Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Probiotics help improve dog skin allergies by fixing gut bacteria
By Song, Hyokeun et al.·Published in BMC microbiology·2025·College of Veterinary Medicine and Research Institute for Veterinary Science, South Korea·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Probiotics ameliorate atopic dermatitis by modulating the dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in dogs.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of dogs with atopic dermatitis (a skin condition causing itching and inflammation) was treated with daily probiotics for 16 weeks to see if it would help their symptoms. The study found that the probiotics improved the dogs' skin condition and increased the diversity of their gut bacteria, which was lower in dogs with this condition compared to healthy dogs. After treatment, the dogs showed less severe symptoms of atopic dermatitis, suggesting that probiotics can be a helpful option for managing this skin issue.
People also search for: dog atopic dermatitis treatment · probiotics for dog skin problems · why is my dog itching all the time
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Canine atopic dermatitis (cAD) is a chronic inflammatory disease that significantly reduces the quality of life in dogs. Dysbiosis of the gut microbiota affects skin diseases through the gut-skin axis. Therefore, microbiota-targeted therapy may potentially serve as a new management strategy for cAD. The present study aimed to investigate the association between gut microbiota and cAD and to evaluate the effect of probiotics on the clinical symptoms of cAD and gut microbiota in dogs. RESULTS: Gut microbiota was analyzed at baseline and after 8 and 16 weeks. Baseline analysis revealed significantly lower (p < 0.05) gut microbial diversity in dogs with cAD than in healthy dogs. Differential abundance analysis showed that Fusobacterium, Megamonas, Collinsella, unclassified Clostridiales, Bacillus, Helicobacter, and Caproiciproducens were significantly more abundant in healthy dogs. In contrast, Clostridioides, Erysipelatoclostridium, Clostridium, Terrisporobacter, and unclassified Ruminococcaceae were significantly more abundant in dogs with cAD, In addition, differential abundance analysis showed that the abundance of 46 metabolic pathways were significantly different between healthy dogs and dogs with cAD indicating the dysbiosis of the gut microbiota in cAD. Moreover, the clinical severity of cAD was negatively correlated (p < 0.05) with alpha diversity and the abundance of Fusobacterium and Megamonas. Notably, daily probiotic administration for 16 weeks significantly decreased the clinical severity (p < 0.05). Dogs with good prognoses exhibited significantly increased alpha diversity, whereas those with poor prognoses did not, suggesting that the therapeutic effects of probiotics may be mediated by changes in gut microbial diversity. CONCLUSIONS: This study highlights the association between gut microbiota dysbiosis and cAD in dogs and demonstrates that probiotic administration can effectively ameliorate cAD by improving gut microbial dysbiosis. These findings provide a basis for novel microbiota-based therapies in cAD treatment.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40264044/