That old expression, “You are what you eat,” applies not only to us, but to our pets.  All animals must receive proper nourishment for their body systems to function correctly.  Without fuel to drive the internal ‘engines,’ our pets will not thrive.  But just consuming food is not enough to assure that the body gets the proper fuel.  To receive maximum benefit from the food they eat, our pets need to be able to properly digest it. This sounds pretty simple and theoretically, it is.  To get nutrients from food, they have to be absorbed across the lining of the digestive tract and into the body.  But in order to be absorbed, they must first be available in a form that can cross this lining.  Obviously, your dog does not absorb his dinner whole.  This is where digestion comes in.  To be available for absorption, the giant chunks of chewed up food that hit the stomach after swallowing must be broken down into minute, digested bits.

Still sound simple?  It’s not.  Actually, things start to get pretty complicated at this point.  Proper digestion requires a perfectly adjusted environment with just the right amount of acids and enzymes to digest the food, and just the right amount of motility to move the food, and just the right amount of absorptive surface to pick up the nutrients and move them where they belong.  If any part of the digestive system is not working up to par, food is not digested properly.  If food is not digested properly, its components cannot be absorbed correctly.  If the components cannot be absorbed correctly, the undigested food moves through to the end of the digestive tract, where it causes trouble.  Meanwhile, the body is not receiving digested, absorbed nutrients and becomes malnourished.  This in turn, leads to an unhealthy, unhappy body.  The end result is a pet does not feel, or look, its best.  Because digestion is critical for absorbing nutrients, problems with digestion result in obvious symptoms of distress, including diarrhea, bloating, excess gas, and failure to thrive.  These problems occur so frequently in our pets that they cause many, many visits to veterinarians; typically, gastrointestinal problems rank among the top five reasons that dogs are brought in to see their doctors.

So, we help keep the body healthy and happy by making sure that food is digested properly.  And we do this by giving our pets the tools to properly digest their food.  The first is a healthy mouth.  Without healthy teeth and gums, correct chewing cannot occur and the digestive process is off to a bad start.  The second tool is water, as digestion cannot occur in a dehydrated body.  And the third tool is an age-appropriate, balanced diet, which supplies your pet with the proper foods to digest.  This diet should be fed in the correct amounts and frequency.  And it should contain natural ingredients which are sources of readily available nutrients and digestive aids.  One source of these natural ingredients, often overlooked for our pets, is herbs.

Feeding small amounts of beneficial herbs is a great way to complement your pets’ diets.  They supply micronutrients, such as vitamins and antioxidants.  Additionally, herbs are digestive aids.  Peppermint and parsley has been used for centuries to help relieve indigestion, heartburn and nausea, and to aid digestion.  It is thought that these herbs adjust the pH of the stomach, leading to better digestion.  And the antispasmodic effects of peppermint help the digestive tract function more smoothly.  Additionally, more complete digestion reduces inflammation farther down the digestive tract, potentially helping tame the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease.  So herbs not only supply nutrients, they also help the body digest these nutrients. Dog-Wa herbal supplement is a simple, effective means to supply your pets with these valuable herbs. It is a highly palatable, liquid concentrate containing extracts of parsley and peppermint.  This means the beneficial components of these herbs are readily available for digestion and absorption.  Parley and peppermint have been used successfully for thousands of years to aid digestion in people.  Now you can offer your dogs the same benefit – you can help their digestion with just a splash a day of Dog-Wa.

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