Cat probiotics

At the time, we used Natural Factors double-strength Acidophilus + Bifidus. Many are having good success with Renew Life Ultimate Flora, 15bn CFU, but it's expensive. I currently use Nexabiotic because it has the important strains and a yeast-based probiotic called S boulardii, but it's pretty expensive too. I will probably switch to NOW Probiotic-10, the one with 25 bn CFU and separately add the Jarrow S boulardii with MOS.

Are you trying to treat diarrhea of unknown cause? Or caused by antibiotics? Or just general health?

jessicaromano said:

 
One of my cats still has some diarrhea even after being de wormed, and new tests are negative for parasites. She is also on a grain free diet and it has helped her, but she does still get diarrhea sometimes. My other cat was on antibiotics last month and now he is getting diarrhea, he never had that before in his life so my guess for both of them antibiotics are the cause. 

I want to put them on a probiotic, but does a vet need to prescribe it or is it over the counter product? I wanted to know what brand is best, and if anyone here used it how were the results, and can it be put in dry or canned food?

I read mixed results about probiotics making some cats worse, vomiting, or dying, I want to know facts.

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This sounds peculiar.   I suspect these were cats sick in something real, and instead of  vet visit or medicines - or simply suitable food,  the owner experimented with probiotics...

Im a believer probiotics are good in many situations, but they shouldnt be instead of good cat food.  Or helping up an ottherwise bad food....

And of course, although probiotics may be a good complement to vet care, or home remedy care in easier ilments,  you must know when to go to a vet if the problems are real...

And if you cant go or choose to not go,  dont blame it on probiotics, blame it on the fact you couldnt go to a good vet...

To your question:  probiotics are typically possible to buy OTC, prescription is rarely necessary.   Vet have surely some favorites they recommend or even sell themselves,  but usully you can get the same or similiar on the open market too....

A basic probiotic working OK is simply plain milk fullfat youghurt.  If it has added acidophilus and bifidus bacteria in it, its get even better...

LDG said:

At the time, we used Natural Factors double-strength Acidophilus + Bifidus. Many are having good success with Renew Life Ultimate Flora, 15bn CFU, but it's expensive. I currently use Nexabiotic because it has the important strains and a yeast-based probiotic called S boulardii, but it's pretty expensive too. I will probably switch to NOW Probiotic-10, the one with 25 bn CFU and separately add the Jarrow S boulardii with MOS.

Are you trying to treat diarrhea of unknown cause? Or caused by antibiotics? Or just general health?

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Antibiotic [Clavamox] for 6 week old kitten - 1 pound. Dx with Aspiration pneumonia at 5 weeks old.. less than 3 days of antibiotics gave her MEGA diarrhea.   

Yeah, Clavamox seems like one of the worst offenders that way. Seen it spin cats into uncontrollable diarrhea for months. S boulardii works REALLY well for antibiotic-cased diarrhea in my experience (for people too!). The best is that you don't have to give the antibiotic separately from the S boulardii, because it is a yeast, not a bacteria. It does not colonize the gut, if you want to restore the healthy flora, it will require a bacterial probiotic, a good broad spectrum one, but I usually wait until the antibiotic is done to start that. For a kitty that small, I'd use 1/4 capsule of Florastor 2x a day. I'd take it up to half a capsule 2x a day if the 1/4 cap doesn't do it. Almost all of them are sold in 5 billion CFU. Florastor is available at places like Walmart or Costco. I think the Vitamin Shoppe carries Renew Life Advanced Immunity, which is S boulardii, each cap is the same strength (it says 10 billion, I think, but the dose is 2 caps). You can also order online, I get Jarrow with MOS from amazon, but most health food stores carry it. I just mix it into a bit of Beech Nut meat-only baby food (Gerber has corn starch as a preservative so I avoid it), and most cats eat it right up.

For replenishing healthy bacteria, I use either the NOW Probiotic-10 or the Renew Life Ultimate Flora. For a kitten that small, I'd start with 1/4 of the adult dose ( a full cap daily). I always split it into 2, half given AM and half given PM, because according to my holistic vet, it works with the body's biorhythms.

I have a carb addicted cat and he is fluffy, not fat.

I am n the process of switching him to more wet food completely and then hopefully to raw. I also have other kitties.

I would like to also put him on a probiotics, how much do I need to give him and what brand? He is 21 lbs.

Thank you, Debra

LDG said:

At the time, we used Natural Factors double-strength Acidophilus + Bifidus. Many are having good success with Renew Life Ultimate Flora, 15bn CFU, but it's expensive. I currently use Nexabiotic because it has the important strains and a yeast-based probiotic called S boulardii, but it's pretty expensive too. I will probably switch to NOW Probiotic-10, the one with 25 bn CFU and separately add the Jarrow S boulardii with MOS.

Are you trying to treat diarrhea of unknown cause? Or caused by antibiotics? Or just general health?

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I thought I'd start with the NOW Probiotic you mention above, but wait on the S boullardii. Or is there some kind of compatibility issue I need to be aware of? In other words, does the one not work unless it has the other? I'd just as soon not plunk down the $30 for the S boullardii right now. But if they enhance one another, I'll spring for it. I wanted to use the yogurt but Peanut, our female 11-year old, isn't interested and I don't want to force feed her, unless you think there's a way that wouldn't be too stressful for her.

http://shop.stefmar.com.au/vetafarm...-probiotic-for-dogs-cats-birds-poultry-chicks Any views on this?  My hack of a wannabe 'vet' gave me this to treat y poor babe.  I now have an app with the Cat Clinic..but until then...suggestions...35 weeks of diarrhea..on antibiotics for one month..aft. 2 surgeries..and..well...a long story...but.he needs to get well...an to increase weight...has only one kidney..on a renal diet which he despises..and with chronic and severe diarrhea..have taken him to vets...was in animal hospital for an extended period of time...they didn't treat it...He's been on this for four days...no change...HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Has anyone tried Entero-chronic ?  My cat has been struggling with on-off diarrhea for months, ever since a 3 week antibiotic treatment. I tried a few different pro-biotics but got no real result. Now my vet suggested Entero-chronic, that's more like a pre-biotic (food for bacteria) with something extra for re-building the gut lining... it needs to be administered for at least one month and I only just started so I can't share experiences yet... maybe someone else has tried it?

It isn't available in the U.S. so I have no personal experience with it.  @jcat  who  lives in Germany uses it for her IBD cat and has had very good results with it.  She credits it with being able to keep her kitty off of steroids.

I would question the dosage size as being too small with this product. It says:

Active Ingredients: Contains a blend of 7 species of live (freeze dried) microbes that help improve the intestinal balance and wellbeing of animals. 180 Million CFU/g as Lactobacillus acidophilus; L. delbrueckii subspecies bulgaricus; L. plantarum; L.Rhamnosus; Bifidobacterium bifidum; Enterococcus faecium; Streptococcus salivarius subspecies thermophilus.

But 180 Million CFU/g seems awfully low, but I'm unfamiliar with the unit CFU/g. I'm used to seeing just CFU and the best article I've seen on this so far says a maintenance dose should be 3-5 BILLION CFU.

Also I'm not seeing S. Boullardi which is what most vets agree is the most effective for treating diahrrea, from what i've read on this site.

I'd move cautiously and hope others share their knowledge about this. I'm not a vet and have never purported to be, but I do like to read and stay informed...just sayin'...

This appears to be loaded with MSG! 

http://www.elephantjournal.com/2013/04/sneaky-names-for-msg-check-your-labels/

Very unhealthy IMO.... try something like pumpkin.

If you're talking about hydrolyzed that is not automatically MSG, I really don't care what the list has on it.  Hydrolyzed is simply a process to break something down into it's components.  Hydrolyzed  protein is often used in foods for animals with a lot of  food allergies.  The proteins are broken down into their amino acids.  The cat or dog gets the complete protein but because it is  broken down their body doesn't recognize it and react to it.

MSGs are Neurotoxins whether you want to dance around the truth or not is up to you - and the damage to your cat is beyond cruel. Poor little pets trust their family, really sad to argue instead of looking into the 'side-effects'. Denial doesn't make neurotoxins less toxic.

Entero-Chronic is something I always have on hand because of Mogli's IBD. It's pretty much the IBD treatment of choice in Europe because you avoid the long-term side-effects of steroids. We also use it at the shelter for antibiotic-induced diarrhea. It's effective, but doesn't produce instant results. The one negative thing I can say is that it's difficult to consistently dose, as it comes in little packets and the normal dose for cats is "half a packet". I ended up weighing it and finding a spoon that held half a packet.

I just got this product today along with the HomeoPet feline nose relief with high hopes that the probiotics will increase my kittens immune system enough to overcome their upper respiratory infections,while the nose relief will help reduce their symptoms.Are there any vets on this forum that can let me know if it has a good chance of success? Also I need to know some other over the counter products that can help as well, i took them in from this woman who had dozens of litters outside in which she needed to find homes for, so me and some friends left with seven kittens. The thing is that they all were sick with upper respiratory infections, apparently from cedar wood chips. The ones i took in got a little better, i think from being inside and cleaned and well fed. But they are still sick, they are always sneezing out snot rockets,they have eye discharge and swollen 3rd eyelids, one of them was blind in one eye when i brought them home but that eye, even though it's still blind, has healed up and the eyeball itself is no longer swollen, and they have been wheezing when they breath. I don't have many options at all, i can't afford to take them to the vet and I wasn't going to let that stop me from rescuing them, so I need as many alternative, affordable options as I can get. I have done a ton of research and all I've found was the same advice saying they need to go to a vet which isn't an option for me, i didn't see anything at all to help those people who can't afford a vet by telling us the best things we can do instead. I'm a little desperate to find out everything that will help so I can do all of the things I need to do to completely heal them myself. I hate seeing them like this and I hate it even more that I can't take them to the vet because i know that's what would be best. But I'm confident that there are products out there that will take care of the problem. If anyone, ESPECIALLY EXPERIENCED VETERINARIANS, has any advice and information that will help me please email me at [email protected], and please title it "help for sick kittens" that way i will know what it's about, i don't acknowledge or notice most emails because i get many useless emails asking for reviews, surveys, and coupons. I know it seems tedious but i just don't want to miss any emails regarding this topic and a self explanatory title will guarantee that i see it. I apologize for the length of this comment It's just very important to me and i didn't want to spare potentially important details, and I appreciate those of you who took the time to read all of this. I am eager to read any information that is emailed to me and i will be very grateful that you took your time to help me out. I hope everyone sorts out any issues with their cats and I hope all of your kitties are or will be very happy and healthy. Have a great day guys, thanks again for reading!

My cat has had IBD for a while and has started throwing up a lot more than usual.  In the interim before I can get her to my vet, I got some Florastor from the drug store.  I've been giving her a half a capsule mixed with water 2x a day and that seems to help a little bit.  My vet is not really crazy about probiotics - he doesn't think they really work, but in this case, I hope I am helping her.  I'm going to get her in next week and will know more then...

Perhaps the usual food manufacturer has quietly changed ingredients? Whatever, I would want to find something else, pet food companies are unreliable at best usually. 

I give my kitty powder probiotics made by Wysong and he loves it. I buy it from Amazon


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