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Thread: Probiotics

  1. #1
    House Broken Lainie's Avatar
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    Probiotics

    Another question for anyone out there.......
    I've been looking at articles on probiotics, thinking perhaps Jessie needs them to quiet her noisy stomach, but when I read all the reviews people comment on how the probiotics have helped their dogs who've had runny or soft stools. Jessie is on raw food & her stools are quite firm, sometimes hard. Am wondering if adding a probiotic might make her constipated. Maybe there are enough natural probiotics in her raw food?
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    Senior Dog shellbell's Avatar
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    I feed raw and I also give a probiotic daily. Tux gets one to help prevent yeast issues which he has had in the past, and Cabo gets one just as another way to keep his immune system strong since he has a tick disease. If you feed raw tripe, there are tons of probiotics in there too. It sounds like her stools are good, that is often a reason people want to add probiotics. What do you mean by noisy tummy? Raw digests much faster than kibble, sometimes Tux will get a noisy stomach right before meal time, like his stomach is growling.

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    House Broken Lainie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shellbell View Post
    I feed raw and I also give a probiotic daily. Tux gets one to help prevent yeast issues which he has had in the past, and Cabo gets one just as another way to keep his immune system strong since he has a tick disease. If you feed raw tripe, there are tons of probiotics in there too. It sounds like her stools are good, that is often a reason people want to add probiotics. What do you mean by noisy tummy? Raw digests much faster than kibble, sometimes Tux will get a noisy stomach right before meal time, like his stomach is growling.
    Her stomach squeaks & sometimes sounds like the old fashioned tube radios tuning in. It's not a gurgling sound, more like squeals & squeaks... sorry can't describe it any better! I wouldn't want her stools to be any harder. In fact, sometimes they are so hard that I cut back on the bone content in her food & just give her regular human meals, cooked. I do give her plain unsweetened yogurt every day, about 2 tbsp. but its not the same as a probiotic. I suppose I am reluctant to invest in a container of good 'pricey' probiotics if she doesn't need them & if they're going to make her stools any harder than they are right now.

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    Best Friend Retriever Snowco Labradors's Avatar
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    IMO probiotic can only help, not do harm. I prefer a live organism that needs refrigeration. I use this product (has a two year shelf life) from Progressive Labs. Nancy at ext. 149 knows this product well if you have questions. Tell her you know me as I order it from her all the time.

    Progressive Laboratories :: Digestive and Enzyme Formulas :: Probiotics :: MULTIDOPHILUS

    While a probiotic is good when a dog has loose stools to sooth the intestinal tract I have never seen one cause hard stools or constipation. It is to help the intestinal tract work properly.

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    Senior Dog shellbell's Avatar
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    How often are you feeding bone, for her stools to be that hard?

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    I've fed a big spoonful of plain yogurt for years. Figure it can't hurt!

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    House Broken Lainie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by shellbell View Post
    How often are you feeding bone, for her stools to be that hard?
    She gets 10 oz. twice a day of her frozen turkey dinners. It contains ground bone alone with ground turkey & some meat & veggies.
    About once a week she gets half a huge raw turkey neck. The supplier of the dinners does not think there is a lot of bone in them & feels giving her necks once or twice a week should not be too much bone for her. Yet so often we find her stools quite hard. She doesn't seem to have trouble eliminating though...doesn't appear constipated.

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    House Broken Lainie's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by barry581 View Post
    I've fed a big spoonful of plain yogurt for years. Figure it can't hurt!
    Yes, she also gets a whack of yogurt every day...probably no more than 2 tbsp. Usually plain organic or Astro BioBest.

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    I"m BACKKKKKKKK! The forum wouldn't recognize my old password and for some reason couldn't log on with my e-mail either; been suppppperr busy too.

    Lainie - give extra ground meat without bone in it, in addition to what you're feeding. Her stools are too hard - some dogs need VERY little bone.

    I learned this the hard way with Rivers back in March - was giving meat with bone, stools looked great, then suddenly became too hard and then he couldn't poop at all and had a major, very painful blowout.

    Felt horrible.

    Now he only gets meat with bone twice a week, period. 75% of his meals are ground beef (80/20) with beef heart; other meals are ground venison with some bone, eggs, yogurt, veggies, Pollock and salmon fish.

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    Senior Dog shellbell's Avatar
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    Woofie, the server for the whole board crashed, we all had to re-register

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