Mary Allen
Your dog’s immune system deals with countless germs every day. But chronic illness, stress, and nutritional deficiencies can throw it off balance. In such situations, you can boost your dog’s immune system through diet.
When Does Your Dog’s Immune System Need Targeted Support?
Whenever your dog’s immune system has to do a lot, it benefits from targeted support. This may be the case, for example, because:
- fighting chronic infections. In the case of chronic infectious diseases, however, immune modulation, i.e. a change in the immune response, is often required, not the stimulation of all immune reactions. The latter could worsen the symptoms through excessive, misguided immune reactions.
- is still inexperienced, i.e. with puppies and young dogs. Similar to kindergarten children, they come into contact with many pathogens in puppy playgroups or on dog walks. Your not yet fully developed immune system can be boosted naturally with colostrum (see below).
is partially suppressed in its function by drugs such as cortisone. Although this is necessary for certain diseases, it can lead to unwanted susceptibility to infections. That is why it makes sense to strengthen natural alternative defense functions. - reaches the limit of its capacities due to chronic diseases of important metabolic organs. Next to the brain, the immune system needs the most energy of all organ systems. It not only wards off pathogens, but also coordinates the healing and repair of organ damage – from skin wounds to liver inflammation. Therefore, a targeted boosting of the energy metabolism in the mitochondria (see below) is beneficial in such cases.
- is overloaded by a damaged intestinal barrier. For example, a disturbed intestinal flora (dysbiosis) after the administration of antibiotics, intestinal parasites such as giardia or allergies to food components make the intestinal wall more permeable and the immune system suddenly comes into contact with many more potential threats that it has to deal with
What Does Gut Health Have to Do with Your Dog’s Immune System?
It is often said that the skin is the largest organ in the body. However, the gastrointestinal tract has a much larger surface area through which the organism is in contact with the outside world. It is the most important and largest gateway for pathogens.
So it is only logical that the majority of the immune system is at home in the immediate vicinity of the gastrointestinal tract. An example that everyone knows is the adenoids – the gatekeepers at the entrance. Countless lymph nodes run along the rest of the gastrointestinal tract, from where the immune cells patrol the intestinal wall.
Inside the intestines, a layer of mucus peppered with antibodies and a healthy intestinal flora (also called the microbiome) ensures that no unwanted germs can settle.
This so-called intestinal barrier can fail if e.g. B.
- the intestinal flora is disturbed (dysbiosis),
- the intestine is inflamed (enteritis) or even
- the immune system is impaired.
Then pathogens have the chance to wreak havoc in the intestines or even get into your dog’s organism and multiply there. External factors such as psychological stress or heavy physical exertion also have a negative effect on the intestinal barrier.
How to Support Your Dog’s Intestinal Barrier
What your dog eats plays a crucial role in gut health and a functioning gut barrier. For example,
- dietary fibers provide valuable nutrition for the desired intestinal bacteria;
- the composition of the microbiome depends on the amount and quality of feed nutrients (e.g. carbohydrates, proteins).
- Vitamin A and Zinc are important for the health of all mucous membranes.
… The list is almost endless. This is why it is so important to feed your dog high-quality complete food that is tailored to their needs. If the composition of the feed is not right, even the best supplementary feed for intestinal health will have little chance of making the intestines and immune system fit.
Conversely, easily digestible, needs-based feed alone is not enough in some life situations.