The Probiotic Pet: Lessons from Coco and a City Dog’s Immune System

A decade ago, when my first child entered the world, a primal urge kicked in: I wanted him to grow up surrounded by animals. Images of him frolicking with a loyal canine companion filled my head. Unfortunately, reality, or rather, my husband’s immune system, had other plans. He’s a walking allergy billboard, severely allergic to… well, everything, including, perhaps, me on a particularly dusty day. Cats are an absolute no-go; fifteen minutes in their presence leaves him breathless. Dogs, thankfully, aren’t quite as catastrophic, but laboratory tests are unequivocally against us ever owning one.

I even consulted our allergy consultant professor Lack at the time, hoping for some scientific loophole. Also I had read that being exposed to animals may help prevent allergies in children at risk. His advice was clear: if I was hoping to prevent potential allergies in my children by introducing a pet, I was out of luck. To truly see the preventive effects of living with animals on allergies, he explained, you’d need to be living on a farm, surrounded by a veritable menagerie and all the accompanying microbial diversity.

But then, a thought struck me: doesn’t this apply to animals as well?

For their immune systems to thrive, don’t animals also need that natural, rich environment?

And if they’re living in a bustling, often polluted city like London, surely they, too, might benefit from extra immune and probiotic support?

This mental wormhole sent me down an internet rabbit hole, ultimately leading me to “Borrow My Doggy.” The premise was brilliant: look after other people’s dogs, occasionally. It felt like a perfect compromise. My grand plan involved only having the dog when my husband was at work – back in the pre-COVID days, remember those, when working from home was a futuristic concept? It would require meticulous cleaning of our hard-wood floors every single time a dog was picked up, and under no circumstances would a four-legged friend be allowed upstairs, anywhere near the sacred bedroom. Any hint of a reaction from my husband, and the experiment would cease immediately.

This is how we met Coco, a gentle King Charles Spaniel belonging to a teacher at the quaint private primary school across the road. It was a perfect arrangement. Coco would be dropped off after my husband left for work and picked up a few hours before he returned, giving me ample time to diligently scrub the floors until they gleamed. Michael never really saw Coco, and the house, I must admit, had never been cleaner. Consequently, he never had a reaction.

My little one, meanwhile, fell head over heels in love with Coco. She was the calmest, slowest dog imaginable… Clearly, Coco had her struggles. She was slow in an unhealthy way. She suffered from severe digestive issues, restricted to a diet of only a few specific, highly processed-looking dog treats. She tired so quickly that, on our walks back from the park, I sometimes found myself putting her in the pram instead of my own toddler. If I could have, if I were allowed, I think I would have been making her homemade bone broth every single day. But she wasn’t my dog.

Eventually, Coco’s was sent to live by the sea with her owner’s parents. I truly hope that trading the urban sprawl of London for the natural environment by the coast did her a world of good, and that her health improved significantly. My now 11-year-old still sleeps with the Coco plush toy her human mum gave him the last time she brought Coco to our house.

This entire experience, however, solidified a crucial realisation for me: if you want your dog to be truly healthy, you need to provide them with the same quality of food and supplements that we demand for ourselves. If I were to ever have a dog of my own (you never know, the cure for allergies might be around the corner), the first thing I would do is commit to giving them real food, at least some of the time.

Because in a world that’s increasingly unnatural, surely our beloved animal companions deserve a fighting chance at optimal health, too.