By Dr. Becker and comments by Diane Weinmann

The holistic human medicine and veterinary communities have long touted the health benefits of probiotics, while traditional practitioners have been slow to come around.

But given the rapidly growing number of probiotic products popping up on store shelves, it seems they’re really starting to catch on with mainstream consumers.

So what are probiotics, exactly?

According to Dr. Becker, probiotics are gut-friendly strains of bacteria that help maintain healthy levels of good bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract, and also defend against opportunistic, potentially pathogenic bacteria.

The digestive tract is the largest immune organ in the body, and despite her much smaller size, your dog or cat has even more intestinal bacteria than you do, in fact her microbes outnumber her cells ten to one.

The GI tracts of companion animals are designed to handle a tremendous bacterial load — bacteria that would likely develop into a life-threatening infection if found elsewhere in the body.

A healthy population of friendly bacteria keeps your pet’s immune system in good working order. If the ratio of bad-to-good intestinal bugs gets out of balance, your dog or cat will eventually develop GI symptoms and an increased susceptibility to illness.

Studies have shown that animals raised without friendly bacteria in the gut, or with a poor balance of good-to-bad gut bacteria, are at significantly increased risk for disease.

Why Most Dogs and Cats Can Benefit from a Probiotic Supplement

The bacteria in your pet’s GI tract can be easily influenced by a number of factors, ranging from emotional stress to an unhealthy lifestyle.

Among the most powerful influences on your dog’s or cat’s gut bacteria are antibiotics. These drugs are designed to kill harmful bacteria that cause illness, but they work indiscriminately.

They kill healthy bacteria right along with disease-causing bacteria. In addition, antibiotics are overprescribed in both human and veterinary medicine. I know often times when I’ve been prescribed antibiotics I have gotten a yeast infection afterwards.  Many dogs have the same problems with their ears after treatment with antibiotics.  Other stressors that can throw off the balance of good-to-bad gut bacteria include:

 

Sudden change in diet	Veterinary drugs (e.g., prednisone, dewormers)
Poor quality diet	Surgery
Strange eating habits (feces, grass, rocks, etc.)	GI disease, nutritional disease
Unclean/contaminated drinking water (fluoride and chlorine)	Stress (boarding at a kennel or shelter, travel)
Ingestion of fertilizers, pesticides or chemicals in the water supply	GMOs in food
Vaccinations	Emotional stress

 

When GI stressors upset the balance of bacteria in your pet’s digestive system, it can create a cascade of nutritional and other health problems, including poor food absorption and intermittent or chronic diarrhea. The quality of your pet’s poop should be consistent.

It also opens the door to leaky gut (dysbiosis), which means your dog or cat can absorb partially digested amino acids, foreign proteins, and allergens into the bloodstream. This in turn can trigger a host of other health problems, from allergies to autoimmune disease.

How Probiotics Work

The exact mechanism by which probiotics work in the GI tract is still being studied, but a reasonable working theory is that friendly bacteria establishes itself in the gut, and its presence discourages proliferation of potentially pathogenic (unfriendly) bacteria and opportunistic yeast.

More simply, probiotics help good bacteria compete with bad bacteria for nutrients and intestinal binding sites, while also supporting the immune system in its fight against pathogens. Once the natural bacterial balance is reestablished, if no other issues exist, GI function returns to normal.

When your pet’s gut bacteria are in balance with the right amount and type of healthy bugs, several vital functions take place inside the body including:

• Vitamins are made
• Vegetable fiber is processed as it should be
• Unfriendly bacteria are kept in check
• Toxins are well-managed

Veterinary Use of Probiotics Is Expanding

Most of us who practice holistic and integrative veterinary medicine have known of the benefits of probiotics for decades. But because probiotics are a supplement rather than a drug, the traditional veterinary community has been slow to incorporate it into pet health care protocols.

Fortunately, things are changing. An increasing number of veterinarians, pet guardians and animal shelters are using probiotics to:

• Treat diarrhea
• Help cats and dogs in shelters manage the stress of abandonment and confinement
• Alleviate GI upset while pets are being boarded
• Reseed the gut with beneficial bacteria after a round of antibiotics
• Calm digestive upsets caused by travel and dietary changes
• Improve digestion and stool quality in large and giant breed dogs
• Boost immune system function, especially in pets that are very young, elderly, or have compromised health

The intestinal bacteria puppies and kittens are exposed to by their mothers during their first few weeks of life can ultimately affect their long-term bacteria colonization. Studies show that probiotics can benefit orphaned animals, and may be one of the mechanisms behind why microbiome restorative therapy is so effective in pets.

Another encouraging sign is a greater focus by new veterinary school graduates on preventing illness, and the importance of nutrition and digestion in keeping pets healthy.

Now that the use of probiotics to support digestion and immune function is growing in acceptance, both MDs and veterinarians are more willing to consider other types of conditions that respond to probiotics. For example in humans, research suggests that asthma and other immune-related disturbances may be reduced with probiotic use.

All Probiotics Are Not Created Equal

In most cases, probiotic formulas developed for human consumption aren’t appropriate, in terms of being most efficacious, for companion animals.

Pets have strains of bacteria unique to them — they require organisms derived from their own species for best results, for instance the “poo probiotic” species E. faecium. This strain is considered a pathogen in human medicine (many production companies will not bring this strain into their facilities), but is one of the more effective strains used for dogs and cats.

In Dr. Becker’s opinion, commercial pet foods containing probiotics are a waste of money. The bacteria in a probiotic must be live and able to reproduce in order to do its job in your pet’s GI tract. The pet food manufacturing process kills too many of the live bacteria, rendering the probiotic effect useless.

Even if they are added to the food post-production, the extended shelf life of processed diets means the probiotics are probably not present in high enough concentration to affect the GI tract in any way.

Many commercially available probiotic supplements for pets are of low quality (feed grade or “animal grade”, and not food grade or “human grade”). Often, what’s on the label can’t be found in the supplement. There are also contamination, potency and purity issues with many products.

There are three crucial components to a high quality pet probiotic:

1.It should contain 10 or more strains of beneficial bacteria

2.Each serving should contain a minimum 20 million beneficial bacteria –— the higher the number, the better

3.It should be GMP certified to assure the viability, potency and purity of the product

If your dog or cat has specific health challenges, talk with your veterinarian about the best approach to probiotic supplementation for your pet’s individual needs.

I personally give a probiotic to my horse starting in September due to weather changes and he continues to get this as a supplement until the weather stabilizes. Needless to say, Ohio weather does not cooperate very well and I do end up giving my horse his daily dose into late spring.  You would think I would be able to stop in the winter but our last few winters have seen temperature changes from in the single digits to 40 degrees every other day!

As Dr. Becker was saying very few products have all the necessary strains of bacteria that is necessary to accomplish our goals. Listed below is a link to where I would recommend to obtain your probiotics for your dog and cat.

http://probiotics.mercola.com/probiotics-for-pets.html

Label Snapshot for Complete Probiotics For Pets

Supplement Facts Serving Size: (3 grams) Servings Per Container: 30
Amt. Per Serving	(billion viable organisms)	% Daily Value
Bifidobacteruim lactis	5	*
Lactobacillus acidophilus	5	*
Bifidobacteruim longum	5	*
Bifidobacteruim bifidum	5	*
Lactobacillus casei	5	*
Lactobacillus plantarum	5	*
Bifidobacteruim breve	5	*
Streptococcus thermophilus	5	*
Saccromyces boulardi	5	*
Bifidobacterium animalis	5	*
E. faecium	5	*
Lactobacillus rhamnosus	1	*
Lactobacillus bulgaricus	1	*
Lactospore ® Lactobacillus sporogenes	1	*

View Full Product Label Snapshot

*Daily Value (DV) not established.

Other ingredients: Microcrystalline Cellulose, Silica

 

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How Much Do You Need? One container lasts for…

 

Cats Normal: 3 months Therapeutic: 1.5 months

 

Medium Dogs: Normal: 1.5 months Therapeutic: 3 weeks

 

Small Dogs: Normal: 3 months Therapeutic: 1.5 months

 

Large Dogs: Normal: 1 month Therapeutic: 2 weeks