I’ve spent more time in vet waiting rooms than I care to admit (I knew the receptionist’s coffee order. It was that bad). So when it comes to struggling with your dog’s gut health, trust me when I say I’ve been there too.
There was the “hide-how-skinny-Luna-is” jacket phase.
The “what died?” diarrhea phase.
And enough liquid sh*t in my apartment to consider buying stock in Ruggable (and kissing my security deposit buh-bye).
I’m here to help you skip the 2 AM panic-Googling by connecting you with reliable, vet-approved dog nutrition and health advice. And there’s no one better to help me do that than this week’s guest, Dr. Katie Woodley.
Dr. Katie, founder of The Natural Pet Doctor, has been shaking up the veterinary world with her integrative approach for over 15 years. Think of Dr. Katie has your dog’s own personal detective. Instead of relying on quick fixes, she digs deep to uncover the root cause of health issues. And when it comes to your dog’s wellbeing, Dr. Katie knows: it all starts in the gut.
PART 1: GUT HEALTH WITH DR. KATIE WOODLEY
Q: What are the most common warning signs for poor gut health in our dogs?
- Obviously, diarrhea and vomiting are going to be gut health issues
- Constipation is a gut health problem
- Recurring pancreatitis is a gut health problem
- Gassiness is a gut health problem
- Acid reflux, like excessive licking of the lips, is a gut health issue
- Hyper reactive behavior problems can be a gut health issue
- Allergies are not just a skin issue. They’re a gut & immune system issue
- Chronic ear infections, itchy skin, licking the paws, chewing on the feet
- If your dog is getting hot spots, we actually have to heal the gut
- Anal gland issues are also connected to the gut
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“Those are some of the really common ones that we miss. We know that over 70% of the immune system’s in the gut. So in order to actually heal these symptoms, we have to heal the gut. Otherwise you’re gonna be stuck on the hamster wheel and then we end up completely off the path. And this is where so many pet parents are going back and forth to the vet for the same issue.”
Q: What’s something we can start giving to our dog today to improve their gut health?
Food is the foundation. If we can get to more of a fresh, minimally processed diet— that shift alone can fix a lot of pets, especially with gut health issues or allergy issues
A simple change to a bland diet and using probiotics like Saccharomyces boulardii, a beneficial yeast, has been shown to actually work better than metronidazole
Q: What about a dog parent who can’t switch to a fresh food diet?
- Superfood toppers are talked about a lot. I would hope and encourage pet parents to add those into their dog’s diet because it benefits their health too. Turmeric is a nice anti-inflammatory. I also use a lot of teas like chamomile
- If you do have to feed kibble, the one supplement I would definitely invest in is a digestive enzyme
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“Kibble is at least 50% carbohydrates. It’s a high carbohydrate diet and our dogs don’t have the digestive enzymes to break down that amount of carbs. They’re not digesting and absorbing or getting all the nutrients that they need. So if we can help them digest it and break it down, great! That’s super easy for us to do.”
Q: I hear a lot of times, “I switched my dog to a fresh food diet, but I’m still dealing with these symptoms.” What does that tell you?
I actually did a YouTube video on this. The shift to a fresh food diet alone can help a lot of pets, especially with gut health and allergy issues. But there are other factors:
- It could be an ecosystem problem in the gut like leaky gut, an inflamed gut lining, or an overactive immune system
- I see a lot of heavy metal toxicity with some of the HTMA tests we do. That can manifest as itchiness because of the amount of inflammation that upsets the microbiome
- Many pets are lacking calcium and magnesium at the tissue level because they’re not absorbing it from their food. It doesn’t necessarily mean the food’s lacking it, just a problem digesting it
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“So instead of covering it up with supplements or medications, because sometimes we do that (I’m not against medications, there is a time and place. Quality of life is always most important). But instead, really getting down to asking the question, “Why?”. Why did this symptom occur? Why am I using this food? Why am I using this supplement or drug?” That will open up a whole different world of how we support our pets.”
Conventional medicine failed me because we’re essentially trained to be the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
- One of my quotes is, “let’s just wait and see” because I’ve told it to pet parents in the past in my career. Essentially it means, “I have no idea what’s happening and we’re going to wait for things to get worse so then I can eventually diagnose it and give it a name.” And that’s a huge issue
- We don’t want things to continue to break and completely fall apart. Where we had a little bush fire at the beginning that would have been easily put out by a bucket of water, we now have a forest fire raging and all we’re standing there with is a bucket and we’re like, “this isn’t gonna work.”
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“I use Quercetin as a ‘natural Benadryl’ to help reduce itchiness, but the Quercetin is still only a bandaid. It’s similar to using Apoquel or Cytopoint injections. It’s going to help remove the symptom, but we never did anything to fix why that symptom was there. We’re not asking those questions, and it’s to no fault of my veterinary colleagues or pet parents, because they just don’t know, it’s a blind spot to ask that question.”
Continue to Part 2 of our Gut Health Interview Series.
Thank you, Dr. Katie! The first words out of my mouth after this interview was, “This was exactly what I needed.”
Make sure you check out all of Dr. Katie’s free content on her blog & YouTube channel, as well as the different products & services she offers to help improve your dog’s gut!
