Health Hub for Dogs
Gold Trusted Service Award · 181 reviews
Showing 10 of 2839 articles
-
The HPA Axis in Dogs: How Chronic Stress Rewires Whole-Body Health
The stress system behind your dog’s itching, loose stools and restless nights is often the same one. Here is how the HPA axis works, and how to support it.
read more: The HPA Axis in Dogs: How Chronic Stress Rewires Whole-Body Health
-
The Complete Picture
The gut doesn’t just talk to one organ — it communicates with every major system in your dog’s body through eight distinct axes. Understanding this network reveals why gut health is foundational to whole-body wellness, and why addressing the gut often resolves seemingly unrelated health concerns.
read more: The Complete Picture -
From Mouth to Gut and Back
Periodontal disease affects 80-90% of dogs by age three — but it’s not just about bad breath and tooth loss. Research shows significant associations between periodontal disease severity and pathological changes in heart, liver, and kidney tissue. The mouth is the gateway to the gut, and what happens there doesn’t stay there.
read more: From Mouth to Gut and Back -
The Detoxification Connection
The liver performs over 500 essential functions, but it receives 70-80% of its blood supply directly from the gut via the portal vein. This means everything absorbed from your dog’s intestines — good and bad — goes straight to the liver first. When the gut is unhealthy, the liver bears the burden.
read more: The Detoxification Connection -
The Energy & Weight Connection
With 40-60% of dogs overweight or obese, weight management is a critical health concern. But it’s not simply about calories in versus calories out — gut bacteria determine how efficiently energy is extracted from food, how appetite signals work, and whether the body favours fat storage or burning.
read more: The Energy & Weight Connection -
The Cardiovascular Connection
Heart disease affects 10-15% of all dogs. While we focus on heart structure and function, gut bacteria produce metabolites that directly influence cardiovascular health — some protective, some harmful. Managing gut health may complement conventional cardiac care.
read more: The Cardiovascular Connection -
The Mobility Connection
Joint stiffness, reluctance to climb stairs, slow to rise after rest — while we naturally focus on the joints themselves, inflammation originating from the gut plays a central role in joint deterioration. This explains why two dogs with similar risk factors can have vastly different joint health outcomes.
read more: The Mobility Connection -
Beauty From Within
Itchy skin, hot spots, dull coat, recurrent ear infections — these aren’t just skin problems. Research consistently shows that dogs with skin conditions have altered gut microbiomes, and addressing gut health can resolve skin issues that topical treatments alone cannot.
read more: Beauty From Within -
The Mood-Mind Connection
Is your dog anxious, reactive, or struggling with behavioural issues? The gut might be sending stress signals to the brain. Over 90% of serotonin — the ‘happiness’ neurotransmitter — is produced in the gut, not the brain.
read more: The Mood-Mind Connection -
Building Resilient Defences
If your dog seems to catch every bug going around or battles recurring infections, the answer may lie not in boosting immunity, but in supporting the gut. Approximately 70% of immune tissue resides in the gut, making it ground zero for disease resistance.
read more: Building Resilient Defences