A healthy Gut – Another Way To “Good 4 Life”.

There are two more nutritional products besides the minerals I spoke about in the last blog, in our Good 4 Life system for dogs, which helps maintain optimal health and well being. They are prebiotics and probiotics.  You may be familiar with probiotics which are healthy living bacteria, if you eat yogurt or take them in pill form.  While you may be aware of the benefits of PRO-biotics, PRE-biotics are less known but just as important.

A prebiotic is a non-living, special type of dietary fiber that provides the environment in the gut for the living bacteria, the probiotic, to survive. Both are needed and both have great health benefits for your dog. So what do they do? In a nutshell they provide good gut health for your pet. 

Here's why this is important.  

Did you know that the interaction between the bacteria that lives in your dog's digestive tract and the rest of its body is one of the single biggest factors that dictate your pet's health? Extensive research in digestive health has proven that most disease situations originate from a compromised immune system, which you probably already know, or the malfunctioning of the GI (gastrointestinal) tract, which I didn't know.   

This means the GI tract (the gut) needs to be in a state of stable balance between good and bad bacteria. When there are more beneficial bacteria in the gut, they suppress the activity of the negative or pathogenic, bacteria present. When an imbalance occurs, the opportunistic “bad” bugs can overcome the number of desirable microbes reducing their beneficial effects – typically resulting in disease or symptoms such as diarrhea.

Having Bio-mos®, the special Alltech pre-biotic in our pet food combats the negative microorganisms in the gut and actually attracts these undesirable bugs to its surface and traps them. Then these bad strains of bacteria, e-coli as one possible example, are reduced dramatically in the gut, as they are ‘washed out’ in the animal’s droppings. Pretty cool for a little bit of fiber.

Our probiotic, (the good living bacteria) helps with the absorption of nutrients, improves digestion of  the nutrients in the stomach and helps maintain an environment that doesn't allow bad bacteria to grow. Big job for good little bugs.

And, to retain the integrity of the living probiotics, at KLN family brands we spray them on the kibble after it has been cooked.  

Next blog, Good4life for cats, and remember the Good4Life system is exclusive to our brands.