Dog gut health: pumpkin, psyllium and slippery elm, explained

If you live with a dog with a delicate stomach, you know the routine. The 3am pacing. The urgent lawn inspection. The new food, the old food, the bland chicken and rice. And somewhere in the fridge, half a can of pumpkin with a sticky note on it, quietly growing a personality.

All you want is a normal week. Then another one.

So when a new study about fiber did the rounds this month, a lot of people with sensitive dogs paid attention. Including us.

What the new study found.

In October, a team of vets in Slovakia published a study following 56 dogs with long-term gut problems.

Here's the part that caught our eye. Nine of those dogs hadn't improved with a change of food alone. So the vets added two things to their day: a probiotic, and a spoonful of psyllium husk.

• 7 out of 9 dogs had their symptoms settle right down within four weeks.
• A key sign of gut inflammation dropped by about 60%.
• The amount was simple. Half a tablespoon of psyllium a day for small dogs, a tablespoon for bigger ones.

It's a small study, and these were dogs being looked after by vets for a diagnosed condition. So it doesn't prove psyllium fixes anything on its own. But it's one more reason fiber keeps coming up whenever people talk seriously about dog gut health.

What we believe.

We think a dog's gut does best on routine, not rescue. Most people only reach for fiber once something has already gone wrong: a can of pumpkin at midnight, a powder from the back of the cupboard, a pill wrapped in cheese.

We'd rather it was in the bowl every day, as food. That's why Rigby Gut Health exists.

The three ingredients, explained.

There are six ingredients in the pouch. Three of them do most of the talking.

• Pumpkin. The one everyone's heard of. Pumpkin is a natural source of fiber, which is why so many owners keep a can in the cupboard. Plain pumpkin, that is. Pie filling comes with sugar and spice, and your dog doesn't need either.
• Psyllium husk. The one in the study. The husk of the plantago seed. It's a soluble fiber that soaks up water and turns into a soft gel. Unglamorous, and very good at its job.
• Slippery elm. The one nobody's heard of. The inner bark of the slippery elm tree, which turns into a smooth, gel-like mucilage when it meets water. It's been part of traditional remedies for a long time. Your great-grandmother probably had opinions about it.

Then organic carrot and organic apple for more real-food fiber, and a little organic extra virgin olive oil. That's the lot.

Why not just a can of pumpkin?

You can. A lot of people do. Here's how it usually goes.

• The can. You open it for a spoonful. The rest sits in the fridge until it's either used or evicted.
• The powder. You measure it, mix it in, and watch your dog eat carefully around it like they've found a hair in their soup.
• The pill. You know how that one goes.

And pumpkin on its own is just the one ingredient. Fiber works best as a habit, and habits stick when they're easy. So we put pumpkin, psyllium husk and slippery elm in one pouch, in a food your dog actually wants to eat.

What's actually in it.

All of it, on the front of the pack:

That's everything

Organic pumpkin, organic carrot, organic apple, organic extra virgin olive oil, organic psyllium husk, organic slippery elm. 54 calories a pouch.

Six ingredients, named, not blended. It's the highest-fiber and lowest-calorie recipe we make. No gums, no fillers, nothing artificial, made in the USA. It took us three years to get Rigby right, and we turned down every shortcut that would have made it quicker and cheaper.

It also has to taste good, because fiber only works if they eat it. One owner, Linda, put it best in her review: her puppy is "extremely picky but this stuff he LOVES."

The digestion boost.

It says Digestion Boost on the front for a reason. Here's how to use it every day:

1. Over breakfast. Squeeze as much as you see fit over the food they already eat. No measuring, no mixing.
2. On a lick mat. Spread it, top it with a few blueberries, freeze it flat. Tuesday's mat in the Sunday stack.
3. Straight from the pouch. On a walk, after a vet visit, or just because.

At 54 calories a pouch, you don't need to ration it. Up to one pouch a day suits dogs of every size. Miss a day and nothing is lost. It's the months that count, not the days.

No can. No powder. No pill.

Just the digestion boost, every single day.