Episode 205: Pro Plan AdvantEDGE: Learn About Life-Changing Nutrition

Capture the science behind the next generation of specialized Pro Plan nutrition. Pro Plan AdvantEDGE Digestive Support Plus Salmon & Oat Meal and Pro Plan Advantage Senior Support Plus Chicken & Rice are powerful, triple-action formulas backed by years of research to deliver life-changing support for digestive health or healthy aging. These breakthrough formulations target the nutritional needs of adult dogs and include formulas for small-breed and large-breed adult dogs.

Watch the video version of this presentation here.

Transcript

Nicole Engelman  00:04

Welcome to the Good Dog Pod. Join us every other Wednesday when we discuss all things dogs, from health and veterinary care to training and behavior science, as well as the ins and outs of Good Dog and how our platform can help you successfully run your breeding program. Follow us and join Good Dog’s mission to build a better world for our dogs and the people who love them.

Stephen Black  00:28

Welcome everyone. Thanks for joining us today on our presentation on life changing nutrition with our guest here, Dr. RuthAnn Lobos. So Dr. Lobos is joining us to share a little bit more about the science behind the next generation of specialized Pro Plan nutrition. So I'll share just a little bit about Dr. Lobos, and then I'll hand it off to her. So Dr. Lobos received a veterinary degree from Louisiana State University School of Veterinary Medicine, and also became certified in canine physical rehabilitation and as a veterinary acupuncture therapist. Dr. Lobos, who joined Purina in 2005 has managed veterinary connections for Purina Pro Plan, veterinary diets and global scientific programs, including the Signature Companion Animal Nutrition Summit for the Purina Institute. Dr. Lobos is frequently interviewed about nutrition and health for hard working, sporting dogs. She's an avid marathoner and triathlete, and enjoys upland game hunting and hiking as well as camping with her family. She has some canine companions of her own as well, a yellow Lab who might hear a little bit about, as well as a wired-haired Pointing Griffon puppy who she is training, I believe. So you guys can also find Dr. Lobos on her instagram @petvetruthann, so be sure to check her out. We'll drop that in the chat for you all to check out. And with that, we'll go ahead and pass it off to Dr. Lobos and get this presentation started.

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  01:58

All right. Thanks, Steven. Yeah, I am super excited to talk about this, because we all know—and especially all the breeder world knows—how important nutrition is for overall health and well being. And something like this doesn't necessarily come along every single day. And just knowing how we're starting to really unlock even more of how nutrition can add to the health and wellbeing of our dogs, and I'll even mention a little bit about cats. I know we're in the Good Dog webinar, but I don't want to forget about those guys, because there are a large percentage of folks who have dogs that also have cats in their families. And we've really unlocked some great advancements in the digestive space, as well as—near and dear to my heart—the senior dog and cat space as well. So y'all may have seen, because there's been commercials playing probably for about the last four or five months—if folks still watch commercials, that is—but Pro Plan has really started this new campaign about fuel for life, and we're going to jump in and talk about how we've really changed the game in those two key areas that I mentioned earlier. Our purpose as Purina is to enrich the lives of pets and the people who love them, and then when we kind of dial in a little bit closer to Pro Plan in particular within the Purina portfolio, really, our purpose as Pro Plan is to advance pet health through that power of nutrition, and all of that is backed by the nearly 500 researchers and scientists at Purina. So we've got folks like myself, as well as PhD nutritionists, veterinary nutritionists. We even have engineers who make our extruders (so how we make our pet food). We have the specialists in those categories as well that actually build the equipment that we make the kibble and the canned food in, so that we know every little in and out of everything, and that's really how we bring this game-changing nutrition to the marketplace. And again, you know, Pro Plan within our Purina portfolio is really targeted in this very specialized nutrition, given that all of our dogs are unique, and they all have their individual needs, and so if we can use that specialized nutrition to address those, it's a win-win all around. And we are really looking at not just bringing something to the market because we think it is cool or flashy or it's the new fad or something like that. It's really focused on the most compelling needs, both of our pets, as well as our pet parents, because it's both ends that we need to address as a pet food company. Our pets and those needs are our North Star. But I'm still in a clinic a couple of days a month, and I have yet to have a dog come in with a credit card and a note on his collar that says what his needs are, and he's willing to pay for his own services. So we do need to really also address the needs of the human component of that relationship with our pets. 

And so that's why we have targeted these two key areas that I'm talking about today: digestive support. I can tell you, again, I was just in a clinic on Monday, and I think out of the 12 appointments that I saw, 25% maybe even 33% were related to GI upsets. We had vomiting and diarrhea and flatulence, and all of that was on my schedule that day. And so it is one of the top two reasons why people bring their pets in to see folks like myself, and it's also something that is top of mind for our pet food buyers. So over half of them are really interested in food that supports healthy digestion for our pets. And we, at Purina, I'm really happy to say: we have a longstanding history of making history in this space. So we're going to talk a lot about these prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics coming up here. But I do want to just kind of maybe give a little bit of a nod to the advancements that we at Purina have made in this space, which, you know, we were the first ones to add prebiotics, that good fiber to the diets of our pets, starting back in 1998. So almost 30 years ago, we were already addressing the needs of the health of the pets’ digestive tract. Same with probiotics, really. Made huge advancements there. And then I will definitely explain what postbiotics are because this is an emerging space where we are putting in some really good, solid research showing how it benefits our pets. Then in the other space of healthy aging: senior pets are going to be, and currently are, the largest part of our pet population. So it is something, again, most people don't think about: that around age seven, dogs are considered senior. There's a little bit of flex in there. This is based on Beagles. So our medium-sized dogs, and certainly our smaller breeds, maybe it's more around eight or nine, and our larger breeds and giant breeds probably around five to six. So we kind of have that age seven as a ballpark target for when dogs become seniors. But two thirds of every household in the United States that own dogs have a senior dog in them. So again, it is something that is very common. You know, as you're placing new dogs in new households, there's a high likelihood that, you know, those puppies are going into homes that have senior pets associated with them as well. And then also, and I can speak for myself as an owner of a senior dog, that it is a number one concern for pet parents out there: How do we support these dogs and cats in their golden years? It's oftentimes the largest part of their lifespan and the largest amount of time they have with us. And so as pet owners, we want to make sure we're doing right by them during those years. And then as Purina and as Pro Plan, we want to make sure we're being able to address the nutritional needs of them in the biggest way possible. We also have a history at Purina of making history in this space. Y'all may be familiar with our diet called Bright Mind, that showed about supporting cognition in our senior dogs. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that today. And then on our cat side, we have a diet shown to extend the life of a cat by (on average) a year just by feeding them the specialized blend. And then, certainly near and dear to my heart as well, is our lifespan study, where we showed that if we feed our dogs to ideal body condition, they can live almost two years longer and healthier years than dogs that are just even 15% overweight. So those are really big places where we've made advancements in pet health in the longevity arena. 

Now I did mention, you know, we've got nearly 500 researchers and scientists. We've got people who are so specialized on staff here at Purina, but we also know that we don't know everything, and we can't explore everything in as much detail as we would love. So we've really made some great relationships and supported research with these leading universities and their veterinary schools that are world renowned for their expertise in key areas, for example, Texas A&M and their microbiome research. If you talk to any veterinarian around the world, if they have a complicated GI case, we're talking to Texas A&M. So again, using our leadership at Purina to support leadership in the microbiome research, as well as places like Mizzou and Cornell that are industry leaders in rehabilitation and sports medicine, as well as the CHAMP Program or the Canine Healthy Aging and Mobility Program that Dr. Chris Fry started at Cornell, where we're really again, they are looking at developing research and markers for understanding better how dogs age, and how we can keep them living their most vibrant years in that golden time in their life. 

All right, so here we go. Kind of gave you a long preamble, but this is—and you may have seen, again, advertisements for this or coming across your feed on social and things like that—but we just launched this actually at the beginning of this year. It's Pro Plan Advantage. And again, I've been in on this project probably for about the last year and a half. And now I don't know how to spell the word “advantage” correctly anymore, but this really is that next generation of specialized nutrition in those two key areas of digestive support, as well as senior support. It's backed by all of that research that we've got, and each of the formulas acts in that triple action support, and we're going to unlock that as we go through the presentation today. 

So jumping into digestive support. I mentioned earlier that we have expertise in the areas of prebiotics, probiotics, and emerging in postbiotics. And so we've taken that tribiotic blend and now have put it together to help to support their digestive tract in even bigger ways than some of our diets, like sensitive skin and stomach salmon that, you know, again, it is our top performing diet across our entire Pro Plan portfolio. But I also, you know, as a veterinarian, I'm always like, “More is not always better.” So we're not touching sensitive skin and stomach salmon. That is remaining as it is, but this is for those dogs and cats who just need a little bit extra support with their digestive health. And so we're combining this tribiotic blend to, again, give them that additional support. So when we're talking about digestive health and healthy stools, we want to know that what is coming out of the backside is actually healthy. What is ideal for our dogs on the fecal score chart? So this is something Purina developed based on science to make sure that we could have a way to assess if the diet was agreeing with the dog or cat who was eating it. And I should make sure that this chart is specific to cats and dogs. It varies across species. It is a number two, which I think is kind of cute, that our researchers have a little bit of a sense of humor, that you want a number two for your number two. And if you are interested in having your own copy of the fecal score chart, it is available at purinainstitute.com. You can download it, you can laminate it, or contact-paper cover it if you want to keep it in your kennel or in your house, share it with friends and family, all of that. It's a great conversation piece, for sure. 

So talking about our microbiota in the GI tract, one of the things that y'all are probably aware of is that, you know, our puppies are born and their GI tract is sterile, so it has no bacteria in it, and it gets populated by things that they are exposed to, by what the mother is fed, by their environment that they live in. All of that plays a role in developing their intestinal microbiota as they grow into adult dogs. It is a very diverse population. It has, what we like to say is good bacteria and some potentially harmful bacteria that are in a really nice balance, and it does make up about half of your fecal weight of that number two that you are picking up there, is made up of that microflora, that microbiota in their GI tract. So it does play a really important role. Again, it is a mixture of these potentially harmful bacteria and “good bacteria” that are in this really important balance. And it's not just reserved to the GI tract, right? They have microbiome that's in their oral cavity, on their skin, so it is in their urogenital areas. Each kind of system has its own microbiome that's associated with it, but we are today, for the point of this conversation, focusing on the gastrointestinal microbiome. And we know this is really important, because 70% of the immune system is associated with the GI tract. So it is really, really key that we have a healthy GI tract if we want overall health for our dogs. You know, we can support it and strengthen it through nutrition. And I'm going to take a side note here, and a personal mission of mine on the education standpoint, which is a big platform and responsibility I have at Purina, but also from the veterinary standpoint, is, again, because this microbiome is so critical to overall health and well being, when we have GI upset (like there's a little bit of loose stool, a little bit of diarrhea that maybe goes on), but otherwise, the dog is nice and healthy and happy it is now based on the Veterinary Internal Medicine Society, we should not reach for Metronidazole as our first step in trying to correct that diarrhea. If the dog is otherwise healthy and happy and bouncing around and has good energy and no fever and all of that and just has a little bit of loose stool and diarrhea, the first step should be reaching for, you know, a bland diet change and a probiotic—not reaching for Metronidazole or Flagyl, because we know now that that can have a permanent effect on this microbiome, and we know especially as puppies, it is still developing. So if we can do all we can to steer away from reaching for an antibiotic as our first step in supporting their GI health, that will help them long-term. 

All right, so I'll get back to talking about our nutritional approach. But I always want to mention that for folks who are very dog savvy, we should not reach for Flagella Metronidazole as our first line of defense against uncomplicated diarrhea. So again, I mentioned 70% of the immune system is part of the GI tract, and that's because we have a whole specialized system within the digestive tract that supports and is part of the immune system. So I'm not going to get too technical here for y'all, but the GALT or Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue, that is what is in the walls of the intestine, what's associated with that that goes throughout and communicates with the rest of the lymphatics in that dog's immune system. And it all starts right there, and it will have a local response that will put out little antibodies right into the GI tract, and then it will also have a systemic response. So it might send, think of it as like sending Twitter messages to the rest of the body and start a systemic immune response, or a whole body immune response, if necessary. But again, all of that is right there in the GI tract, and I mentioned earlier, but it is this really important balance of beneficial bacteria and potentially harmful bacteria. And sometimes we will see, when things get out of balance, we see the really, you know, hello, clinical sign of diarrhea. But sometimes it may just be a little bit out of balance, and we'll see like that inconsistent fecal quality. We may see that these guys, you know, they just get sick more often in other ways, in their bodies and things like that. And that can be a sign that, hey, maybe their GI tract needs additional support that we're not currently meeting. And there are all kinds of things that can cause shifts in their microbiome balance—everything from life stage to moving to travel to exercise. Like exercise is a great natural stressor, but it can again shift that balance within the GI tract of their microbiome, and that's when, again, we can see either some clinical signs like diarrhea or maybe just some subtle changes, like they don't have great energy and they're more susceptible to other diseases and other conditions. Or if you're like my Labrador, Finn, who likes to have dietary indiscretion and eats things of all sorts of shapes, sizes, decaying state, and all of that—that can certainly upset the GI tract as well. Just as a reminder, some of the things the obvious one of diarrhea, maybe a little bit of inappetence, maybe a little bit of more susceptibility to disease, or inconsistent stool quality, things of that nature are all signs that their microbiome probably needs a little bit of additional support. So again, how are we going to do this? Through this triple action in our digestive support, plus we've got the prebiotics. So as a reminder, prebiotics are food for the good bacteria that live in the GI tract. And then you have probiotics, which are the actual live bacteria that go in and help to restore the balance that may have gotten out of whack for one reason or another. And then you've also got postbiotics, and again, this is the one where people are like, “Yeah, I've heard of prebiotics. Yeah, I get probiotics.” This postbiotics thing is a little bit fuzzy for folks, but I'll give you a good analogy here, coming up in just a minute on how all three of these support gut health. And our postbiotics, to put it simply, they're bacteria that were once alive, that we specifically killed on purpose, but there are parts of that bacteria that still can benefit the dog that is eating the diet with these postbiotics, and I'll talk about that here, coming up in just a minute. So again, breaking this down: Our prebiotics, that's going to be like our fiber source. So you may see on the ingredient deck, you may see things like inulin or things like that. So it's the fiber sources, and they get fermented in the guts, and they can serve them as energy for the microbiome as well as energy for the cells in the GI tract. And so it's really a great way to support their digestive process. Then we've got our probiotics. So these are the live microorganisms, the live bacteria that go in, and they basically act like the good bacteria did before the good bacteria got outnumbered by the bad guys. So they're going to go in there. They're going to lay right along the brush border of the intestines so that the viruses or the bacteria can attach and can't cause disease in there. They're, again, going to create an environment that is not friendly for bad bacteria and viruses to live in, but very friendly for the beneficial bacteria to get back, restored in good number, and be able to help support the immune system and digestive process again. So, again, our prebiotics are the food for the bacteria. The probiotics are the live bacteria themselves. 

And then here are our postbiotics. So they were live, they were then killed on purpose, but there are still, again, those pieces and parts that can interact, can send signals to that GALT, that Gut Associated Lymphoid Tissue, the immune system that's in the GI tract. It can send them little messages. And so it can be also really important, because one of the things that we advise against is if we have a patient that has their immune system compromised, probiotics and that live bacteria may be something we don't want to throw into their GI tract. And so postbiotics offer another way to support this gut health in patients that are immunocompromised. And there's a whole lot of research going on in that space right now, actually, outside of Purina, as well as inside of Purina, to better understand how and where we can use those in those types of patients. So, again, when we're doing something at Purina, safety is paramount, so we're not going to put something out on the market that may be potentially harmful to the pets that we're feeding. We feed almost 100 million pets in this country alone, and so it is a giant responsibility that we have on our shoulders to make sure that we're doing something that is safe for them. 

So of course, we're going to do some studies in-house at our Pet Care Center out in St. Joe, Missouri. And these are all feeding studies, you know, and they vary in length, and we wanted to look at both GI health as well as immune health markers in our dogs and cats that were eating this blend that had the postbiotics in it. Now, before I talk about the summary of those studies, D'Artagnan also known as Grumpy Bee—so this is a little nod to the movie Best in Show and Catherine O'Hara (rest her soul). But Grumpy Bee wants to know, true or false, if prebiotics feed the natural microflora, and probiotics are organisms that were alive, but they are no more. Just trying to see if you all remember all the difference, because the biotic names can get quite confusing. So it is false. Prebiotics do feed the natural microflora, but it is postbiotics that were once alive but are no more. So, again, I know it can get a lot in your head about what is the difference between these guys. So here's a very top level summary of the studies with the postbiotics that we did at Purina. And we did see, if you look at the back of the ingredient deck on the back of Advantage Digestive Support Plus you'll see lactobacillus delbrueckii and lactobacillus fermentum. And so those are the postbiotics that are added to the diet, and we did see that it helped with fecal quality as well as microbiome stability in our dogs and cats, and also supported their immune health. So there were markers that we looked at for that. And then we don't do any invasive research at Purina. But we do put them through things that would happen, like, at a normal veterinary exam. So this naturally occurring stress for our cats was they were restrained for a blood draw, which, again, can happen at a regular veterinary visit. And for our dogs, it was a little bit of exercise. And what we found was the microbiome population was more diverse, so it was more stable. But diversity is a good thing for our microbiome, and it was more diverse and more stable in the dogs and cats that were fed the postbiotic. So, again, showing us that these little, mild stressors can potentially have a protective effect for our dogs’ and cats’ microbiome when they're fed a postbiotic. So here's a little reminder of our triple action digestive support. It is salmon and oat; they are the protein and carb source in there. And I want y'all to think about prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics as if the GI tract were a lawn. And so our prebiotics would be like fertilizer for our lawn, and our probiotics would be like grass seed, like the lawn is looking a little, you know, sparse, so I'm going to put some grass seed in there. I'm going to put some good bacteria back into that space. And then our postbiotics are kind of like compost. So like that banana peel, that orange rind, those coffee grounds, like they served a good purpose once they have been specifically used, but there are still pieces and parts of them that could benefit, in this case, the soil that is supporting the digestive tract lawn. So these are like, you know, our postbiotics are like compost while they are dead, and we killed them on purpose, they still can support gut health and immune health in our dogs and cats. 

Where is the largest percentage of the immune system in a dog's body? It is in the digestive tract. So moving on to a golden opportunity, right? I mentioned that our senior dogs and cats are the largest part of our pet population, and so we do want to see how we can support them better through nutrition. So we launched Bright Mind with our medium chain triglycerides, probably about 15 years ago. I believe it was either 2011 or 2012 that we launched Bright Mind, and it has been a game changer. But we also know there are things that start to change in our dogs and cats as they age, besides just their brain, so we're looking to support in even bigger ways than we have in the past. And so this concept of aging, like I mentioned, okay, senior, like, where did we come up with this? It wasn't just Purina decided that around age seven, dogs are considered senior. This is actually based on the true definition, which is when you reach the last 25% of your average predicted lifespan. And so for our dogs, it's around seven to eight. For our cats, they tend to live a little bit longer, so it's a wider range, and then our geriatrics are even one step further, and there are even greater changes that happen in that space. And again, that's more research is going on there, so who knows what we will unlock with all of that? But for the purpose of today, we're focusing on our senior years. Probably mentioned this 1000 times already, but it is the largest part of our pet population, and one of the things is a lot of people get confused because we have specific AFCO guidelines for puppies. We have specific AFCO guidelines for nutrition for adult dogs. And then there's a whole host like, if you walk down the aisle or scroll on the page of Chewy or Amazon, there are senior diets upon senior diets upon senior diets. And options are endless out there on what you want the nutritional profile to look like. So there are no specific ranges according to AFCO or the NRC for how to feed our senior dogs. And so it's really up to kind of the nutritional approach of the manufacturer who's making it to really set that nutritional profile. It has to meet, at least to, you know, maintenance for an adult dog. But then, you know, the extra bells and whistles or the tweaks and things like that are really up to the manufacturer who is putting the diet together. 

So there's lots of reasons for longevity. I would love to say it's because of nutrition, and that's what has extended their lives, but it's really a combination of a lot of things. It's not only, you know, we better understand their physiology as they are aging. We still have a lot to learn, but we've come a long way in the past 50-60 years. It's also that our dogs, now, they used to just kind of roam all around the neighborhood, and it, you know, it wasn't uncommon that, you know, your dog would get hit by a car and killed. Now we have fences, and they've gone from the backyard to living a lot of the time in the house, to sleeping in the bed, to now, it's not uncommon when I'm out on a run or a walk that I'll see somebody you know, pushing a stroller, and there's dogs in there and not humans in the baby strollers. So they have definitely changed. And we have changed our relationship with our dogs. Then there are now considered family members. There are a few states who are changing laws about that. And so with that has also changed the approach to their care. There's better preventative medicine that's happening. There are more people who want to go and do those diagnostics and the CAT scans and the PET scans and MRIs and you know, I mean, they are doing kidney transplants in older cats at places like Cornell and valve replacement surgeries in dogs and stuff. So there's a lot more advancement in that space, and that also has extended the lifespan of the dogs. So what percentage of households have a senior pet? And it is 67% of our households have a senior pet in them. So again, if you're placing a puppy, there's a pretty high likelihood that they have a senior pet in that household as well. But we do know that we start to have these nutritional needs that change as they age. And if you read this here, you're like, “Okay, increasing or decreasing metabolism, like, which is it?” They have different protein requirements. Don't worry, I'll unlock all of this for us. And they also have different digestibility requirements and abilities as they age. 

So anytime there is a weight change, it is a very important clue that something bigger is going on. And so that's one of the things where I strongly encourage my senior pet owners to go in twice a year to the veterinarian. If we can catch small things early and maybe either slow them down or maybe even prevent them from exploding into something bigger, that is going to be better for that pet parent. It's going to be better certainly for the pet as well. So trying to get in there twice a year. And then also, we can pick up on any kind of weight change that's happening. They can also do regular weight checks at home, because, like, if we look at a one pound weight loss in an eight pound cat, doesn't really seem all that significant. You're like, “Oh, he was eight pounds last year. He's seven pounds now.” But that's like a human losing almost 20 pounds, and if we're not trying for that and this is happening, something is going on in a big way that we need to address. So it's more common in our dogs that we see obesity as they age. They are similar to humans, where their metabolism slows down as they age. And so not only is obesity common across all of our pet population, but it is even more common as our dogs age, again, because their metabolism is slowing down. And we know from their lifespan study that Purina did: obesity shortens their lifespan, and it also shortens their health span, so it makes life shorter and harder for all parties involved. Our cats, on the other hand, they tend to actually lose lean body mass as they age. So our senior cats tend to be usually on average weight, and then as they get to be geriatrics, we actually have a syndrome in veterinary medicine called the Skinny Old Cat Syndrome, because they start to lose lean body mass as they age, even when they're still eating the same amount and being as active or inactive as they have been their previous life; their little muscles just start to shrink away. So I mentioned they start to have digestibility changes. And so this is what a nice—now, obviously, it is a cartoon animation of what a healthy GI tract looks like—but they have these nice little finger-like villi that stick out from the sides of the intestinal wall. And they're almost like little sea anemones, if we think about that, and along the edge of those villi is where all the absorption is happening, and their microbiome is nice and diverse in there, and there's just this really nice health and vitality. Think of it as a beautiful saltwater tank with sea anemones, just like floating in the salt water there. As they age, those villi start to get blunted, and so it reduces the surface area where they can absorb those nutrients that are being broken down in their intestines. Their microbiome also starts to get less diverse, and so that can have an effect on their immune health. It can also have an effect on their digestive health. It also, when we think about if they're not absorbing their nutrients as efficiently, that then can affect the amount of energy that they are actually having throughout the rest of their body. So those villi, like my grandmother, had rheumatoid arthritis, and her fingers got, you know, very gnarled, and her knuckles were quite large. And so that's kind of what the villi of the intestines in an aging dog look like. So if you want to keep that mental picture in your head. And so one of the things is, this is a myth of a long time ago, but goodness gracious, it has lived on for some reason that, you know, protein plays such an important role in the body, both for immune health, muscle health, digestive health, skin health, all of that. And there's this myth that we need to feed senior dogs lower protein to protect their kidneys. This has been debunked in multiple studies, literally since like 1960, but it still is perpetuating for some reason out there. I think we're starting to get some narratives that are changing, but it's still there. So please do not reduce protein in your senior dogs unless they truly have a metabolic reason like, you know, like they are in kidney failure, then we do want to reduce their protein. But if they otherwise are fine, they actually need more protein because, again, they're less efficient at taking it from the diet and making it into proteins in their bodies. 

Then we also know that their brain starts to age, and we know this from studies that glucose is the primary energy source for our brains, and the brain is one of the highest burners of energy in the body, but around age seven, the brain's ability to use glucose as an energy source starts to shift. And then we've all been there where you're like, you get hangry, right? You know, if there's not enough blood glucose happening and going to your brain, you get cranky. Maybe you're not making as good of decisions. Well, imagine being in that state every single day as a senior dog. And what happens is, if you don't feed that brain, it will actually just start to shrink and die away. And so we'll start to see some of these behavior changes that, again, may be related to the fact that their brain isn't getting enough of the energy that it used to because it doesn't use glucose as well. Cognitive dysfunction syndrome, which is similar to just kind of like doggy dementia or doggy Alzheimer's, is one of the most under diagnosed and under supported conditions in our dog population. So if these are some of the signs that you're starting to either see or you're talking to folks that have seen your dogs, and they're mentioning some of this, a lot of times it's because their brain isn't getting enough of the energy that it needs. So that's, again, where we looked at these medium chain triglycerides. And this is the science behind Bright Mind. These medium chain triglycerides, which are the good part of botanical oils like coconut oil and other things, can actually be broken down into these little ketone bodies. One, I love it, because medium chain triglycerides can get broken down in the stomach. So it's a lot easier for the dog to digest this energy source, and then it gets broken down into these little ketones, and those can actually cross the blood-brain barrier and feed the neurons in the brain. So, again, we're not putting the dog into ketosis or anything like that. It's just the natural breakdown of medium chain triglycerides can feed the brain. And what we saw with these guys was they were more alert. They actually had better mental sharpness when we were putting them through some cognitive tests, when they had the diet with the MCTs in there. We also know that arthritis is extremely common in our senior dogs, so we will have those Omega-3s, the glucosamine and chondroitin to support joint health, as well as those Omega-6s and vitamin A to support their skin and coat health as well, because all of that is affected by their protein digestion.

Going to topline the cats real quick, just in case you have any cat-owning households out there. But again, we know around age seven, things start to shift, and Purina did great research. I'm happy to share that. Or if you go on purinainstitute.com, they have the whole study there. But with this specialized blend of antioxidants, the prebiotic fibers, Omega-3s and Omega-6s, we actually gave these cats an extra year of healthy life. And these were cats that were put on the diet, you know, around age seven. So it wasn't like they were on this from the get-go, and really helped to extend their life and their quality of life in that extra year. 

So to sum it up, for y'all, our Senior Support Plus, on the dog side, it has that Bright Mind technology. It also has a specialized blend with whey protein, as well as those postbiotics to support their immune health, and then certainly not forgetting about their joint health, with those Omega-3s and glucosamine in there. It is a chicken and rice. And the other thing is that I am also very excited and feel fortunate that I work with such awesome nutritionists that they figured out a way, because I've gotten feedback, both in the clinic as well as at Purina, that the Bright Mind diet isn't necessarily the most palatable diet out there. And I get it. And it's like, okay, well, if the technology is great but they won't eat it, then it's not helpful. And so they were able to actually formulate this so it has the shreds in it as well, so it's a kibble and shred blend, and it has greatly increased the palatability of this diet. It makes me so excited for those dogs out there that didn't like Bright Mind, that they now have an option to be able to get their MCTs and actually enjoy their meal time experience. I do get asked what the nutrient breakdown is, or nutrient profile is, and so it's 29% protein and 18% fat. For the regular blend, we also have a large breed and a small breed. And in the large breed, it's 29% protein and I think it's 14% fat. And then for our small breed, it's again, 29% protein and 16% fat. So for Finn, my Labrador, he's 11, but he still trains with me to run marathons. We still upland game hunt. He has no idea that he's 11. I am so excited that it has that great protein level in it, so he can support his physical needs as well as his cognitive needs with the MCTs. So with that, I think we've got about 10 minutes or so for questions, and I am more than happy to take those and thank you for joining. This is super exciting stuff, and I know y'all are passionate dog owners, lovers, breeders, all of that. So I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to learn more.

Stephen Black  42:08

Awesome! Well. Thank you so much. This was great. We do have a handful of questions here from our audience. Just since you were talking about some of those food products, we have a couple people asking about whether any chicken-free versions are in the works or a possibility?

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  42:24

Yeah, not to my knowledge on the senior side of things, but the Digestive Support Plus has no chicken in the ingredient deck. It is also no corn or wheat, no soy, and that nutrient profile is similar to our sensitive skin and stomach salmon, where it's a 26/16 so 26% protein, 16% fat.

Stephen Black  42:46

Awesome. And then, speaking to the development process of foods like these, does Purina take into account supplements when formulating these? Like are you expected to feed supplements to your dog and when they're on these food plans, or is it more of a complete diet?

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  43:02

So great question, because the supplement industry is booming. And I mean, I give my dog supplements, too, so I get it. And so these are complete and balanced. As far as supporting their basic needs—should not have to have a supplement, you know, added to it. But again, every dog is unique in their digestive tract and all that and their lifestyle needs and the environment that they live in. So there are, again, things that you may need to supplement for your specific pet, but they are complete and balanced, and have the AFCO statement on there for maintenance of adult dogs.

Stephen Black  43:41

Perfect. And then just going back to—I know you discussed the nutritional needs of senior and geriatric dogs changing as they age, specifically with protein. Are there also considerations around fat content that changes as dogs age?

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  43:57

Yeah, yeah. Great question. So again, with them, as they age, and their metabolism kind of falls off a cliff, like it does for a lot of humans. When you look, again, the fat content in our senior dog diet is going to be a little bit lower. They don't seem to have as much change in their fat digestibility as our cats do. That tends to be something we see more on the cat side of things, where as they age, their ability to break down and absorb that fat from their diet does start to decrease. It's not as common in our dogs, but again, their metabolism is slower, so we don't want to necessarily feed a higher fat diet when they're in this life stage.

Stephen Black  44:35

Gotcha, that makes sense. We did have one question about claims that high heat destroys nutrients in kibbles. Have you heard about that? And could you speak to that? 

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  44:45

Yeah, that's a great question. So, a couple of things. One, when it goes through the extrusion process, there are vitamins and minerals that get destroyed. It does like the cooking process, right? So extrusion is kind of like putting the ingredients into a pressure cooker, so it's under heat and pressure and steam is how the pet food is, I would say, baked. And so it does change things. It's kind of like, you know, that happens naturally. It helps to actually open up the starches so that those carbohydrate sources are more digestible and available. And then, like, if you cook an egg right, that egg white goes from clear to white. So there are changes that happen in the protein sources as well, but that's why it's so, so, so very important, whether you are feeding a Purina diet or you are feeding any other commercially made pet food out there that you know the manufacturer and understand and ask them these questions. Because this is where, like, yes, it may happen that 50% of the vitamin A, when it goes through the extrusion process gets destroyed. So you want a veterinarian and a nutritionist to know how much vitamin A to add beforehand. So that way, if you wind up with 50% at the end, that that is what that dog needs, that that's 100% of what that dog needs. So if we know X amount gets destroyed, we're going to add that at the beginning, so we know that the finished product is 100% complete and balanced for the dog or the cat, puppy, kitten, whatever we are creating that diet for. But it does take that expertise within the manufacturing and the formulation to understand both what you're starting with and what you finish with, to make sure that it's complete and balanced.

Stephen Black  46:37

Thank you. Let's see. I think we have time for just one more question. We had a question about some of the ingredients. So like for the salmon and oats, for example, a question about whether the oats are glyphosate free. Could you speak to how Purina or food manufacturers in general, sort of do their due diligence, I guess, in selecting ingredients and formulating these foods?

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  47:01

Sure, yeah, I can't speak for all pet food manufacturers that, for whatever reason; they don't let me in their facilities. But I can speak for Purina, that we have a very strict sourcing program, and so we will not only just like, take their word for it when we are choosing our ingredients and our suppliers, but we'll go out and we will do a site visit. We also work very closely with the farmers to help them. We support a whole regenerative agriculture program out there with farmers in like kind of in that grain belt within the United States, to making sure, again, that we're doing our due diligence, not only to make sure that we're getting the pure ingredients that are high quality and all of that, but that also we're supporting the farmers, and that we're supporting, most importantly, Mother Earth, so that there is something here. I mean, it does come with a huge responsibility, with the number of pets that we feed, to make sure that we are treating Mother Earth with the utmost of care as well.

Stephen Black  48:05

Amazing. Well, fantastic. Thank you so much for your presentation. I know our community really enjoyed it. We will make sure this recording is available for everyone afterwards, so you can go ahead and check those slides for reference, but thank you again, Dr. Lobos, and if anyone who's watching is not a member of our community yet, you can always join us at GoodDog.com/join and then be sure to watch your emails for upcoming webinars. We have a full slate of webinars throughout the year, so there's many more to come, but thank you again, Dr. Lobos and everyone. I hope you have a great day.

Dr. RuthAnn Lobos DVM, CCRT, CVAT  48:40

Yeah, thank you. Have a great one.