Slippery Elm Bark for your dogs
In the previous entry titled “Fish body oil for dogs“, I wrote that what supplements that I would give to Palette the Corgi, different type of fish body oil,flax seed paws up or paws down.
Also in the entry titled “Multivitamins/minerals supplements for dogs“,I wrote if supplementing your dog’s diet with multivitamins/minerals are necessary.
If you were to
supplement your dog’s meal with pills, I think it is important to know
first what are provided enough and what not with the diet you provide
and,only supplement missing vitamins/minerals. Some vitamins given excess would do more harm than good.
In this entry, I would like to write about digestive supplement.
Do you have your preferred digestive supplement for your dogs?
Probiotic for dogs..
I do not give this daily but, I do keep acidophilus plus (digestive supplement/probiotic) for Palette for her digestive upset or for when she needs to go through antibiotic treatment.
I realize now that even just simply googling “digestive supplements,probiotic” for dogs, you will find so many brands with different ingredients.
When Palette gets digestive
upset, I give her probiotic that contains large number of acidophiles.
Acidophiles is beneficial bacteria in the gut. With this, I give liquid
type probiotic that needs to be refrigerated after opening.
I
have tried powdered type of probiotic but,I quickly found out that one
of the ingredients (Dried Lactobacillus Acidophilus Fermentation
Product, Dried
Enterococcus Faecium Fermentation Product, Dried bacillus subtilis
Fermentation Product, Dried Yeast(Saccharomyces Cerevisiae), Dried
Whey.) did not agree with her and it made her digestive upset worse.
Therefore, I have been giving her liquid type of probiotic she does great on.
Another one I have tried was gel type probiotic which you are supposed to give certain amount of probiotic through the pen style syringe. It worked quite nicely,but bad side of it was that it made her farty dog.
At this moment, I am settled with Acidophilus plus because short ingredient list,works well with Palette and does not make her farty.
Some companies offer zillions of strains of bacterias in the supplements and say that they are for good but sometimes, more is not necessary be better. Personally, I prefer to have something that are short simple list for the ingredients and has good number of acidophilus in it.
Yogurt has acidophilus too,but does not have as much number as probiotic would so, if you were looking for digestive aid,look for the one that has acidophilus in the ingredients list with good number.
Probiotic when dogs are on antibiotic treatment..
If
for some reasons, your dogs needed to take antibiotic, give probiotic
during the antibiotic treatment and plus 1 month after antibiotic time
period has ended because antibiotic kills all the beneficial bacteria in
the gut and you need to introduce the good beneficial bacteria back to
their gut again.
Our vet said to give probiotic during the
course of antibiotic treatment and plus 3-5 days more after treatment is
ended but,with Palette, it was not enough to bring the number of
beneficial bacteria back to her gut. She needed probiotic for 1 full
month.
When you start learning more about digestive aid for dogs, you would hear people say “Slippery elm bark power”.
I personally never had a chance to use it but, I hear people use them with good result for digestive upset.
What is slippery elm?
If you are not familiar with slippery elm bark powder, slippery elm bark powder is made from dried elm tree bark.
According to Virginia tech documents on slippery elm, slippery elm herb was recommended often to singers as early as 1847 because of the characteristic of the herb;coat the esophagus, for the dry throat,sore throat.
In Japan, I did not have slippery elm but I remember my parents soaked the towel in shochu (high alcohol content distilled drink) and wrapped it around my neck. Or, we had lemon ginger honey diluted with hot bubbling water. Another one was homemade tea made with Karin Shu (Japanese quince,preserved with sugar and liqueur) and it was diluted with hot water to drink.
Or we had “u-me shu” that was made with distilled alcohol, sugar and plum,and it was diluted with hot water with touch of honey.
We also was told to gargling as often as possible especially after coming back from outside.
These are all for dry/sore throat natural remedy, and when we had digestive upset, most likely we would eat porridge (over cooked rice in the water with touch of chicken stock or soy sauce with chopped green onions and lightly beaten egg is mixed in.) to provide bland dinner to calm the stomach and hydrate the body,and then we would get slice of fruits such as apples,orange that are rich in Vitamin C.
Porridge in Japan was equivalent to chicken soup here in the states.
Anyway, the Slippery elm is in the family of Elm tree, and it can grow to 50-80 ft tall.They are often known for its healing property,and slippery elm comes from inner bark that are sticky,stringy,and soft substance beneath the brown outer bark.
That sticky mucilage substance under the outer bark helps to heal the mucous in the digestive tract by coating,lubricating and soothing.The inner bark that were ground to powder becomes gel-like consistency when mixed with water.
Therefore, it is also used for natural digestive remedy as well,besides healing the dry/sore throat.
You can read more on Slippery elm at Virginia tech documents PDF file here.
Did you know that the tree seeds come from what appeared to look like a leaf?
I did not know about this until I watch the youtube video but the seed is placed in the center on what appeared to look like a leaf.
The video that I have watched explained the tree produces the seeds every 3-4 years, and slippery elm is harvested from inner part of bark,which is whitish color and they are dried completely and ground to powder form.
The video also explained that it can be diluted with water and use as natural digestive remedy, or you can add more powder to the water to make it much thicker consistency like oatmeal and you can make the paste so you can use them as externally.
These are the informative youtube videos that I came across recently.
Slippery elm bark Part I
Slippery Elm bark Part II
If you are a blog subscriber,please click here to watch the video Part I, please click here for the Part II.
Now you know what the tree would look like,what seeds would look like and how they are used.
Some people who switched their dogs to raw diet use slippery elm bark powder for their dogs.
Since they have become popular as the natural diet became more popular,you may be able to find various places that carry them, but chances are, you would most likely find them at the health food store.
I have never used it, but I know some people make meatball (grind preferred meat,mixed the slippery elm bark powder) and give it to dogs. If my memories are correct, the meat ball was made with ratio of 1 oz meat with 1 tsp slippery elm bark powder for big dog.
Some people dilute the powder with water and make slurry and, give it to dogs.
There is the recipe of slippery elm slurry from Dr. Pitcairn’s book.
Slippery elm bark for diarrhea, from “Natural Health for Dogs & Cats”
1. Mix 1 tsp Slippery Elm powder with a cup of cold water.
2. Bring to a boil while stirring constantly.
3. Turn down the heat to simmer and continue to stir for another 2-3 minutes while the mixture thickens slightly.
4. Take it off the heat and add 1 tablespoon of honey (for dogs only) and stir in well.
5. Cool to room temperature
6. Give 1/2 to 1 teaspoon to dogs under 20 lbs, 2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons for dogs 20 – 40 lbs, and 3 to 4 tablespoons for dogs over 40lbs.
Give this dose 4 times a day or about every 4 hours.
Cover the mixture and keep at room temperature.
It will keep for a couple of days.
If you have the book, the recipe is on page 331. He states in the book that he prefer the bulk powder form because capsule form seems less potent,and much more expensive.
I recall some people leave the honey out from the concussion. I think if your dogs can drink without any sweetener in them, then, give the slippery elm powder water without honey.
Some people simply sprinkle the powder over the food and serve them.
I think slippery elm might be good option besides probiotic but I do not think they are preventative. They are given to sooth the digestive tract.
I can see that people can add in good bacterias for the guts “acidophilus” daily if one wanted to, but I am not certain with slippery elm bark powder especially they are herb and, sometimes, herb dosage can be tricky.
If it were me, I would give only when I see the digestive upset, not daily use of the herb.
I would think that you would still need to pin point the cause of the digestive upset no matter what method,what supplements you would use including pumpkins.
As long as the underlining cause is still exists, your dog would still have digestive upset. Keep the journal and be a good detective to figure out the cause of digestive upset and tweak whatever causing the problems.
If the store near you did not carry slippery elm bark powder, there is one website I have bookmarked long time ago.
They carry slippery elm bark powder and delivered to your door.
Here is their website “Fiasco farm” in MI.
Here are some of the good articles to read on slippery elm bark at ezinearicles website, although mostly for human usage.
This article is about Slippery Elm for Acid reflux and ulcers.
This article was written vet vet Dr Jean Halve on benefit of Slippery elm for pets.
The ezinearticle website has many more articles on Slippery elms. If you are interested to learning more, visit the website ezinearticles.com and learn more about the super herb.
Probiotic vs slippery elm bark powder,which ones of the two do you use for your dogs?
