Some vets think that puppies should be eating more soil microorganisms for good health. Chalupa looks like he might be dreaming about mud pies! Mmmm!

The opposite of antibiotic is probiotic. When our dogs get some kind of a bacterial infection, veterinarians will often prescribe an antibiotic to kill off the offending bacteria so that the infection can heal up. However, the downside to this is that antibiotics kill almost all bacteria in the intestines indiscriminately, even the beneficial ones, the probiotics. This is really bad because those beneficial bacteria are really beneficial.

Not only do they normalize digestion, they also produce enzymes, synthesize vitamins, and help to detoxify the body. And since the seat of a dog's immune system is located in the guts, poor digestive function is an invitation to lowered immunity. This can lead to chronic yeast or fungal infections.

Also, when antibiotics kill off bacteria, it will often be the harmful ones that re-emerge, stronger than ever, and start overwhelming the weakened beneficial ones. These potent harmful bacteria can even become resistant to antibiotics, resulting in a very dangerous, life-threatening health crisis.

Luckily, we can counter all this health trouble with probiotics, which are friendly intestinal bacteria. There are many strains of probiotics. Probably the most familiar one is Lactobacillus acidophilus, which was identified a long time ago. But dogs (and humans) normally have many different strains of these nice bacteria in their intestines, so when you give probiotics to your dog, generally the more different strains of bacteria included, the better.

One interesting aspect to all this is that before the advent of extreme sanitation and our pervasive fear of germs, our dogs (and our kids!) used to eat a lot of dirt. Food just wasn't as clean and refined (i.e., processed and packaged) as it is today, and kids and dogs were allowed to get a lot dirtier than they are nowadays. That dirt that they ingested contained a lot of beneficial microbes (thousands per teaspoonful). Some veterinarians and doctors now feel that our dogs and kids need those microorganisms for optimal health because they evolved together. They attribute the huge increase in allergies and asthma in recent years to a lack of exposure to these organisms at a young age.

If you really want to get down to the nitty-gritty, you can even buy these microbes in supplement form—they're called "homeostatic soil organisms" (HSO). I would recommend them, as well as beneficial bacteria, to anyone whose dog has chronic health problems such as digestive disturbances; inflamed skin; ear, eye, or respiratory infections; or allergies.