Colitis (also called ulcerative colitis) is a form of inflammatory bowel disease that is becoming more common in our dogs. Treating this condition naturally requires an holistic approach to help heal the gut and bring the body back into balance. So while I am not going to go into all of this in todays video, lets look at those herbs that can be highly beneficial for Colitis and can provide healing and relief for this inflammatory condition. So stay tuned to learn more.
Colitis (also known as ulcerative colitis) simply refers to inflammation of the large intestine (colon) causing diarrhoea or loose stools and is one of two forms of the autoimmune disease known as inflammatory bowel disease (the other one being crohns disease). In dogs with this type of inflammatory bowel disease, the immune system mistakes food, bacteria or materials in the digestive tract as being foreign and therefore sends out an attack response causing this chronic inflammation. Colitis can be acute (meaning it comes on suddenly) or chronic (lasting several weeks or longer, or recurring). The possible causes are parasites including giardia, stress (this is a big one), a reaction to medication like antibiotics, pancreatitis, leaky gut syndrome, other infections such as viral or bacterial, and food intolerance or allergy and general poor gut flora (which can allow for the overgrowth of yeasts and other nasties). In some older dogs bowel cancer may also cause this inflammation. When a dog is suffering from colitis, they will often have fresh, red blood and/or mucus in their stools. They may strain to have a bowel movement and go more often than normal. In some cases, your dog may seem constipated and strain without producing any stools. IN the case of acute colitis, your dog may not show any other signs of being sick except diarrhea or straining to defecate. With chronic colitis, you could notice poor appetite, weight loss, and general lethargy and lowered stamina, a fever and pain or discomfort in the lower digestive areas. As I mentioned earlier, Treating colitis naturally requires a holistic approach to not only aid in reducing inflammation, repairing the gut and improving the overall gut flora, but also looking at how to eliminate or reduce the underlying contributing factors. I can’t go into all of that as I said today but wanted to share some of the wonderful herbs that can really help dogs with colitis to ease the diarrhoea, aid in repairing the gut tissue and therefore reducing inflammation.
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