Pet Corner

Holiday Nutritional Support for Pets

By Gary L. Ailes, DVM

With winter and the holidays on our doorstep, is there anything we should consider in taking care of our pets during this time of year? I wrote a column about this a year ago and the topic is such an important one that I believe it is worthwhile to touch on it again.

Consider the stress that we seem to develop around the holidays. Dogs and cats pick up our stress and can manifest symptoms just as we do. As some of us get short and snappy around the holidays, our pets can mimic the underlying attitude. Thankfully, we rarely use the mood altering drugs, although the tricyclic antidepressants can be used if needed.

L-tryptophan can help take some of the stress away. That is the amino acid that we attribute to the tiredness we develop after eating the turkey dinner at Thanksgiving.

Typically, the biggest problems are related to the days after the Big Meal.

Leftovers are the biggest offender and can be a problem for days. The most common sign is vomiting and diarrhea. It could show up as your pet having difficulty moving, which may relate to abdominal pain. Regardless, your pet should be seen by your veterinarian to evaluate the underlying cause. Feeding greasy leftovers, gravy or something that has turned bad can be devastating. Potential problems can range from pancreatitis to bowel obstruction. Thankfully, most problems are not severe but must be differentiated from the potential life-threatening problems just listed. Both pancreatitis and bowel obstruction can be extremely severe, and, thankfully, are not as common as the stress diarrhea from unusually rich food.

Many of the stress diarrhea problems can be handled by taking your pet off food

for 24 hours to allow the bowels to rest and heal. It is critical that the pet receive adequate amounts of water during the healing time. If they cannot drink without vomiting, then nothing should be given for eight hours. You can follow with an ice cube or two or very small amounts of water or weak tea. The amount can be slowly increased as your pet returns to normal. Should the vomiting not be brought under control, contact your veterinarian. Should your pet continue to vomit while all food is being withheld, contact your veterinarian.

Let’s assume neither pancreatitis nor bowel obstruction have occurred, and your pet seems to be doing better. Consider starting your pet on BioPRO™ to put normal bacteria in the system. By doing this, the nasty bugs tend to be pushed out by the good bugs. The normal bacteria in BioPRO have their own food incorporated into the product and it is called fructooligosaccharide. This is a long chain fiber, which is food for the right kind of bacteria but not for the bad bacteria that we want to keep out of our pet’s system.

It is worth considering adding GI Cell Support to your pet’s supplements during this time. This helps to protect against leaky bowel syndrome.

Option number three is Digestive Enzymes, which will ease the stress on the system as the enzymes do the work of digestion.

You may want to consider putting your pets on BioPRO and GI Cell Support through the fall and winter to help them keep their immune systems working at maximum efficiency and making it harder for the harmful bugs to start up housekeeping in the bowel tract.