EPISODE 113: How is the idea of gut health affecting the pet supplements segment?

Lindsay Beaton, editor, Petfood Industry magazine and host, Trending: Pet Food podcast: Hello, and welcome to Trending: Pet Food, the industry podcast where we cover all the latest hot topics and trends in pet food. I'm your host and editor of Petfood Industry magazine, Lindsay Beaton, and I'm here today with Dr. James Bascharon, founder of Vetnique.

Hi, James, and welcome!

Dr. James Bascharon, founder of Vetnique: Hi, Lindsay. Thanks for having me.

Beaton: In case you're unfamiliar with Dr. Bascharon or Vetnique, here's what you need to know.

Dr. Bascharon is a former veterinarian and entrepreneur who founded Vetnique after leaving his father's veterinary practice near Chicago to build something of his own. While working multiple veterinary jobs, including emergency shifts and a house-call service, he kept running into the same issue in dogs: recurring anal gland problems with few effective solutions beyond adding fiber. That frustration led him to create the original Glandex formula himself, making early batches in his basement and launching it online with the "Boot the Scoot" campaign, then growing Vetnique around science-backed, vet-formulated products that address real gaps in pet care.

Vetnique makes vet-formulated pet wellness products backed by science. The company sells through multiple channels worldwide and says its products are recommended by more than 125,000 veterinarians, used by millions of pet owners, and have earned more than 200,000 five-star reviews. It estimates its products support more than 5 million pets each year. Two of its best-known lines are Glandex, for digestive health, and YuMOVE, for joint support.

Dr. Bascharon's position at a company focused on pet supplements and functional health makes him the perfect person to answer this question: How is the idea of gut health affecting the pet supplements segment?

Beaton: I want to start by talking about how gut health became such a prevailing topic in the last few years. What has changed? Why are people focusing on this now?

Dr. Bascharon: There's a lot there, Lindsay. Gut health has become a huge topic not just in the pet industry, but in the supplement industry in general. Trends in pet health usually follow trends in human supplements and human trends overall, and people's understanding of their own gut health and how it relates to their overall well-being has translated into more focus on their pets' gut health as well. We're learning more about how important gut health is to overall well-being — not just in terms of bowel movements and digestive health, but how it affects immune health, the brain-gut axis and the skin-gut axis. Gut health is central to total well-being. People's mindset has shifted from worrying about gut health only when there's diarrhea or an episodic issue to realizing it's important to overall well-being. If they're taking a probiotic or digestive health supplement themselves, they start to think that's important for their pet, too. People are more in tune with their pets' health and needs than ever before.

Beaton: How much of this is health- and wellness-focused, and how much is practicality when it comes to pets? Better digestive health means easier cleanup for dogs, less vomiting and fewer gastrointestinal issues overall. Is it a mix of the two, or is one dominating right now?

Dr. Bascharon: It's definitely a mix. As humans, we're all busy, and we're thinking about what we need to solve for. A lot of pets have digestive health issues that pet parents can be very attuned to — you're taking your dog outside and monitoring its stool, noticing chronic soft stool or diarrhea, or you're sitting and watching TV and you realize that smell is coming from your dog because it's got gas issues. Part of this is people trying to solve specific problems they're seeing with their pet. Pets are also living a lot longer, so as we think about the aging process, more issues come with an aging pet — osteoarthritis, deterioration of skin health, organ health, brain health, vision, hearing, and digestive health. Part of it is people solving actual problems in their pet. What we're seeing now, though, is people understanding how critical gut health is to overall health. We're moving from treating gut health episodically to seeing it as central to a pet's lifelong health journey.

Beaton: How does this compare to other industry trends? It feels like it's moving pretty quickly — maybe because gut-brain axis research is reaching the public quickly, or because everyone latched onto it. How does it feel when you're listening to consumers and the industry at large?

Dr. Bascharon: It is moving fast. We're seeing a lot of growth in the digestive health category in the pet industry specifically, and we have much more tailored approaches to a pet's overall health and wellness. When we notice frequent skin problems, allergies or ear infections, we ask what role gut health plays in that. You mentioned the gut-brain axis — a pet's overall mood and behavior are affected when it's feeling vital and thriving because of good gut health, versus if it's had stomach discomfort, bloating or pain, which affects its overall energy and mood. People are more attuned to what's happening, so digestive health is growing faster than other segments because they're realizing the benefits for themselves and translating that to their pets. The industry is also more knowledgeable about multi-pathway systems for gut health, not just the tried-and-true approach. Years ago, it was just probiotics, and we were in the early days of learning what probiotics are, what the benefits are and how viable they are. Or if it wasn't a probiotic, it was a basic fiber or enzyme. Now we're thinking about how all of these work together — the symbiosis of probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, fiber and enzymes — to build a stronger gut health system.

Beaton: Supplements have been around for a while, even if it was just a joint health chew for dogs. What is this trend doing for the supplement space? It has to be causing significant growth as pet owners integrate more into their pets' diets and health and wellness journeys.

Dr. Bascharon: Digestive health has opened the door to a broader conversation — a more proactive mindset for a pet's complete health and wellness. You mentioned hip and joint health: Historically, people were solving for a specific problem, giving a hip-and-joint supplement to a pet that could no longer get up. Digestive health problems, though, can start in puppyhood and continue through adult life stages into senior care. Instead of only using a supplement for an older dog because of arthritis, this trend has allowed people to think about supplementation much earlier in a pet's life and continue it throughout.

Beaton: There are many ways to deliver this to pets, especially as people want to customize meals and give their pets the nutrition they need — sometimes pet supplements sit right next to human supplements, and you take one in the morning and give one to your pet. What are the opportunities and challenges of having so many delivery formats, and are there formats consumers are gravitating toward over others?

Dr. Bascharon: There's a lot there, Lindsay. Format is very important for probiotics, starting with the viability of the actual probiotic strain. Probiotics are living organisms, so they're not very shelf-stable, which makes format critical. Formats with less moisture, less processing and lower heat tend to result in a better outcome because there's greater viability. 

Dry formats — powder or tablet — tend to be more shelf-stable than something like a soft chew, where more moisture could be present. Format matters because you need to deliver the right amount of viable probiotic strains to colonize the gut and produce a healthy biome. If a probiotic supplement is overly processed with heat or aggressive manufacturing, it can render the organisms non-viable — meaning there's not much left, regardless of whether the label says 3 million CFUs or 10 billion CFUs. 

From a manufacturing and industry standpoint, we have to be mindful of using the right strains, produced the right way, for the best bioactivity in the pet. For the consumer, if they're giving a probiotic to their pet, it likely needs to happen daily, since there's always competing good and bad bacteria — pets eat some of the right things, but sometimes they're in the backyard eating the wrong things, too. Palatability and ease of dosing become central to what the pet parent is thinking about. It doesn't matter how effective a medication or supplement is if the pet won't take it regularly; poor compliance because of taste means it won't be effective. Palatability and compliance are huge with probiotics, so we have to think about the easiest formats for a pet parent to deliver. 

Pet parents also want to reward their dogs the way they want to keep their kids happy — so isn't it better to give something with health benefits, like a functional treat or probiotic supplement, instead of something considered junk food for dogs? Most people are happy to give their pet something it gets excited about that also delivers a health benefit. You see the same trend in humans with functional supplements like gummies — the same concept applies whether it's for a kid or an adult. If it's easy, fun and delicious, that's what wins.

Beaton: Where is consumer knowledge right now, and how are you most effectively educating consumers on the research and science behind everything? That's a constant, tricky topic for the industry — how to appropriately convey all this information and research.

Dr. Bascharon: Consumer knowledge is still relatively limited when it comes to understanding probiotics and the science behind them. People know probiotics are good and fiber is good, but there's still a gap in how aware they are of specific strains and what to look for in a product or on a label. 

Consumers are getting more knowledgeable about their own health, which does translate to more knowledge about their pets' health, but there's still a gap to overcome. Traditionally, that knowledge comes from a couple of places: veterinarians giving the best recommendations for a pet's health and what to look for in a product, and friends and family, since people learn from each other. With AI, anyone can learn at the touch of a fingertip what makes a good-quality probiotic versus not, or what their pet specifically needs. Hopefully AI will help close some of that information gap.

Beaton: Speaking of veterinarians, where is their knowledge right now? Not all of them focus on nutrition, but they are the front line for pet owners.

Dr. Bascharon: It's changing. Ten, 20, 30 years ago, supplements were limited to solving a specific problem, like hip and joint issues — the focus and understanding were narrow, and loyalty to specific brands or companies was pretty fixed. The modern practitioner now thinks more about preventive health, being prophylactic with care, and understanding the role of proper nutrition and science to a greater degree than ever before. 

People talk about biohacking, and people are thinking about longevity — the mindset is shifting for both the practitioner and the consumer in terms of what's best for the pet. We're seeing, at least in our own data, that veterinarians are recommending supplements at a higher rate than they used to even a few years ago, which is a positive sign. For anyone in pet health, the goal is to improve a pet's life, health and well-being — and that means educating the pet parent, and veterinarians being educated on what that actually means, versus reaching for the prescription bottle or just treating a problem as it occurs. 

It means looking at a puppy or younger dog and educating the pet parent on what they really need to do to maximize the pet's health, rather than only addressing treatment when it's too late.

Beaton: Are there any avenues Vetnique has found particularly useful for educating the industry or consumers? Where do your audiences engage — social media, research on your website? What are people engaging with these days?

Dr. Bascharon: It depends on the audience. On the commercial and industry side, clinical studies and clinical research that validate the ingredients, products and formulations we're putting out are really important. For all of us in the industry, it's also going to the big industry events and learning from speakers and key opinion leaders — the big pet conferences, or in the veterinary world, the veterinary conferences. 

That's where people really get educated, because day to day, whether you're running a pet shop, working for a brand or practicing as a vet, you're busy with daily operations and don't always have the opportunity to learn about industry trends. For consumers, it's totally different — they're attached to their phones, so it's social media. They're looking at influencers, whether a veterinary influencer or simply a pet influencer using products in real life and talking about what's good for a pet and why. 

Consumers spend a lot of time on social media, and that's where they're learning about their pets' health and being influenced on pet health decisions, for better or worse. The veterinarian is still a very important advocate for pet health, but we're seeing more people make their own decisions and do their own research rather than going to the vet in person.

Beaton: It sounds like the reception to this information is pretty open across the board right now. What are the current challenges in the gut health space? Are there research blocks? Is it education? Is there any pushback, or is there just so much going on that it's hard to find a focus? What needs attention right now?

Dr. Bascharon: There are a lot of good-quality products out there, some that are just okay, and some that may not be as good, and the barrier to entry can be quite low. Supplements overall are regulated by the FDA, but quality and standards vary from probiotic to probiotic, which is something the industry needs to keep advocating around — understanding viability and what's actually in the products we're delivering to pets. 

We need more knowledge around proper strains, proper manufacturing and consistent quality in the digestive health space. That, in turn, creates opportunity for specialization in digestive health products and their impact on specific areas — behavior, specific organ function, overall immune function, skin and allergies, and of course the gut health and microbiome itself. It all comes back to overall health for both people and pets.

Beaton: What do you see as the future of this space? Is there anything that particularly excites you about the next evolution?

Dr. Bascharon: It's more about specialized care — understanding the impact of gut health on all facets of the body, and then targeting those specific areas, whether it's kidney function, liver function or brain function, with more specialized products. That's already starting, moving from broad digestive health or general probiotics to focusing on stool quality or specific ingredients like pumpkin-based digestive supplements. That was the first step. Now we're starting to think about specific roles and, further out, longevity — what role probiotics and gut health science play in longevity for pets and people.

Beaton: Longevity is a big topic right now. Do you think the answer will end up being a mix of things, or will we go the multivitamin route the way we do for humans, where it's just "throw everything in and you'll probably be OK"? Will we lose some of the nuance, or gain more of it because it's pets instead of people?

Dr. Bascharon: That's a good question. There's a lot of research still needed to understand longevity and what drives it most. We're talking a lot about peptides these days with people, and GLP-1s — will that trend reach the pet space, gain adoption, and produce convincing, definitive research? 

I don't think it will be one thing or the other. It's a multitude of factors, and what we've learned about longevity is that minimizing stress and proper nutrition matter most — what we put into the body, what to avoid, and creating overall health, balance and wellness that reduces the stress on the body. That's what allows people in the Blue Zones to live such long lives, and we can apply that thinking to pet health, too.

Beaton: Thank you very much for coming on to discuss supplements and gut health and everything going on right now. It really feels like a rapidly expanding space, but also one that can be very confusing for the consumer — most of us as humans look at the vitamin aisle in despair anyway, so having to do it for our pets, too, is a whole other thing. People are willing, but the education needs to be out there, and we need to be aware as an industry that the way we feel is probably the way everybody feels. Thank you for bringing some clarity and nuance to a big topic.

Dr. Bascharon: I appreciate that, Lindsay, and the opportunity. It's an exciting front to be embarking on — thinking about pet health in a different way, specifically digestive health.

Beaton: Before we go, I want to do a little plug. Where can people find more information about you and Vetnique?

Dr. Bascharon: The best place is our website, vetnique.com. We develop unique, veterinary-endorsed products. You can also reach out to me on LinkedIn — James Bascharon. We'd love to hear from people and continue paving the way in the industry.

Beaton: Perfect. That's it for this episode of Trending: Pet Food. You can find us on petfoodindustry.com, SoundCloud or your favorite podcast platform. If you want to chat or share feedback, email [email protected]. Once again, I'm Lindsay Beaton, your host and editor of Petfood Industry magazine. We'll talk to you next time. Thanks for tuning in!