While some canines may have picky palates, dogs are infamous for getting into and munching down on all sorts of different foods (and sometimes other items) that isn’t their own pet food. Generally, this isn’t an issue, as a dog’s belly produces up to 100 times the acid of a human’s—allowing them to digest bones, fat, and other substances we find difficult to stomach (literally).
Our furry friends don’t have ironclad interiors, however. They can develop belly and bowel issues just like humans, and when they do, we pet parents are on the hook for cleanup.
To optimize your companion’s gut health, consider supporting their digestive enzymes with multivitamins. What are dog digestive enzymes, and how do they work to support your pup? Grab a leash—we’re walking you through the basics of natural digestive enzymes and how various vitamins affect your dog’s digestive health.
What Are Enzymes, Anyway?
Enzymes are biological catalysts, generally proteins, that speed up the rate of specific chemical reactions within cells.1 Think of those popular videos of people adding mint candies to bottles of diet soda. Those minty disks are enzyme analogs that act as catalysts in the bottle (cell), and the resulting eruption is the consequence of a chemical reaction.
While all plants and animals have enzymes, their purpose isn’t to rapidly create excess gas like in the diet soda experiment. Instead, enzymes are generally present in living organisms to1:
- Aid in respiration Help build muscle
- Facilitate nerve function
- Rid the body of unwanted toxins
Enzymes’ main purpose for mammals, however, is to assist the digestive process. Simply put, digestion is the process of turning food into energy and, in humans, natural digestive enzymes can be found in our2:
- Saliva
- Pancreas
- Intestines
- Stomach
These enzymes are responsible for breaking down fats, proteins, and carbohydrates and using them for nutrient absorption, cell growth, and repair. And, while dogs may not have exactly the same enzymes in the same places as us, their bodies do follow a similar digestive process.
What Are a Dog’s Digestive Enzymes?
In the case of human digestion and development, biologists have discovered thousands of different enzymes at play in our bodies. 3When it comes to our canine friends, however, science has primarily identified three enzymes of the utmost concern:
- Pepsinogen – No, we’re not circling back to diet soda. Pepsinogen is a necessary precursor enzyme that eventually gets converted into pepsin. Pepsin, as a catalyst, reacts with the hydrochloric acid in dogs’ stomachs to produce the perfect pH to convert solid matter into a more easily digestible form.4
- Trypsin – Trypsin is commonly found in the pancreas and is responsible for helping break down proteins during the digestive process. More specifically, trypsin helps to hydrolyze proteins or break them down via a reaction with water, before carrying them off further into the digestive tract.5
- Chymotrypsin – Chymotrypsin, like trypsin, is an enzyme that’s responsible for hydrolyzing proteins within a dog’s stomach. Particularly, chymotrypsin is a major factor in severing peptide bonds between amino acids—allowing them to break down into compounds that are beneficial for canine health.6
Unlike humans, who have digestive enzymes starting at the amylase in our mouths, dogs don’t necessarily produce enzymes in their saliva. Some studies have found very low levels of amylase in canine saliva samples, but they’ve generally been deemed insufficient to kick-start the digestion process.7
So, with only their abundant acid and a handful of enzymes to rely on, dogs must stomach whatever their mouths get into. To support their enzyme function and help them maintain healthy digestion, give them an effective digestive enzyme supplement and multivitamin such as ALL-IN from Vetericyn.
How Vitamins Can Aid Enzymes and Facilitate Healthy Digestion
Enzymes, like every other substance, are composed of complex compounds made up of various naturally occurring chemicals. Pepsinogen, for instance, is a composite chain of elements comprised of8:
- 65 carbon atoms
- 122 hydrogen atoms
- 18 nitrogen atoms
- 14 oxygen atoms
Just like locks have keys, complex chemical chains of enzymes typically have corresponding coenzyme formulas that they interact and bond with. These coenzymes are often essential for digestive enzymes to properly facilitate their intended chemical reactions.9
Where might these coenzymes come from, you ask? Well, more often than not, they’re derived from the vitamins dogs receive through their diets and supplementation.10
What Vitamins Can Support Your Dog’s Enzymes and Digestion?
When humans have tummy troubles, we reach for fiber, laxatives, or other digestive aids. While similar treatments exist for our canine companions, using supplemental enzymes and multivitamins can be a healthier way to boost your dog’s enzymes, regulate their digestion, and support their overall gut health.
ALL-IN, in particular, contains a variety of key vitamins and supportive compounds, including:
DigeSEB Digestive Enzymes
DigeSEB is a patented blend of many of the same compounds you find in dogs’ and humans’ digestive tracts. Recent studies into the efficacy of DigeSEB found it supports dogs’ abilities to process proteins when mixed in with their normal meals. Dogs supplemented with DigeSEB also extract more energy and nutrients from their meals than those who miss out on this essential vitamin.11
DigeSEB is a digestive enzyme supplement created to aid human digestion, but after trying it out on our test subjects, we’ve deemed it more than fit for canine consumption. It helps break down fats, proteins, and carbohydrates via an enzyme blend of12:
- Protease I
- Protease II
- Protease III
This trio of proteases, much like the naturally occurring chymotrypsin within dogs’ stomachs, helps break peptide bonds to make amino acids fit for digestion.13
Baobab Fruit
Baobab fruit grows on a tree native to most of the African continent, where it’s been used for decades in a variety of natural remedies. Monkey bread, as it’s sometimes called, is extremely nutrient-dense and billed by many to be a superfood. The pulp and leaves contain a rich blend of different supplemental enzymes that facilitate digestion, such as vitamin B, potassium, magnesium, iron, and calcium.
The fruit is also filled with fiber, protein, and a variety of essential amino acids.14 It’s likewise a potent prebiotic—meaning it acts as a food source for the beneficial microflora living inside animals’ bellies.15
Let’s be honest: even the cleanest dogs are apt to get themselves into messy situations once in a while. Much more than us, dogs navigate the world with their mouths, meaning:
- Digging into dirt with their teeth
- Picking up, chewing on, and even swallowing questionable food or other items kept in unsanitary conditions
- Lapping up unclean water from puddles, ponds, and pools
All that adventuring can eventually lead to a plethora of foreign bacteria and microbes making their way into your dog’s system. Rather than allowing them to flourish and overtake their belly’s biome, feed your pet prebiotics to stimulate the growth of the right kinds of microorganisms.
Probiotics
ALL-IN contains a powerful blend of probiotic enzymes to round off the plentiful prebiotics in the baobab fruit. While prebiotics function as food for gut microflora, probiotic supplements actually contain living microorganisms that can maintain optimal microbial balance within your dog’s digestive tract.15
Amla powder
Amla, also known as the Indian Gooseberry, is a fruit native to South and Southeast Asia. The small berry is packed with a variety of vitamins and nutrients, including large amounts of Vitamin C and polyphenol.16
These and other strong antioxidants can ease digestion by helping to neutralize free radicals, the potentially harmful byproducts created when dogs and other animals metabolize their meals.17
BioPerine
Dig through your spice cabinet or check the top of your dinner table—there’s a solid chance you already have a shaker of (potential) BioPerine at home. That’s because BioPerine is extracted from black peppercorns.
Piperine, the common name for Bioperine, is a powerful compound that stimulates the absorption of a whole host of other vitamins and nutrients, including multiple B vitamins, several different antioxidants, and essential minerals such as iron and zinc.18
ALL-IN Blends These Ingredients for Optimal Canine Gut Health
As fun as it would be to journey the jungles of Southeast Asia seeking out amlas or scour the Serengeti looking for low-hanging baobab fruits, there’s an easier way to get your dog all the vitamins they need for healthy digestion.
ALL-IN combines all of these ingredients into a singular supplement that’s safe for canine consumption. What’s more, they’re not the size of a small football like a baobab fruit or spicy and bitter like black pepper—they’re compact, convenient capsules that your buddy won’t even notice in their evening meal.
Plus, ALL-IN isn’t just beneficial for gut health. It’s the only all-in-one, snout-to-tail supplement that your dog will ever need.
Ramp Up Your Companion’s Overall Health with ALL-IN from Vetericyn
Proper pet food or raw food digestion is a large part of your dog living a happy, healthy life—but it’s still only one piece of the puzzle.
Dogs are more than just their stomachs. From their fur to their hearts and all the way down to their muscles and bones, they need a multivitamin that supports every inch of their bodies. That’s why Vetericyn developed ALL-IN, the complete doggy multivitamin that, alongside the gut-positive vitamins covered in this guide, features:
- Creatine
- Collagen
- L-Glutamine
- L-Arginine
- L-Leucine
- Glucosamine
- Chondroitin
- MSM
- Manganese
- Calcium
- Vitamin D3
- Fish oil (Omega-3)
- Lecithin
- L-Carnitine
- Curcumin
- Vitamin A
- Vitamin D3
- Vitamin B Complex
- Vitamin E
- Zinc
- Coq10
- A delicious 5-mushroom blend
- Ashwagandha
- Taurine
- Biotin
Each of these different ingredients plays a role in facilitating some part of your dog’s healthy lifestyle. Thus, they’re all indispensable, and that’s why we decided to put them ALL-IN, our most enhanced multivitamin yet.
Whether you have a puppy, adult, or senior dog, there’s an ALL-IN supplement to help them live their life to the fullest.
Reviewed by C. Scott Van Winkle
Scott has been with Innovacyn for the past 11 years and has been working within the Burlingame portfolio of companies for the past 23 years. Scott brings a diverse background to Innovacyn. With an upbringing as the 5th generation on his families cattle ranch, Scott has a passion for animal health and the continuous improvement surrounding agricultural practices. Scott earned marketing and business management degrees from the University of Idaho and holds an Executive MBA from Pepperdine University.
Sources:
- National Human Genome Research Institute. Enzyme. https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/Enzyme
- Cleveland Clinic. Enzymes: what are enzymes, pancreas, digestion & liver function. https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/21532-enzymes
- National Library of Medicine. Highlighting human enzymes active in different metabolic pathways and diseases: the case study of EC 1.2.3.1 and EC 2.3.1.9. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7459455/
- National Library of Medicine. Physiology, Pepsin. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537005/
- National Library of Medicine. Digesting new information about the role of trypsin in pancreatitis. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4327863/
- ScienceDirect Topics. Chymotrypsin. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/chymotrypsin
- National Library of Medicine. The saliva proteome of dogs: variations within and between breeds and between species. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5969230/
- National Library of Medicine. Pepsinogen (1-12). https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Pepsinogen-_1-12
- Science Direct. Coenzyme. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/coenzyme
- National Library of Medicine. Vitamins: not just for enzymes. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17086936/
- Frontiers. Modulation of digestibility of canine food using enzyme supplement: an in vitro simulated semi-dynamic digestion study. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2023.1220198/full
- Physician’s Choice. Hero ingredient spotlight: DigeSEB. https://physicianschoice.com/blogs/home/hero-ingredient-spotlight-digeseb
- National Library of Medicine. Proteases: multifunctional enzymes in life and disease. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2576539/
- Michigan State University. Baobab: a super fruit? https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/baobab_a_super_fruit
- The Mayo Clinic. What are probiotics and prebiotics?. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/expert-answers/probiotics/faq-20058065.
- National Library of Medicine. Functional and nutraceutical significance of Amla (Phyllanthus emblica L.): a review. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9137578/
- National Library of Medicine. Role of food antioxidants in modulating gut microbial communities: novel understandings in intestinal oxidative stress damage and their impact on host health. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8533511/
- National Library of Medicine. Iron and physical activity: bioavailability enhancers, properties of black pepper (Bioperine®) and potential applications. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7353321/
