MycoDog Digest

There are numerous advantages to incorporating a quality mushroom supplement for dogs instead their diet.

Mushrooms for dogs are rich in vitamins, minerals, and essential nutrients, including antioxidants and digestive enzymes. Certain mushroom species also play a role in bolstering the immune system and supporting healthy cellular function.

Functional mushrooms for dogs offer a plethora of health benefits for our cherished canine companions. These natural marvels have been esteemed for centuries for their distinct properties. In addition to their nutritional content, functional mushrooms contribute a range of therapeutic benefits to your pet's overall well-being. From fortifying the immune system and improving cognitive function to nurturing skin and digestive health, functional mushrooms offer a comprehensive approach to pet care.

The diverse capabilities of functional mushrooms can be attributed in part to various unique components such as beta-glucans and triterpenes, found primarily in the cell walls of mushrooms. Beta-glucans, renowned for their soluble fiber content, are known to regulate blood sugar levels, enhance immune response, and demonstrate potential in combating cancer cells.

While medicinal mushrooms share many of the same benefits, each mushroom has unique characteristics that make it more suitable for specific conditions.

If you want to get the biggest variety of mushroom benefits for pets, rotate between all of the MycoDog products. You can’t go wrong with any formula, as they have hundreds of different benefits!

Here’s a brief guide of our mushroom extract blends:

• Vitality for Cancer, Autoimmune Issues, Intense Immune Support
• Breathe for Respiratory & Cardiovascular Support, Allergies, Low Energy
• Clarity for Cognitive Decline, Neurological Illness, Senior Support
• Digest for Gut Health, IBD, Leaky Gut, Digestion, Upset Stomach

Visit our product pages & educational blog to learn more about each mushroom extract blend and individual mushroom benefits.

Our Digest mushroom extract & adaptogen blend combines the power of Lion’s Mane, Shiitake, Turkey Tail, Chaga, and Red Belted Conk with Astragalus Root, Ashwagandha, Rhodiola and trace minerals, preserved in organic vegetable glycerin, to provide holistic respiratory support for your pet.

Known as "Nature's Nutrient for the Neurons" or the "smart mushroom," Lion’s Mane is celebrated for its capacity to promote nerve regeneration, facilitating new neuron growth and forming fresh pathways. This mushroom aids in mood regulation, serves as an antibiotic, stimulates appetite, and is exceptionally beneficial for memory and cognitive function. Moreover, this peculiar-looking mushroom has demonstrated efficacy in enhancing memory and mitigating brain damage associated with Alzheimer’s Disease.

Our Lion’s Mane Mushrooms are naturally cultivated in the Pacific Northwest.

Shiitake mushrooms, known for their delectable flavor and edibility, have garnered considerable attention for their health-enhancing attributes. Shiitake acts as an immunomodulator, offers notable protection for the liver, contributes to cardiovascular health, and has demonstrated potential to prolong survival periods when conventional cancer treatments are pursued.

Our Shiitake mushrooms are naturally cultivated in the Pacific Northwest. 

Turkey Tail mushrooms are among the most well-known and extensively researched immune activators and cancer fighters. They offer numerous potential benefits, such as boosting immune cell production, containing antiviral components to combat infections, and reducing inflammation, particularly in the upper respiratory, urinary, and digestive tracts. Notably, Turkey Tail has been approved as a cancer therapy for patients in Japan.

Our Turkey Tail Mushrooms are wild-harvested in the US. 

Chaga is actually not a typical "mushroom," but rather a dense accumulation of mycelium and woody precursor. Chaga has been utilized for centuries for heart protection, anticancer support, anti-histamine properties, and antibacterial qualities. Additionally, it's renowned for its ability to scavenge free radicals and provide antioxidant benefits.

Our Chaga are wild-harvested from live birch trees in Michigan.

Red Belted Conk boasts potent anti-cancer properties. It has been demonstrated to regulate blood sugar, support absorption and elimination processes, and has traditionally been used as a strong emetic and coagulant.

Our Red Belted Conk Mushrooms are wild-harvested in the US. 

Astragalus root offers numerous health benefits, including boosting the immune system, reducing inflammation, and providing antioxidant protection. It supports cardiovascular health, anti-aging, and kidney function, helps manage diabetes, and improves energy levels. Additionally, it promotes wound healing and respiratory health.

Ashwagandha offers numerous benefits, including stress reduction, improved sleep, enhanced cognitive function, increased energy, hormonal balance, anti-inflammatory properties, immune support, better mood, blood sugar regulation, and muscle growth.

Rhodiola is a potent adaptogenic herb that helps the body adapt to stress, boosts energy, and enhances both physical and mental performance. It also supports gut health by balancing the gut microbiome, improving digestion, and offering antimicrobial benefits that help maintain a healthy and resilient digestive system.

Mineral salts are essential inorganic compounds vital for bodily functions, including bone health, muscle and nerve function, fluid balance, and enzyme reactions. They include calcium, sodium, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, iodine, chloride, and sulfur.

In spagyric tinctures, mineral salts are essential for capturing the holistic essence of plants. After extracting medicinal compounds with alcohol, the leftover plant material is incinerated to produce mineral-rich ashes. These trace mineral salts are then reintroduced to the tincture, combining physical and energetic properties for a potent remedy.

Due to its antimicrobial properties, vegetable glycerin safeguards against microbial contamination in liquid supplements. This is particularly advantageous in situations where pets' mouths may come into contact with the dropper used for administering supplements.

Some forms of glycerin have been shown to have potential benefits for cardiovascular health. Vegetable Glycerin also has no negative impact on the liver, nor does it affect blood sugar, making it an inert but palatable medium for tinctures (properly called “glycerites”).

Spagyric tinctures offer a unique approach to plant extraction, ensuring the full absorption of every aspect of the plant for maximum value.

Unlike standard extraction methods, spagyric tinctures utilize the entire plant, including its mineral aspects, enhancing medicinal properties and creating a potent remedy. This method is essential for extracting all the unique chemical compounds from plants, ensuring their benefits are fully absorbed.

In the realm of mushrooms and adaptogenic herbs, spagyric tinctures stand as the gold standard for obtaining the most from these plants and fungi.

MycoDog mushroom extract tinctures are exclusively spagyric, making them superior in quality and efficacy. With meticulous sourcing, formulation, and processing, they offer a harmonious and effective product for pets' well-being, setting a new standard in the market.

Liquid formulations offer greater bioavailability compared to powders. In the case of Spagyric extracts, which retain all medicinal properties of the plant, a higher concentration of beneficial compounds becomes accessible, maximizing the therapeutic potential.

To unlock the medicinal benefits of mushrooms and make them readily available, extraction is necessary.
Liquid medicinal mushroom extracts effectively capture and preserve the numerous bioactive compounds released during the extraction process.

MycoDog mushrooms undergo a spagyric dual extraction from the fruiting body. This yields a comprehensive spectrum of medicinal compounds, including polysaccharides (such as beta-D-glucans), triterpenoids, ergosterol, antioxidants, and Vitamins B & D.
Subsequently, most mushroom extracts are commonly infused with alcohol for human consumption, while glycerin is used for mushroom extracts for pets.

Alternatively, the mushroom extract may be dried and marketed as a powdered supplement. However, it's essential to note that many powdered mushroom products available on the market are not extracts at all, and largely consist of dried mushrooms ground up with the growing medium, lacking the concentrated extracts found in extract formulations.

In the realm of mushroom supplements for pets, many brands choose to cultivate their fungi on grain or sawdust due to cost-effectiveness. However, this approach may not offer optimal benefits for your furry companions.

Using myceliated grain means missing out on the actual mushrooms, where the beneficial compounds like beta-glucans and terpenoids are most abundant. For maximum benefits, opt for products made from wild-harvested and properly cultivated mushrooms.

Jason Scott, the mycologist behind MycoDog's sustainable mushroom extracts for pets, joined me on the Your Natural Dog podcast to discuss the significance of extracting from the fruiting bodies of mushrooms and what features to seek in a pet mushroom supplement.

“When you are looking at research of mycelium and the benefits of mycelium, it doesn’t really translate to myceliated grain the same way that people are kind of insinuating that it does. Whereas when you work with the full fruit body, you know what you’re getting, [everything] you’re getting is coming from the mushrooms themselves.” – Jason Scott on Your Natural Dog Podcast

Now, enter MycoDog, the rebel in the mushroom industry. We do things differently. We get our mushrooms for pets straight from the wilds of the Pacific Northwest, not from some grain bag. 

“We try to be as transparent as possible, and until we have a verified method to be producing mycelium in a pure way, we’re not going to offer it, because right now you just can’t get it unadulterated.” – Jason Scott on Your Natural Dog Podcast

Choosing MycoDog means you’re giving your pet only the good stuff, just the full benefits of functional mushrooms for pets without compromise. So, when it comes to the best mushroom supplement for pets, we’ve got you covered.

Mushrooms act as bio-accumulators, absorbing toxins from polluted air and soil. While China has long been associated with mushroom cultivation, it ranks among the most polluted nations globally.

In contrast, mushrooms cultivated in their natural habitat in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States remain untouched by such pollutants and toxins. This distinction is crucial when selecting mushrooms for canine consumption.

MycoDog tinctures are meticulously crafted from mushrooms cultivated outdoors, free from grains or fillers. Given mushrooms' ability to absorb environmental toxins, we prioritized sourcing from the pristine woodlands of the Pacific Northwest. This ensures minimal exposure to pollutants that could otherwise affect the mushrooms' purity and efficacy.

How mushrooms are grown significantly influences the benefits of a mushroom supplement for dogs. Were you aware that mushrooms can be cultivated on substrates like grain and rice and sawdust? It's a cost-effective and expedient method for large-scale production. 

However, the issue lies in the nutritional content. Essentially, you are what you eat. Mushrooms cultivated on grains absorb the nutrients from these substrates, which often lack the essential health benefits your dog requires. Conversely, when mushrooms grow naturally on trees in the wild, they absorb vital vitamins and nutrients crucial for your dog's well-being.

Interestingly, many people overlook the fact that mushrooms are grown, harvested, extracted, and packaged right here in the United States! With a bit of exploration, you'll discover that the Pacific Northwest serves as a haven for mushrooms, supplying us with naturally cultivated varieties for over 2,400 years. It's a hidden gem of America, yet imperative to recognize to ensure we access the finest mushroom sources for ourselves and our pets, while also supporting our local farmers.

You can give MycoDog mushrooms for dogs by either administering it directly into your dog’s mouth or you can also put it in your dog’s food.

As for dosage, you can’t overdose your pet on mushrooms. That being said, we recommend 1 dropper daily for maintenance or support. For more acute or severe conditions, we suggest 2-3 droppers daily.

If your pet is sensitive or very small, work up to the suggested dose. Any dose is better than none, so work with your pet to see what they tolerate/like best.

Since mushrooms for dogs are “functional” foods, giving MycoDog mushroom extract tinctures with or without food is fine.

There have been no documented adverse interactions between mushrooms or mushroom extracts for dogs and other canine supplements or medications. However, as a precautionary measure, we always advise consulting with your holistic veterinarian before introducing any new supplement to your dog's regimen.

Mushrooms are a functional food, so mushrooms will not have an adverse effect on puppies or seniors.