Why healing the gut means healing your Pet!
Healing your pet from the inside is possible, even when it comes to issues you never thought stem from the gut!
Signs your pet might have leaky gut
* Sensitive digestion / Allergies
Once the gut lining allows substances to travel out of the gut, undigested protein will make its way into the bloodstream.
Now the immune system identifies intruders by their protein structure. This helps build immunity by exposure because the immune system remembers the proteins it attacked before.
The bad news is, when an undigested protein enters the bloodstream and the body attacks it, after some time the immune system would remember this protein as an intruder that needs to be eliminated. Consequently the immune system will attack the particular protein as soon as it enters the body in the future - This is often falsely diagnosed as a food allergy or intolerance.
* Renal Issues
When the bloodstream is contaminated, then the renal system - Liver and Kidney in particular - will try to clear it.
With a constant leaking from the gut though this task becomes impossible. Now the liver, kidney and urinary tract get strained, the immune system works excessively, the heart possibly struggles. More reason to revert to a natural balance of protein (!) before an emergency arises again. More on Renal Issues here.
* Skin Issues
What is often diagnosed as dermatitis or so is a simple consequence of the strain on the renal system. The skin as the biggest organ will try to help the Kidneys and Liver by pushing out toxins. These will collect and show in the nooks and crannies such as between paws, ears, around the eyes etc.
* Arthritis/ Joint & Hip Issues
When the gut lining is leaky and allows particles into the bloodstream that are harmful then Joints will suffer soon. The joints become inflamed as the body is trying to eliminate the harmful particles. This inflammation will cause damage to the joint tissue, which then leads to chronic pain and can even lead to deformation of joints such as Hip Displasya.
Mucosal Surfaces (such as the gut lining) secreting fluids that are contaminated or imbalanced will impact the fluid around the joints - this leads to more Joint Pain.
One common denominator - the GUT and excessive inflammation
More often than not, excessive inflammation from a leaky gut spreads in the body and gets diagnosed as some ailment which then is medicated.
The medication suppresses symptoms but doesn't heal the underlying issue - so once medication is stopped the issues will come back and get worse.
The process of leaky gut building and the underlying issues manifesting can take years. When you start seeing signs of a leaky gut, it is essential to act and try to feed better before an emergency situation arises and the pet needs to be medicated.
What you can do to help heal your Pet sustainably without medication
*stay as far away from grains, bread, rice and processed foods (kibble, commercial treats and chews) as possible - simple Carbohydrates and starches are essentially sugar for our pets. Sugar feeds yeast, yeast makes inflammation and we are back at the leaky gut.
*add good probiotics such as Soil Based Probiotics to reestablish the right balance organisms in the gut check our selection here or read more here
*feed bone / fish broth to supply minerals, glucosamine and other nutrients to patch up the mucous linings and cartilage
* feed fish or shellfish - active omega 3 is essential to keep inflammation in check, seed oils are inflammatory and do not supply the right omega 3
* replace rice / wheat / sweet potato/ peas / lentils with non starchy veggies like pumpkin
If you want to hear an in depth journey into gut health check my Real Talk Video or the short Videoblog!
