Bene Bac vs Fortiflora?

They seem to have very different ingredients. We've never used probiotics in our cats - but we have a foster right now that we're having trouble getting his diarrhea under control. He has no parasites (poo tested 3 times now).

We fasted him for 24 hours, put him on a boiled chicken diet, and gave him kitty immodium (forget what it was called, it was a vet scrip) and an antibiotic that treats issues in digestive system without killing the healthy bacteria. This was for over a week. It slowed up his system, and changed his poops from watery to formed, but extremely loose stools, and he's very gassy.

We slowly started adding Blue Wilderness limited ingredient food - wet and dry to the boiled chicken/chicken water diet, and two days ago we started with the Fortiflora probiotic.

From everything I've read, it seems the addition of probiotics to the diet is a good idea period.

But looking at the ingredients of Fortiflora, there seem to be a number of minerals in there - and that worries me for our existing kitties, as all of the boys have had problems with crystals.

Anyone familiar with this issue and have any thoughts on one being better than another? Is the Fortiflora safe for kitties that have had problems with both struvite and calcium oxalate crystals?

And any idea how soon (or long) we may have to wait to see an improvement in his stools if this is going to work? I don't want to start switching foods too early.

Thanks!

I personally like bene-bac better... IMO Fortiflora has nasty ingredients... I don't like it... I also don't like how addictive it is.

With all that said: If your kitty is not eating, AND has diarrhea, then Fortiflora can be a wonderful tool - cats go nuts for it; it is very tasty!

I used it once for Hope and I had a very hard time taking her out of it - she got completely addicted to it. That was the last time I used it... It did serve both purposes - firmed up the poop, and made her eat... but boy, the struggle to take her out and make her eat without it again!

As far as firming up the stools, you should see a difference pretty quickly - in a day or two.

I have no idea about the risks for crystals....

I wonder if you could try just plain acidophillus (human supplement)? The times I've had to deal with the runs from my girls, I would add 1/2 capsule to their wet food combo twice a day. It helped in just a couple of feedings.

Well, he had his second dose of Fortiflora yesterday, and his poos went completely watery - so much so that there were little watery drips outside the box, poor boy. So we are going to stop the Fortiflora.

We'll give it a couple of days. He'd made so much progress - I mean - at least he was pooping once a day, formed stools, even though still soft. This morning the litter boxes were a mess - he obviously went poop a lot of times. I feel terrible.

No idea but Xander has some soft stools last week (had some hairball issues, and I think the laxatone caused it) but when I gave him the bene-bac paste, he started foaming at the mouth!

I used the Benebac powder... you can mix it into their wet food. Sounds like there is a lot going on with this foster. I used Fortiflora only to clear up antibiotic induced diarrhea in one cat.

Maybe add a little cooked white rice to that chicken diet... The feline version of BRAT (bananas, rice, applesauce, toast) diet for kids with the runs. Maybe he needs something more bland than BB. Or less rich.

Well, he had at least two really water poops overnight (12 hours), so we're putting him back on kitty immodium to at least slow up his system. At least he's still very hydrated. *phew*

We're going back to just boiled chicken/chicken water, but will add some white rice to it. We'll probably just start slowly introducing him to the same food we feed our cats (Science Diet C/D) as it looks like we may end up having to foster him here. Haven't had a single call on the boy yet. (Which is not so bad considering we haven't cleared up his diarrhea yet).