Making decisions for your pet’s health can be daunting.
We can’t have a conversation with our animals to understand their discomfort and pain. They depend on us to be the advocates for their well-being. And with so many pet products on the market boasting cure-all properties, the choices we make can feel even more fraught with unknowns.
So when was the last time you trusted your gut?
When The Bone & Biscuit Company caught up with Julie Anne Lee, DCS, RCSHom, and founder of Adored Beast Apothecary to talk about caring for our animals holistically, gut health came up again and again.
“It’s the foundation of a body,” says Lee, who has been researching gut health for over twenty-five years.
“And it’s not about taking a probiotic. It’s about re-establishing an environmental balance as you would see in a park,” Lee says.
Gut Health For Cats and Dogs With Species-Specific Probiotics
Imagine a park: there are birds, trees, and insects living there. Remove one species or add too many new ones, and you’re going to run into issues. The harmony sustained by the natural environment will be thrown off, and native species won’t be able to thrive.
Your gut, and the gut of your cat or dog, operates with the same rules. Taking a probiotic is like adding new species to the park; you need to make sure you can protect your native species.
That’s where a prebiotic is important. They’re like seeds for the new bird in the park. This feeds the new species to protect the native ones from being eaten.
Gut imbalance can create a domino effect of health issues for your pet. For dogs specifically, it can lead to reduced food digestion and vitamin production, which in turn can lead to exacerbated inflammatory bowel disease and life-threatening diseases, like cancer.
Rebalancing the gastrointestinal flora with probiotics “allows for an increase of in good bacteria and a decrease of the bad,” as Lee says.
The benefits to your pet can include:
- Healthier teeth and gums
- Improved resilience to autoimmune diseases
- Better digestion of food
- Better bladder health
- And more for cats, and dogs.
“It’s a real passion for me, probiotics,” says Lee, outlining the products she formulated to work in rotation for busy cat and dog owners who are looking to give their animals a strong base for a healthy gut. Lee recommends administering these one at a time until it runs out and then transitioning to the next supplement in the list.
Adored Beast Apothecary probiotic products are shelf-stable (so you don’t need to keep them in the fridge), and become active upon contact with liquid, such as saliva or water.
“How I’ve developed these formulas is to not only focus on the gut but then focus on a system of the body,” says Lee. The liver, pancreas, kidneys, microbiota, bladder, and the integrity of the gut lining are all in focus as part of the probiotic rotation.
Here are her recommendations:
Adored Beast Apothecary Probiotic for Dogs
- Fido’s Flora: species-oriented probiotic that detoxes the body.
- Love Bugs: 14-strain probiotic blend.
- Healthy Gut: Aids in the digestion of food and bolsters the immune system.
- Gut Soothe: pre and probiotic blend with soothing herbs to support the lining of the bowel.
Adored Beast Apothecary Probiotic for Cats
- (Coming Soon!) Fido’s Flora for Cats
- Gut Soothe: pre and probiotic blend with soothing herbs to support the lining of the bowel.
- Love Bugs: 14-strain probiotic blend
- Easy Peesy Protocol: aids the lining of the gut and supports the kidneys and bladder health.
Lee’s deep-rooted knowledge from decades of experience in holistic animal medicine shines through in talking all things pre and probiotic. Her journey from vet technician to owner and founder of Adored Beast Apothecary is marked by trailblazing fortitude and steadfast commitment to her values.
The Story of Adored Beast Apothecary
This story starts with a dog who was loved very much.
Lee’s dog Rudy had cancer. She was working as a vet technician at the time and began to look at treatment options. Invasive surgery was being recommended to remove his tumour. Lee decided to go back to her roots; she had been raised with a holistic philosophy, and her mother recommended she talk to their personal herbalist Virginia about Rudy.
Virginia worked with Lee to provide treatment for Rudy that was rooted in holistic medicine. When Lee took Rudy back to the vet a few weeks later, his tumour had shrunk from the size of a lemon to the size of a grape.
This experience helped set the course for the years of schooling to come, as Lee pursued a four-year Human Homeopathic Medicine Program in Vancouver at UBC, moving after graduation to England for a three-year British Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons Program.
When she came back to BC, she opened her holistic veterinary hospital, eventually expanding it to a 7000 square foot facility that treated over 35,000 animals.
It was in her clinic that the first Adored Beast products were formulated, although that’s not what they were called back then.
“I started putting all of these protocols together,” says Lee. Her technicians suggested to her to make the protocols ahead of time – mixing up to thirty-six ingredients together – so they would be ready to go for patients.
“So that’s what we started doing – we had the Leaky Gut protocol already made – we just didn’t call it that. I was using those protocols in my practice for years and years and years and years,” Lee says.
Leaky Gut Protocol became the first product sold through Adored Beast Apothecary – it was the one Lee felt could make “the largest good for animals”.
Empowering Pet Owners to Take Control
“My whole intention when I opened Adored Beast was to be able to afford people the same health philosophies for their furry families as they have for their own families,” Lee says.
“When you decide that you’re going to make a change when it comes to your own health, a large part of that is empowering yourself; making your own decisions for your health care, researching what you’re going to put into your mouth, what you’re going to put on your skin, what drugs you’re going to take,”
“So when you decide you’re going to go more of the holistic route with your animal, you’re making a choice that you are going to empower yourself, and therefore you are automatically a part of your animal’s health care team.”
By bringing Adored Beast Apothecary to The Bone & Biscuit Company stores, Lee sees her ability to resource pet owners with information about holistic medicine expand far beyond what was possible while she was running her clinic in Vancouver. She works to educate store staff so that they can provide comprehensive assistance to cat and pet owners who are on their own holistic journey.
“It’s a life philosophy that helps you make better choices for your animals,” says Lee.
Just remember to trust your gut.
Talk to your local Bone & Biscuit about Adored Beast Apothecary products, or purchase online through The Bone & Biscuit online store for local pick up at participating stores.
0 Comments