Just curious, those of you that feed a raw diet. Do you include Digestive Enzymes with it? and if so, do you use it with the meal or do you give it couple hours after eating?

I am getting ready to order some more supplements for my dogs and have been reading about it lately and wonder if I should be adding it. Both my dogs have enviromental allergies so didnt know if this would be a good thing to add?

I feed him plain Greek yogurt with live active cultures to keep up the "good" bacteria in his gut. Plus he loves it!

I feed raw, but have never supplemented with digestive enzymes because there's been no medical red flag among mine to suggest they need it. I've never understood that raw feeding is an indication for supplementing digestive enzymes. Unless your dog is showing symptoms of poorly digesting his food (gassiness? oily stool?) or has pancreatic problems, I don't think this is a necessary supplement.

(Like Lee, I also feed yogurt for the probiotic benefit; which is sorta kinda related to digestive enzymes, but not really.)

So are the digestive enzymes they sell pretty much the same as something like yogurt? Because I do feed yogurt but I was thinking it was different?

sorry tracy didnt see your post before I posted, so yogurt and digestive enzymes kinda the same thing then. So what about probiotics I give those too. Do they all kinda do the same thing?

Edited by Kathy West (10/30/2013 11:24 AM)
Edit reason: didnt see tracys post

They're not the same ... I agree with Tracy that they are "sorta kinda related."

Both are digestion-involved, in very different ways.

 Quote: Kathy West

... So what about probiotics I give those too. Do they all kinda do the same thing?

Probiotics are what yogurt contains. Probiotics are alive. Enzymes are generally proteins (big molecules consisting of little ones known as amino acids).

Probiotics don't break down food. (They do help convert sugars into lactic acid, but that's not the same mechanism.)




ETA
The digestive enzymes (protease, lipase, amylase) are manufactured by the body (mostly the pancreas and small intestine). There are disorders that can interfere with this production.

I don't use supplemental enzymes (for me or the dogs) because, like Tracy, I see no medical red flags that would suggest it.

I do provide probiotics (usually in the form of live yogurt) because "good" gut bugs are more vulnerable to common events than digestive enzymes are. Antibiotics, including those in a lot of meat (and dairy) products, chlorine in water, several OTC meds, and more can disrupt the gut population.

To help re-populate during and after an antibiotic protocol, I use more than yogurt; I add a tested probiotic supplement. I give it halfway between antibiotic doses and then continue if for a couple of weeks past the end of the protocol.

Edited by Connie Sutherland (10/30/2013 11:52 AM)
Edit reason: ETA

 Quote: Lee_Reicheld

I feed him plain Greek yogurt with live active cultures to keep up the "good" bacteria in his gut. Plus he loves it!

I agree. There are dogs who don't tolerate yogurt well, but IME, most do.

As mentioned, this is plain yogurt ... no flavorings and no sugar or other sweeteners, and it's not heat-treated after culturing. The container will say "active" or "live" cultures.

I try to give it in the first meal of the day, before stomach-acid production is in full swing, to get more of the good bugs past the stomach and into the gut.

Kathy--Connie's explanation is much better than I could have done.

But you don't need BOTH a probiotic supplement AND yogurt. Those are the same thing. One or the other, but not both (waste of money).

And unless your vet thinks your dog has a need for digestive enzymes, you don't need it. It's not going to make him healthier by adding something his body is already making.

What other supplements are you adding currently? The only "must-haves" in my book are fish oil and Vit. E. The probiotic is a "nice-to-have." Beyond that, if your dog is healthy and you're feeding a varied raw diet, I don't think you need further supplements. All JMO.

"The only "must-haves" in my book are fish oil and Vit. E. "


These are the "must haves" for me too. The long-chain Omega 3s are woefully underrepresented in modern diets, and vitamin E is used in processing oil supplements. (Not providing the vitamin E with the fish oil can actually lead to E-deficiency in some dogs.)

Speaking of yogurt. For those that feed it (and are DIY inclined, like me)-- it is ridiculously easy to make your own cultured yogurt, for about 1/4 the cost of store-bought. And you don't need any special equipment, except a cooking thermometer.

Easy to google how to. Or I'm happy to share.

This came as an a-ha to me several months back when I realized I was spending a fortune buying yogurt and kiefer for my mob of dogs. It really is falling-off-a-log easy to make yogurt.