Probiotics for Dogs: Why, When, How?

I was never aware of the term and usage of Probiotics for pets unless Alexander fell sick. Alexander or Alex is a bright and energetic furry dog of the German shepherd breed. He is always jumping around and happy. However, when he was about 1 year old, all of a sudden he started feeling sick. He was suffering indigestion, bad runny stool, dry nose and several other problems. In a very few days he was completely drained out. We tried to manage things by giving him Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS), Appetite developing tonics and many more. However, nothing worked and I could derive no kind of satisfactory solutions from the veterans as well. He slept all the time, cried for nights and restricted himself from having foods. His regular meal from morning was biscuits, pedigree, and rice, chicken repeating with biscuits and pedigree in the evening. But as we know pets put their months from the feeding bowl to the street litters, I guess similar trash was the cause of this bad gut. Now that I had no solutions, I started my own research for my furry friend, scrutinizing his symptoms. It was astonishing for me to discover that 70-80% of the canine immune system is in their digestive system. That makes the gut health very significant for any pet. Finally, I get to know that this is a reason of bad bacteria affecting his intestines and anyone can cure it with a good probiotic medicine. The probiotic for dog comes in several brands and one such helped Alex return to his jolly-go-round mood once again. Till date, Alex never suffers from a bad gut.

What is Probiotic?

Having its derivation from the Latin roots, ‘Pro’ means ‘for’ and ‘biotic’ means ‘Life’. AAFCO (Association of American Feed Control Officials) label Probiotic as ‘Direct-fed Microbials’. Sanders puts forward that probiotics are responsible to increase “the activity or numbers of immune cells or cytokines, whose job it is to attack invading pathogens.” Simply, Probiotic can be described as good or friendly bacteria that lash out the bad ones that cause irritation in the intestines and also reduce immunity. It also helps to bar bad bacteria to attack back. Probiotics also generate antibacterial compounds called bacteriocins, which directly restrain the body’s tolerance of pathogen development. Probiotics help dogs digest their food by increasing absorption of nutrients and boosting their immune system. Probiotics, known during 1900, have now made us understand its importance.

There are some predominant strains of Probiotic:

• Bifidobacterium lactis

• Bifidobacterium longum

• Lactobacillus acidophilus

• Lactobacillus casei

• Bacillus subtilis

When does the dog needs Probiotic?

Probiotic is the friendly bacterium that works like the support system for the dogs. We may think how to understand if the dog needs a Probiotic. Regular monitoring of your pet is the key.

• Hairballs

• Constipation

• Diarrhea

• Vomiting

• Sneezing

• Bladder issues

• Bad gut

• Gastrointestinal problems

• Loss of energy and activity

• Digestion issue

• Bad breathe

In such issues, it is important to provide probiotic to your furry pooch so that it can replenish the good bacteria and reform the immune system in the dogs.

How does Probiotic works?

Pet food and supplement producer, Carna utters, “Recent research cites probiotics as combating disease-causing bacteria in various ways, such as:

• Producing antimicrobials and organic acids

• Stimulating the immune response and enzyme activity.

• Blocking binding sites to prevent pathogens from forming colonies in the intestines”

This responsive gut-lodging bacteria helps in digestion of food, fights potential pathogens, make nutrients and vitamins and shores up the immune system. Probiotic helps the cute little pets to digest whatever goes inside their mouth. More precisely probiotic can help your adoring canine in the following ways:

• Aid the pet to break down food to assist with a higher absorption rate of nutrients.

• Amalgamate nutrients and vitamins.

• Improve the immune system.

• Support with GI abnormalities, such as gas and to normalize bowel function.

• Protects from liver disease.

• Restrains the overgrowth of bad bacteria like Salmonellaand  coli.

• Prevents from urinary tract infections.

• Shield from bloat or torsion.

• Diminish intestinal strain and controls inflammation.

• Recovers skin/coat health and bad breath.

Which Probiotic to buy

Pets need certain Probiotic that can produce vital nutritional components. Other than having antioxidants, enzymes, amino acids, vitamins, etc., you should remember to buy a soil based probiotic for your pet doggie. Probiotic shall have strains of Bifidobacterium, Lactobacillus and Saccharomyces. That shall be a real help to you and your pet dog as much it helped me.

The imbalance of your furred dog’s digestive tract, increases permeability of the intestinal wall, which means your pet’s GI tract will fight to allow healthy bacteria and nutrients in and keep disease-causing bacteria, food particles, and toxins, away. I use Pet Flora from Safer Medical MT now that fulfills all the criteria of a healthy immune. The Probiotic is completely soiled base and an extremely useful source of beneficial microflora for lactose intolerant pets.