Nanci

Well, a lot. That's the reason you should be careful to only take antibiotics when absolutely necessary, and to "feed" and replenish the good bacteria if you have to take antibiotics. Foods that contain a ton of natural good bacteria (probiotics) are fermented foods like kefir, kimchi, kombucha, sauerkraut and other fermented vegetables (super easy and fun to make yourself!). These have millions time more probiotics, and species of bacteria, than any powdered probiotic you can take.

I got REALLY into the whole microbiome thing when I had a foster dog with "allergies." I learned a ton about the microbiome and how it controls the immune system, and how to protect and restore it.

Do you remember Janine Evans (Diamond Lil on this site), the RN from England, who was into raw feeding her dogs light years before anyone else here? I started feeding raw foods to my dogs in about 2014, and have ever since, and have studied so much about how the diet they eat, and what it is composed of, and even as detailed as what the animals used for feed are eating.

I've also learned a lot more about vaccinations and how long they last (basically, in a dog's lifetime, nearly forever) and the actual damage overvaccinating does. For instance, a rabies shot, which is required by law, and reasonable, because it's an incurable virus, is a necessity. In Florida, we are required to vaccinate every 3 years. The vaccine, however, lasts much longer- 7 years or more. But, one wonders, does it harm the animal to just vaccinate as often as we want, whether the animal still shows antibodies or not? The reason the changed the vaccination site on cats from the neck to the tail is because when the cat develops cancer from the vaccine, they can amputate the tail! So there's a trial going on right now that shows that dogs given two rabies shots still have antibodies 5 years later, and the research dogs are being analyzed at 6.5 and 7 years now, with the goal of extending the rabies vaccine requirement out to 5 years, and then 7 years.