I have worked and spoken with a number of pet gut health companies, and the most recent company that’s popped up is Biome9. I've seen their adverts on instagram and even my clients have used their test to help identify possible causes of their dog’s health issues.
This is my honest review of Biome9. (I’ve seen the tests, and analyzed the supplements they offer)
When it comes to gut health, the most accurate way to get an insight into your dog’s gut is through a poo sample. The bacteria, fungi and other microorganisms in the poop are then analyzed and compared to data on other dogs to assess how healthy their gut is.
It’s important to understand how integral the gut is to a dog’s overall health. 70% of a dog’s immune system is in the gut, but in reality, the microbiome of a dog plays a role in every single issue they suffer from. How?
Where and how your dog lives affects their health and the balance of their microbiome which is a picture of their health. The balance of their microbiome also impacts how their body functions. It’s all interlinked.
That would mean it would make sense to get your dog’s gut tested if they had a problem? Well yes, and no.
If they have an obvious problem like digestive issues, epilepsy or joint issues, something is wrong with your dog’s gut. Do you need a test to tell you that they suffer from low diversity of bacteria or they’re struggling to digest fats?
It's reasonably useful, but the solution to 90% of issues that dog’s suffer from is simple. Honestly, everyone wants to overcomplicate health but it’s mostly due to deviations away from a natural lifestyle. Wrong diet or exposure to an environment with too many stressors which is causing their body to malfunction.
For most dog owners, Biome9 will mostly tell you what you already know (that your dog’s gut is out of whack), and then present you with their solutions (supplements range), and their supplements are mediocre at best. In fact they are crap, I’ve changed my mind already.
In classic pet industry fashion, their supplements are clinically formulated by veterinary scientists, but contain absolute rubbish. Most of the supplements are in chew form, and contain:
Glycerine, Brewer's Yeast (Gluten),Garbanzo Flour, Refined Vegetable Oil (Rapeseed), Starch (Tapioca, Potato), Yeasts, Maltodextrin, Pea Protein
They do include a good range of probiotics, however the math of the quantity is a bit tricky, as a general rule you want a probiotic to give an adult dog around 1-7 billion bacteria per day.
The idea that spending £300 in 6 months (what a client of mine was recommended) on supplements to restore gut health is a bit of a stretch, and that doesn’t factor in the change in diet required for actual healing to take place. You can’t heal the gut with supplements alone.
In reality gut health is simple, move your dog onto a more natural and specific diet (use only the meats that work best for them, if you don’t know these, use the digestion plan on my website to work them out) and then clean up the environment around them. Remove stressors like chemical dewormers, flea and tick drugs, scented candles and diffusers, change the cleaning products to be more natural and buy a quality probiotics.
Making sure they go out on long walks, eat grass, get them out of the towns and cities and into the clean natural environment, this will reap better rewards than using a test to get results you already know the answer to.
Remember this: Where and how your dog lives affects their health and the balance of their microbiome which is a picture of their health. The balance of their microbiome also impacts how their body functions. It’s all interlinked and optimal health comes from natural living.