Q & A: Probiotics

By Dr. Kim Everson, DVM

 

Question: My dog has a lot of stomach troubles, and my veterinarian recommended that I start giving him a probiotic. What exactly is a probiotic?

 

Answer: Probiotic use is becoming more popular in veterinary and human medicine and shows a lot of promise for improving gastrointestinal health as well as overall health. Everybody’s gut—whether you’re a person, pig or pooch—has a mixture of symbiotic bacteria living within. When kept in balance, these good bacteria, or intestinal flora, help to digest our food and protect the lining of the gastrointestinal tract from invasion by harmful microorganisms. The intestinal flora can be thrown into imbalance by many things including stress or other illness, dietary sensitivity or allergy, and antibiotics used for infection elsewhere in the body. When the balance between good and harmful bacteria is thrown off, a wide variety of “stomach troubles” can result including diarrhea, gassiness, decreased appetite, vomiting, bad breath, and abdominal pain.

Pets with a sudden severe bacterial overgrowth may require special antibiotics, dietary management, GI protectants and even fluid therapy. If the underlying cause of the GI upset is unknown, testing may include stool, blood or urine laboratory work and x-rays. Some pets have chronic on-going or intermittent GI upset, and no treatable underlying condition has been identified. Daily use of a probiotic to furnish high numbers of good bacteria may reduce the frequency and severity of GI disturbances in these pets.

Traditionally, people have obtained probiotics through the ingestion of yogurt, cheeses and other foods containing live cultures of helpful microorganisms such as species of Lactobacilli, Bifidobacteria, and Enterococci. While yogurt can provide similar probiotic benefits to our pets, I caution owners about lactose intolerance in dogs and cats. If your pet is lactose intolerant, giving a dairy-based probiotic may make tummy troubles worse! Instead, there are numerous non-dairy probiotics available that are well tolerated by pets.

Probiotics in pets are routinely used for a short period during a bout of GI disturbance. Some pets benefit from continued use of the probiotic long term anywhere from every day to once a week. Most of my patients really like the taste of their probiotic, so administering the supplement can be as simple as sprinkling it on the food.

In addition to probiotics, you might also be hearing a lot about a related and similar-sounding supplement called prebiotics. Whereas antibiotics kill off “harmful unwanted bacteria” and probiotics are the “helpful symbiotic bacteria,” prebiotics provide the “food” to support a healthy population of normal intestinal flora. Prebiotics are non-digestible carbohydrates –such as the mouthful “fructooligosaccharides”—that are often included in probiotic supplements. In a sense, the probiotic is the “active ingredient” and the prebiotic is the “inactive ingredient” of the supplement.

Due to the recent popularity of natural supplements, there is an overwhelming variety of probiotic and probiotic/prebiotic supplements available in drug stores and pet stores. I suggest working closely with your veterinarian to select a product he or she has experienced good results with in other pets.

 

Originally printed in Pet Journal, October 2014