Dr. Conor Brady explains that IBD in dogs usually stems from gut microbiome shifts caused by stress, food, toxins, or infection. Start with diet changes, then consider peppermint and chestnut-derived remedies to calm bacteria. Avoid probiotics if your dog has bacterial overgrowth, as they can worsen bloating and gurgling.
At what point do you think IBD can first affect animals?
It's often a microbiome change because you get a microbiome change. So it's not even you that changes first of all, it's your microbiome. And how do you change your microbiome? Answer: stress, wrong food, toxins, infection. What are the possible causes of IBD?
I generally try and account for almost like an 80/20 rule here. You know, try and do the things which are, one, simple to change, okay? And two, are most likely to give you a benefit. As you've just alluded to, one of the main changes to the microbiome, the start point, and what can cause irritation to the gut is through foods. Look at the foods. Of course, there are always going to be little cheat shortcuts that may be certain herbs that will help to change the microbiome to speed things up in the change. We've talked about a Trantle in the past. Many people will acknowledge things like peppermint and what that can do as a tincture for calming the gut bacteria. You add in a bit of hot wood, sorry, and a little bit of the— I think it's chestnut— is a way to effectively reduce bacterial overgrowth. And I think so many people reach for probiotics first to try and change your microbiome. And there are some studies out there to show that actually, if you do that and there's a bacterial excess, then it's really hard for those microbiome to re-establish from what you're putting in. If you've got bacterial overgrowth, if you add in a probiotic and prebiotic in those circumstances, those are the occasions where you get that gurgly tummy, that, you know, response which is not what you're expecting, where actually it almost gives them bloat, sort of colic episodes.
