Probiotics

I've been giving Poppy a probiotic and had a few questions:

1. I know probiotics are best given alone. This proves very hard, though--how do you get your cat to ingest probiotic without forcing it down their throat everyday? If someone has a clever technique, I'd like to know.

2. Sometimes I make a really stupid move. Poppy gets her food warmed. Sometimes I absent mindedly put the probiotic dose in the food and then nuke it. Does anyone know if this kills absolutely everything? Should I put another dose in if I do that? Or have a reasonable amount survived? I use live probiotics that I need to store in the fridge. The food gets microwaved for 15 seconds.

Actually, my cat gets Forti Flora each day and the vet told me sprinkle it on his food.

I've been giving one cat extra probiotics (besides what I sometimes add to their food) and he loves it so much that he comes running when he hears the bottle rattling and he begs for it :lol3:. He makes a mess cracking the powder capsule open but he sure loves his acidophilus. I don't know how many cats would do this but it's worth offering it to Poppy to see if it'll be just that easy :tongue2:.

Don't call yourself stupid!

Microwaving probably does make the beneficial bacteria inert. I wouldn't recommend microwaving to heat cat food. I warm food by running hot water over the dish, put the food in the hot dish, then set the dish in another saucer of hot water for a few minutes. Stir around to get the temperature even throughout. And/or add a little warm water to it.

My cats get their probiotics in their food. Queen Eva gets hers with her first meal of the day Jennie gets hers with her supper meal. Mazy cat gets hers with her last meal of the day.

I sprinkle probiotics on Ritz' food in the morning, she's never had an issue with the taste. 

I open the capsule and sprinkle it on her food.  I use the kind that doesn't require refrigeration; is there a reason you use the live kind that requires refrigeration?

Like otto, I warm up food in warm water. It's in a baggie already, so I just set it in a bowl of warm water. All the probiotics I've seen say take with or without food... :dk: I always just sprinkle them on the food.

otto said:

Don't call yourself stupid!

Microwaving probably does make the beneficial bacteria inert. I wouldn't recommend microwaving to heat cat food. I warm food by running hot water over the dish, put the food in the hot dish, then set the dish in another saucer of hot water for a few minutes. Stir around to get the temperature even throughout. And/or add a little warm water to it.

My cats get their probiotics in their food. Queen Eva gets hers with her first meal of the day Jennie gets hers with her supper meal. Mazy cat gets hers with her last meal of the day.

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LDG said:

Like otto, I warm up food in warm water. It's in a baggie already, so I just set it in a bowl of warm water. All the probiotics I've seen say take with or without food... :dk: I always just sprinkle them on the food.

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Well I want to clarify that I do not put RAW food in a hot water bath as I described above, I only warm canned food like that.

Laurie could you elaborate on how warm the water is when you warm the baggies of raw? I discovered early on that even water warm to the touch will "cook" Rad Cat, so I never put it in anything but cold to defrost. My cats get their raw portions (prey model and Rad Cat) cold and sometimes still a little icy.

Yeah, I mostly feed it cold. But Flowerbelle has a yang deficiency (she's too "cold" in the Chinese Medicine way of looking at things, which is why she LOVES lying in hot places, like the sun, or right on the heating vent, or in the corner up front that collects the most heat...), so I don't give her cold food. I don't know about the Rad Cat, but the meat I give her doesn't seem cooked at all. :dk: It may be minimally, I guess, on the outside - but not that my eye can see. :lol3: I just set the faucet right in the middle - so it's warm. It's warmer than lukewarm, but definitely not hot.

Otto and LDG--

So to clarify, you're warming RAW food by surrounding it with warm water, but not commercial canned? I can understand the reasoning behind warming raw food that way, but if there is a reason not to microwave commercial canned, can you tell me why?
 

Raintyger said:

Otto and LDG--

So to clarify, you're warming RAW food by surrounding it with warm water, but not commercial canned? I can understand the reasoning behind warming raw food that way, but if there is a reason not to microwave commercial canned, can you tell me why?

 

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No I do not warm raw food at all. I take portions out the night before and put them in the fridge. A half hour before serving I take the container out of the fridge and put it in a dish of cold water to take the iciness out. I I was to warm raw food, I would, like Laurie said, be careful to not put it in hot water, just lukewarm.

I warm the canned food in hot water because I have always warmed canned food and they like it that way. (and of course if it has been refrigerated) They like the raw cold but they do not like canned food cold. I don't own a microwave and have never thought it was a good idea to heat cat food in the microwave, but I don't remember exactly why. Perhaps it stems from not heating breast milk for babies in the microwave.

There would be a danger of it getting too hot in the middle if not stirred well, and maybe I wondered if nutrients are destroyed from the microwave.But I definitely think you should add the probiotic AFTER using the microwave. But I still don't think you were "stupid" to do it, you simply were absent minded as we all are at times. I ahve given the wrong cat medications at times, so I am not pointing any fingers.:lol3:

A little off topic, but how I came to start warming food that hadn't even been refrigerated yet: 30 years ago I was preparing my then cats' meals. They were getting a chunks in grabvy style canned food but the didn't like the big chunks so I was chopping them smaller. My sister happened to be at my apartment and she was watching me. Finally she gave a snort and said "I'm surprised you don't warm it up for them too" and I said, wow, what a great idea! And so I did from then on not only chop, but warm their food.

That's funny, Otto.

Just a reminder to people who have cats on antibiotics and probiotics:  they should be given two hours apart.  The scientists on this thread can tell you why, I think one interferes with the other.  (And, some antibiotics are notorious for causing diarrhea.

I feed raw now, but I used to heat leftover refrigerated canned food very gently in the microwave.  I heated it on 50% power for just enough time to take the chill off then stirred it around.  Someone on this forum once suggested that microwaving might destroy some of the nutrients (especially taurine)....not sure if that is true, but I always warmed it very slightly and very gently anyways.  Most of their food came straight from the can and was never microwaved anyways....just the leftovers were. 

otto said:

But I still don't think you were "stupid" to do it, you simply were absent minded as we all are at times. I ahve given the wrong cat medications at times, so I am not pointing any fingers.

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Oh, I didn't really think I was stupid, I was just kicking myself for not paying closer attention. There's so many things I'm adding nowadays to Poppy's food, it's easy to forget--add water for hydration, fish oil, urine acidifier, pumpkin, probiotics, and then remember probiotics are last. It seems easy, but human short term memory is around 7 separate items, and there's 6 right there.

I hope your kitties came through the mixed up meds okay!

Ritz said:

That's funny, Otto.

Just a reminder to people who have cats on antibiotics and probiotics:  they should be given two hours apart.  The scientists on this thread can tell you why, I think one interferes with the other.  (And, some antibiotics are notorious for causing diarrhea.

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I just read up on this. Antibiotics kill all bacteria, good and bad. So you give your kitty antibiotics first, and they indiscriminately go through the system, killing everything they can. Then you give the probiotics to replenish the good flora that just got killed. If you give the probiotics at the same time or just before, they'll fall victim to the antibiotics.

Thanks everyone for your replies!

That makes sense, even to me of lesser intelligence ...