Probiotic Question

My one cat has had a loose stool for the past few days.  Since he is getting older (8 years old) I have been looking for a probiotic to start giving him.

I bought a bottle of Animal Essentials probiotic at a local pet store.  When looking at the label, the first ingredient is calcium sulfate.  I emailed Animal Essentials about this and this is the reply I was sent:

"The way the ingredients are listed is not in the order of which ingredient is the largest amount in the product.

AAFCO required us to the list the ingredients in the order they are on the bottle. We use the calcium sulfate as it keeps the pro-biotics and enzymes dry and in a powder form. 

It is a very common excipient, used in many products as a carrier of active compounds.  The amount of available calcium in a normal dose is very small;  insignificant to intake of dietary calcium. "

Calcium Sulfate is the main ingredient in plaster of paris.  I know it is common in some human food, but I really don't want to give it to my cat.  I have read elevated calcium levels can cause a lot of problems.

I believe this guy from Animal Essentials is lying to me, saying they were ordered to list ingredients NOT in the order of the most prominent first.

I looked at the AAFO website and see this:  "Ingredients must be listed in order of predominance by weight."

Does anyone know if the labelling requirements are the same for food as they are for supplements?  I believe they are, I just want to check before I call the manufacturer and give them a piece of my mind.

Another reason I think this customer service guy is full of it is because I found another probiotic online, "wholistic feline digest all plus," that has nothing but enzymes and probiotics.

Thoughts???  Thank you in advance for sharing your knowledge.  

I don't know what the labelling requirements are for pet probiotics.

Many people here just use Human probiotics for their cats. Here is info about which ones to use:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/262587/probiotics-search-human-grade-and-cfus

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/327724/human-vs-cat-probiotics-please-help

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263336/probiotic-not-sure-which-one-to-pick

http://www.foodfurlife.com/use-probiotics-in-cats.html

http://www.rawfeedingforibdcats.org/probiotics-for-cats---why-and-which-ones.html

After a LOT of research, we are using Renadyl probiotic. This is the human grade "version" of the feline Azodyl.  

Our older cat was recently diagnosed with chronic kidney disease and a probiotic was advised not only by our vet but by many who have experience with this disease.  The Azodyl, is supposed to be given in pill form, which we wanted to avoid.  Renadyl has double the amount of colonies so if you open one up and put it into food/treat (we use about 1/4 teaspoon or so of cream cheese) you will still wind up with more eaten than the Azodyl.  

So far so good. We're on day 4 and have had no problems administering it nor are there any side effects. My understanding is it does take time for the probiotic to work, about 3 months seems to be the average time to see results although some say it will happen sooner.  I bought 1 bottle of 60 pills, which will last 2 months.  

You do need to be careful where you purchase this supplement from. There are shady sellers and some use ingredients not meant for feline use.  If interested you can go to the Renadyl or Azodyl websites and make a comparison to the ingredients in the one you're considering.  Again, both of these 2 come highly recommended with long term users and vets.  

I've been using Nexabiotic and really like the coverage.  The fact that it contains S. Boulardii is such a plus.  However, it also contains MSG which gives me a screaming headache.  I don't want to subject my cats to that, and I also want to use a probiotic that my whole family can take. After researching until my eyes crossed I called up and called a  friend who's an internist and asked him what he recommended to his patients.  He said Renew Life Ultimate Flora so that's what I bought this afternoon.  I really do wish it contained S. Boulardii though.  Given that my cats are almost entirely raw fed I feel like it's important.  Anyone think I should add it?

LavishSqualor said:

 
I've been using Nexabiotic and really like the coverage.  The fact that it contains S. Boulardii is such a plus.  However, it also contains MSG which gives me a screaming headache.  I don't want to subject my cats to that, and I also want to use a probiotic that my whole family can take. After researching until my eyes crossed I called up and called a  friend who's an internist and asked him what he recommended to his patients.  He said Renew Life Ultimate Flora so that's what I bought this afternoon.  I really do wish it contained S. Boulardii though.  Given that my cats are almost entirely raw fed I feel like it's important.  Anyone think I should add it?

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In general you don't need to be giving SB unless your cats are having issues. The Renew Life should be good enough. You can always buy the SB separately and give it if someone is having soft stool, or something. I keep a bottle around just in case, but I don't give it regularly. 

Animal Essentials is a good digestive enzyme, but it's not a good probiotic. It does have some probiotics in it, but they aren't really enough to do much. I would recommend a human grade probiotic, one from this list. I use Nexabiotics, as someone else mentioned they also use, which is a good one a lot of raw feeders use. It does have a small bit of fillers, but it's nothing I'm concerned about. 

http://www.rawfeedingforibdcats.org/probiotics-for-cats---why-and-which-ones.html

I had emailed Animal Essentials and was told that it had 80 mg of absorbable calcium per gram.

I'm seriously thinking of switching back to wholistic feline digest-all because of that

Why did you switch from Digest All?  I found Digest All online after buying Animal Essentials and it is the one I am going to use.  It looks like a fantastic product with no fillers whatsoever.  I am curious as to why you changed products.

To switch things up.

But I also didn't see any difference in my cat by using the Digest-All.  I definitely think the digestive enzymes in Animal Essentials work, mostly because my cat gained 3/10 pound in a month! At first I thought the weight gain was due to the addition of fish oil, but he splits one capsule a day with his nemesis so that is roughly an additional 8 calories/day. Keep in mind that I had also decreased the amount of his food. I think that Animal Essentials is doing its job of increasing the bioavailability of his meals but I'm not so sure of the calcium sulfate even though I was told it wouldn't affect the Ca: P ratio. 

Also, I'm not using it for its probiotics.

Hope that's helpful.