pro-biotics...

I was wondering if there were any Canadians in here that could recommend a store that sells pro-biotics and a brand  for our cat? She just had surgery on her knee and is going to be on anti-biotics. Thanks in advance...

Laurie (LDG) reccomended giving kitties one capsule of acidophilus and and bifidus daily sprinkled on their food. These can be the same probiotics humans take, too. Where in Canada are you? If you're in Toronto, there is a small health food store on Keele and Eglinton that sells these types of probiotics.

Really, any acidophilus supplement will do. :nod: It's OK if it's for humans. Like Kittylover says, that's what we use for our cats, a human supplement. All you need to look for is 10 million active cultures. It is best to get from a health food store, the refrigerator section, those are similar active cultures to those in yogurt (just more of them than if you eat yogurt).

But really, any acidophilus supplement will do. The health food store here just carries and acidophilus+bifidus supplement, it's the only one with 10 billion active cultures. I just sprinkle the one capsule on their food once a day, and they like it. Hubby and I swallow the capsules. :lol3:

FYI, I keep my kitties (and my husband and I) on probiotics all the time. :nod: It helps ensure a healthy gut flora.

Couple brands of probiotics that I think are great for cats and are available in Canada are Natural Factors Ultimate Multi  and MegaFood's MegaFlora. They both have a wide variety of probiotic strains in a high potency (aka CFU or colony forming units), and are dairy/yeast/soy/wheat free. You only need to use a tiny pinch 2 or 3 times a day mixed into wet food.

Thanks for the info. We just picked her up from the vet this morning so she's not a very happy kitty at the moment. We finally got her to calm down enuf to sleep a couple hours ago. We will be checking at the health food stores over the next couple of days, she's on anti-biotics for 2-3 weeks so we aren't in a really big hurry.

Well, the antibiotics will kill all the bacteria in her gut, including the healthy bacteria she needs. The sooner you get her on a probiotic the better.

Just make sure to give her the probiotic an hour or more after you give her the antibiotic, or it'll just kill it. Kitties typically like probiotics, so the easiest way to administer it is to sprinkle the contents of the capsule on her food.

The general 'rule-of-thumb' around concurrent use of antibiotics and probiotics is that the probiotic be given in the middle of the dose cycle - when the intestine is likely to be least affected by the drug and the beneficial bacteria has some time to replenish - e.g. twice a day antibiotic dose at 12 midnight and 12 noon.....twice a day probiotic at 6AM and 6PM