Welcome back to Part 3 of our Gut Health interview series with Dr. Katie Woodley. If you haven’t checked out Parts 1 & 2, check them out here:
- Part 1: The Most Common Warning Signs of Poor Gut Health
- Part 2: Why a Fresh Food Diet Didn’t Help Your Dog
Part 3: Gut Health with Dr. Katie Woodley
If we can first get to more of a fresh food, minimally processed diet, fantastic. If you do that and you’re like, “well, why did I do that? I didn’t fix my pet.” Do not go back to kibble.
Here’s the thing: If you can hold steady with the diet, what you just did is you removed a layer of resistance to healing. So it will help with the level of inflammation.
I always refer to our pets’ bodies as a bucket – and everyday we’re putting things into the bucket. The bucket eventually gets full and it starts overflowing.
So think about everyday, what are we putting into our pet’s body? They’re getting food, so the bucket’s filling. If the food is more processed, it’s gonna fill a little bit higher.
Then there’s stress. We’ve got an emotional health component that goes into the bucket.
If there’s someone in your neighborhood who sprays a lot of chemicals, like herbicides and pesticides, that’s going in the bucket.
Then all of a sudden, your dog ends up eating a new treat or pollen season comes in and it overflows the bucket. Now your dog has sensitivity and we’re seeing symptoms. It triggers the immune system and the immune system’s like, “whoa! I was handling all those things and now I can’t.
I try to break it down into 5 pillars of health:
- Physical health
- Gut health & nutrition
- Emotional health
- Immune health
- Environmental health
When we look at those factors, we can assess: What changed today or changed this past week? What do I need to remove to remove some of the resistance?
For any pet parent experiencing where you’ve changed the diet but the symptoms haven’t changed, we need to assess these 5 pillars to get a better handle on it.
It doesn’t need to be a massive overhaul, but simple things like looking at your laundry detergent. That stays in the sheets and your clothes for weeks after one wash. It can be super irritating and inflammatory. So you can switch to a natural laundry detergent.
That way we’re lowering what’s going into the bucket so the body becomes more resilient.
I find being an investigator, keeping a journal, looking around your environment and thinking, “hm…I wonder if that could be impacting things. I can change that.” This week, change the laundry detergent. Next week, change the dishwasher detergent. Then filtered water and so on.
If you’re feeling like, “I don’t know where to start”…
You have to find a schedule or what works for you to not create overwhelm because overwhelm will just make you stop. This is where I always ask, “what is the one thing that you can do?”
That one thing may literally be sitting and being present with your pet for 30 minutes a day. That is emotional health. It doesn’t have to involve cost. It doesn’t have to take a ton of time. I think we overthink that and we see people doing like 1,500 different things and we feel guilty that we’re not doing enough.
If anyone takes away anything from this, remember the gut-brain connection and taking care of yourself.
Doing less is key, especially in this crazy world that’s emotionally stressed out. Each thing will be different for every person reading, but tapping into that one thing that you think will help you the most right now.
Then once you’ve nailed that, you move on to the next thing. And I promise you, even though it feels really slow, you are making a huge difference for your dog. We get shame and guilt from other people that we’re not doing enough. You’re in the perfect spot. You’re hearing this message for the right reason right now for when you’re ready to take action.
THANK YOU, DR. KATIE!
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!
