Do you supplement your dog's diet with probiotics or enzymes?

We feed our dog dry food from the brand Hollistic Select. Upon some research this brand is highly recommended and uses quality ingredients...including active probiotics and digestive enzymes. However I was under the impression that when dry food is heated or processed or whatever, it basically kills any live bacteria. Which would leave the probiotics and enzymes useless if I'm thinking correctly...?

So I'm mainly just wondering if any of you give your dogs supplements and have you noticed any changes as a result?

I know many dogs get digestive enzymes from a raw diet, but this is not practical for us at this time.

Any other knowledge on this would be appreciated too, even if you don't give your dog supplements!

I add a tablespoon of either kefir or plain yoghourt to my dogs main meal every day. They sometimes get a few cubes of probiotic goat's cheese added instead. My oldest dog is now 14 months old and she's never had a runny tummy which I put down to the fact that she has probiotics every day.

I give my dog a daily dog-specific chewable tablet which has probioticc and enzymes.

She is raw fed but due to having to take strong medication for her condition I give her these plus various other additional supplements and vitamins, probably more as a preventative and to make sure she gets everything she needs.

My Beagle has Ulcerative colitis and, originally on Azz's recommendation, I make Sauerkraut for my dogs. They also have the liquid (rejuvelac) which is drained from it. I also give them probiotic yoghurt, and a powder called Bio Premium from Protexin on their food. It contains pre and probiotics, brewer's yeast, and the amino acids L-glutamine and L-theonine.

I have never given my dogs any supplements. They eat mostly people food and have a good quality dry dog food available to them all the time, but they don't eat much of it. I know many think that feeding this way is not good for dogs. However, I have never had a dog that didn't thrive and do well on what I feed them.

Because of human foods and commercial petfoods being over-processed, probiotics are one of the best supplements that you can give both for yourself and for your pets.

However, the quality varies greatly from brand to brand regarding the number beneficial bacterial strains and "good" bacteria in every serving, which numbers in the tens of billions.

A good brand of probiotics similar to what Mercola sells is very good.

Here's more good info on good probiotics and the benefits they provide to cats / dogs.
Roger Biduk

Not all human food is over-processed - fresh meat/poultry/vegetables etc are un-processed. I do not eat any processed food and I do not give my dog any. She eats the same human food I do, the only difference being that I prefer mine cooked and she has hers raw!

Hello Malka,

Nice job on feeding her raw...as long as it's balanced.

I pay a fortune for organic meats, fruits and vegetables because the alternative isn't very good.

I don't know where you live but in North America the meats are loaded with added hormones, antibiotics and steroids... in fact, 80%+ of all antibiotics produced by the drug compaies are for factory animals!

Our fruits and vegetables can be exposed to a dozen toxic, poisoous pesticides.
Roger Biduk