In the Garden with Sym-Biota K9
Meet Basil
Basil is a 16-month-old Husky mix. I’ve known her (and her alter ego “Crazil”) since she was 7 weeks old. I fostered her and her two sisters, orphans whose mom had been hit by a car, after they nearly died inside someone’s hot vehicle.
Since puppyhood, Basil has had a sensitive GI tract, struggling on and off with seemingly random bouts of soft stools and vomiting. Her situation was perplexing — she would have normal stools throughout the day, but would wake me up almost nightly with diarrhea. I’d been to the vet several times to rule out parasites and other underlying causes. The only time we had an “answer” was a fecal test suggesting that her clostridia was slightly above normal levels.
I believe that a combination of factors has made her prone to an unbalanced gut.
• Early trauma — she may not have received the immune support from her mother that puppies rely on.
• The vet gave her antibiotics which, while helpful in some ways, also deplete the gut’s healthy bacteria.
• Basil attends Doggy Daycare, where they have strict cleaning protocols. Over-cleaning can combat pathogenic bacteria, but can also kill off good bacteria. I don’t mean to imply that the daycare itself plays a negative role — this is “Crazil,” whose hobbies include licking the floor and sampling the poop of other dogs. Behaviors like this, however appalling, annoying, or amusing they are, tell me to look closer — she does not eat her own poop, or any dog poop at home, for that matter. It tells me she’s missing something.
After several unsuccessful vet visits, antibiotics, and negative parasite checks, I turned to Sym-Biota K9, a probiotic formula designed with a gardener’s wisdom.
1. Plant your Basil
Raise your Basil in a positive growing environment that has optimal conditions. A diverse combination of beneficial bacteria, fungi, and organic acids are all components of healthy soil. Really let it get its roots in some good dirt.
Provide your Basil with healthy organic soil
2. Sunlight
Make sure your Basil receives 6-8 hours of sunlight per day. Hardier subspecies of Basil, like mine, prefer to spend all day outside in the sun, provided they get plenty of fresh water.
Make sure your Basil gets plenty of sunlight
3. Water
Water and hydration are incredibly important to the growth and health of your Basil, especially during hot, dry periods. Providing a lot of fresh water helps the gut perform its most basic functions. My Basil is very enthusiastic about being watered.
Give your Basil plenty of water
4. Watch for signs that your Basil needs extra support.
Being exposed to cleaning solutions, eating random poop, and taking antibiotics are all indicators that your Basil might need extra support.
Sym-Biota K9
Sym-Biota K9™ from BioStar helps the gut and replicates crucial aspects of healthy soil with soil-based probiotics, medicinal Chaga mushrooms, and humic and fulvic acids.
I have enjoyed watching my Basil grow and thrive with the support of Sym-Biota K9! One of my favorite aspects of this formula is that it can be given with food or with a syringe. Often, when Basil’s GI tract is particularly upset, her appetite is low and it has been hard to support her with powdered probiotic formulas.
Since adding Sym-Biota to Basil’s supplement regimen, her stools have become much more consistent, both in texture and regularity; so much so that everyone at BioStar is well aware of her daily urgency to go outside between 9:10-9:40 AM — after she has greeted everyone in the office, of course!
Looking back on this experience, I am reminded of the importance of looking to nature for answers to our human-created problems. Nature is always teaching, but it’s up to us to listen.
Healthy Basil in Bloom
Visit HERE for tips on actually growing big healthy Basil plants!
About the Author: Emily has been a member of the BioStar team since July 2016. In addition to being a lifelong horsewoman, her passions include wrangling her pack of four dogs, fostering shelter pets, chasing Blue Ridge sunsets, and riding the roller coaster of being an Auburn sports fan.
