled health benefits.
Why poop? Well, research tells us that probiotic bacteria evolve host-specific traits – meaning you want to find a strain or strains that have optimum efficacy for the host, body or species it’s intended for. We now know that while there is some commonality of intestinal bacteria between species, each species of animal has its own specific microflora. So going right to the source for host-specific strains, like the ones in Fido’s Flora, is going to deliver the most valuable probiotic benefits.
For example, these species specific strains are really useful for balancing the immune system (immune modulation). This is key for animals with any type of autoimmune disease such as allergies, cancer, or Cushing’s. Immune modulation even has the potential to derail many diseases before they take root! Fido’s Flora is definitely the best probiotic for dogs when it comes to canine specific strains.
We also added ancient minerals humic and fulvic acid to help support the body with chelation, a process where the body rids itself of things like heavy metals and toxins.
Fido’s Flora = good for animals struggling with a number of issues, or to just help get the body back on track after an illness, medications, or any kind of gut trauma. It is a go-to for any dog with allergies or autoimmune diseases. It’s good for a general all-around detox. Fido’s Flora also helps to replenish the natural species specific probiotics that many puppies are lacking at birth!
6. The Wolf
Our canine companions evolved from wolves thousands of years ago. And even though this evolution happened so long ago, the domesticated dogs that reside with us in our homes are not so different from the wolves that still roam wild today. We’re leveraging the power and wisdom still found in these ancestral strains…
The Wolf is a blend of 3 lupine (wolf) species-specific probiotics from our ancestral line. Just like our Fido’s Flora features canine strains or Felix’s Flora with feline strains – The Wolf is a probiotic derived from the feces of wild wolves. We isolated these unique strains in the lab. We’ve coupled these strains with turkey tail mushrooms as an ideal species-appropriate prebiotic.
This unique blend has undergone extensive in vitro and in vivo assessments showing that they are able to survive in the presence of low pH and bile salts, adhere and colonize in the gut, and provide a positive impact on overall animal health.
The Wolf = great in the rotation for dogs struggling with gut issues, or for healthy dogs. Good to use in therapeutic form, for cancer for example. It provides a diversity in bacteria that can’t be found in other probiotics.
7. Soil & Sea
These are the only soil-based probiotics in our line-up. They come from the soil, and are paired with chlorella and ancient minerals fulvic and humic acid. By feeding them to our animals, we are providing them with the essential bacteria that have been lost through the sterilization techniques of modern farming. These bacteria have been, and still are, incredibly vital for health and longevity.
The pre and probiotics in this formula are completely vegan, and come from lower down the food chain, meaning they offer a diverse variety of bacteria not found in our other probiotics. They provide the bacterial diversity that was once common prior to the introduction of sterilizing farming practices (washing our fruits and vegetables). This makes it a vital part of any probiotic rotation. The addition of chlorella and humic and fulvic acid also provide numerous benefits.
Soil & Sea = ideal for SIBO (or suspected SIBO), IBS, digestive upset, good for inflammation, ulcers, acid reflux, detoxification. Use in rotation, particularly with The Wolf and Gut Soothe.
Rotation is Key
Maybe all of these sounds great to you. And that’s good – it’s really important actually. But is one better than the others? What’s the best probiotic for dogs on this list?
When it comes to gut health, diversity is key. By switching things up and rotating, you’re changing the gut’s focus and you’re working with different systems.
For example, Love Bugs covers your basics, but then maybe you decide to bring in anti-inflammatories with Gut Soothe in the spring. Those allergies and all… Then all summer long your dog walks through weed killer or other toxins, so you turn to Fido’s Flora for detoxification in the fall. Then of course Healthy Gut gives little extra boost of digestibility throughout the year. See? Rotation.
You don’t want to keep using the same thing over and over. We shouldn’t be and our dogs shouldn’t be either.
These products are built to support certain systems in the body. It’s always helpful to rotate so that each part of the body gets a little boost, and a little support, and then you move on to the next system. The more diversity, the more educated the gut becomes.
For healthy animals, for young animals, for senior animals, it’s healthy to rotate.
Whether you’re looking for something to help maintain good gut health, something to help calm a troubled tummy, something to help your dog get the most from their food, or something to really kickstart the health of the gut after it’s been damaged, we have the best probiotic for dogs. And not just any dog – your dog! That’s our promise and our guarantee ❤️
