“`html Reviewed by Dr. Sarah Mitchell, DVM — Small Animal Internal Medicine. Last updated: July 2026. Key Takeaways Senior dog supplementation should be organized by the specific age-related change being targeted — joint, cognitive, gut/oral, or immune — rather than chosen by brand marketing. The strongest joint evidence supports omega-3 fatty acids (EPA/DHA) and glucosamine/chondroitin…
The concept of compartmentalized body systems has guided veterinary supplementation for decades. Gut health meant digestive support.
Veterinarians recommending gut or oral-health supplements for canine patients are working with two fundamentally different product classes. Live probiotic products (CFU-counted) depend on organisms surviving manufactu…
For most of the past two decades, canine supplementation has been organized around organ silos. A dog with digestive issues received a probiotic or digestive enzyme.
By Dr. Sarah Chen, DVM — Diplomate, American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Small Animal Internal Medicine).
Veterinary colleagues increasingly ask me how to evaluate the supplements their patients are receiving. The label is often the only clinical document we have to work with, and most labels are not written for clinicians.
Plaque is not debris. It is a structured polymicrobial biofilm, an organized community of bacteria embedded in an extracellular matrix that adheres firmly to the tooth surface within hours of professional cleaning.
The distinction between a postbiotic and a probiotic is not semantic — it is mechanistic, and it has direct consequences for what a product can guarantee on its label. After reviewing the canine literature published…
Reviewed by Dr. Karen Aldrich, DVM — Small Animal Internal Medicine | Published October 14, 2026 | 14 min read
A dog that develops diarrhea within minutes to hours of eating presents a clinical pattern every practitioner recognizes. The postprandial timing narrows the differential list considerably compared to diarrhea that de…