+ Giving digestive support for animals on Abx or with other digestive issues +

[Watermelons]

This is designed to be a discussion and education topic. I dont want any arguments about what brand is best or why spend the money. Lets keep it clean and Civil.

Whenever an animal is sent home on antibiotics, we need to remember antibiotics (abx) are designed to help kill bacteria. That means both GOOD and BAD bacteria. All living things have good bacteria in their guts that helps aid in the digestive process. This bacteria is SPECIES SPECIFIC. Giving our pets items like Yogurt and Acidophilus is not helpful. Those items are designed with our human bacterial makeup in mind (now if you fed your pet yogurt all the time and other dairy products you could use yogurt but pets should not have dairy) We develop bacteria in out guts over time based on our environment and what we eat. We wont have the same bacterial makeup as a dog/rabbit because we're not eating the same stuff as them, so giving our pets an item designed to aid in OUR digestion and OUR bacteria will not do anything helpful it may infact off-set our pets system in some cases.

Animal supplements and medications are designed to be processed by the animals body. Offering human supplements and medications can do severe damage to our pets systems, they cant process stuff the same way we can. Their livers and kidneys cant handle it not to mention other organs. Not even going down the route of painkillers like Aspirin or tylenol. We need to make sure were giving our pets, pet medications.

I have contacted one of the companys for a product we used to send home with clients when their pets had digestive problems and were sent home with abx or just had a bad upset tummy (diarrhea) and asked them some of these questions in regards to using human pre-pro biotics for animals. If I could remember the other product we used (some dogs liked tablets) I would have contacted them as well.
I am in no way saying Acute care is best, there are alot of animal products out there available at your local vets,online, infarm supply stores,or in some specialty stores. There are other brands like Bene-Bac. This is my way of trying to get you guys to use ANIMAL products and not reach for human acidophilus or other human products for your pets, especially in cases such as stasis where our buns are already having serious gut issues.

In the last few years, the seminars I have gotten to attent have brought up this issue more and more, too many people are reaching for the home remedies that aren't doing anything. Our animals will usually recover their bacteria on their own, but in some cases we need to help speed the process up and soothe the issue. Think of it as using a flea collar... If your pets wearing one and isn't getting fleas... well they werent going to get fleas even if they were not wearing the collar.

So here is the e-mail reply i gotin regards to the Acute Care (Easily available up here in canada from your vets, unsure of its availability in the US or other countrys) But there are many many many other products from other companies out there designed the same as the acute care. (Bene-Bac)

Thank you for contacting us with your question!

Giving probiotics is a sold and growing area of treatment. Companies like CentaurVA Animal Health (now Ceva Animal Health Canada) have been offering such proven treatment options for over 10 years with excellent results.

In a typical clinical trial progression, first a drug or a supplement is tested on a mouse, a dog, a cat and up the line. In order for a product to come to market it must have had positive results at each stage of testing.

Human pre-pro biotic tend to be of one source and do not address the whole digestive system.

Products like Acute Care are not just a pre-probiotic. It has been scientifically formulated for “immediate” or long term digestive support. Acute Care is a highly-palatable, fast-acting supplement for a wide range of animals as is contains a specialized yeast extract rich in mannanoligosacchardes (MOS) to remove mycotoxins, a rich mix of probiotics (seen to improve the beneficial bacterial count) enzymes, B-vitamins and N-acetyl glucosamine to assist in the repair of the intestinal wall.

A few products on the market today targeting a specific species tend to only have one beneficial bacterium without including added support to the digestive tract.

Acute Care was developed by Dr. Garry Pusillo and he is one of only a handful of board certified animal nutritionists in North America who has handpicked the ingredients within Acute Care as research show them to be beneficial in the treatment of digestive disorders.



I have attached two technical reports – one is an over view of Acute Care and the other is more in-depth on each of the ingredients.

If we have some confusing questions, I will pass them onto the company.
I want this to benefit our pets.
I will be trying to attach the 2 documents that were e-mailed to me.

 

[Watermelons]

Document was too large to post as a PDF sorry about it being in Text.
2nd Document

View attachment Acute Technical ReportF.txt

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree that animal probiotics are the best choice because they are designed for animals. The best choice is always something designed for the exact animal you are dosing. Unfortunately, these things aren't often available.

That probiotic you posted sounds really good. It has
Bacillus subtillis, Aspergillus oryzae, and oligosaccharides, and has N-acetyl glucosamine in one of the formulations, which aids in production of mucus to help intestinal transit.

It seems probiotics are now adding oligosaccharides to promote good bacterial growth and to absorb toxins. This makes them kind of like another product we like for GI issues--BioSponge.
http://www.platinumperformance.com/Small-Animal-Bio-Sponge0174-Syringes/productinfo/SBIOS1/
http://www.entirelypets.com/platbio15cc.html

The probiotics I recommend are Bene-Bac and Probios.

Bene-Bac contains lactobacillus casei, L. fermentum fermatation, L. acidophilus, L. plantarum , enterococcus faecium, bifidobacterium bifidum, and pediococcus acidilactici in the small animal formulation, which is preferred but only comes in 1 oz tubes or a powder that some animals won't eat.
http://www.petco.com/product/14786/PetAg-Small-Animal-Bene-Bac-Beneficial-Bacteria.aspx

The dog/cat version contains the same bacterial products in a different ratio but also oligosaccharides to promote good bacterial growth. It is sold in a large gel tube in addition to the small tubes and powder forms.
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=1231

I also like the ProBios products.
Their small pet formulation contains Enterococcus faecium, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, and Lactobacillus plantarum. This is most of the bacteria that are in Bene-Bac. Their dog and horse products also contain the same bacteria (except for the treats).
http://www.probios.com/exoticGels.html

Human probiotics are usually lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria, many of the same species found in the supplements above.

A lot of what you can find depends on where you are. Usually, a GI event comes up suddenly, and/or at night. Human pharmacies are open with longer hours and sometimes pet stores just don't carry these probiotics. I know that I have to get ProBios at a farm supply store, which many people don't have access to, or Bene-Bac at a specialty pet store. Overseas (UK and Europe) and in countries with less advanced veterinary medicine, different products are available, or none are available.

Human probiotics aren't great, but if you don't have a stash of the veterinary ones, they're better than nothing when you have a sick bunny.

 

[tamsin]

If your rabbit has a history of digestive issues or has developed them because of the antibiotics, one option is to switch to injectable antibiotics - because this by-passes the gut it usually by-passes the problem. It has practical issues though many vets will work with owners to teach them how to give injections at home and supply pre-filled syringes.

 

[Watermelons]

tamsin wrote:

If your rabbit has a history of digestive issues or has developed them because of the antibiotics, one option is to switch to injectable antibiotics - because this by-passes the gut it usually by-passes the problem. It has practical issues though many vets will work with owners to teach them how to give injections at home and supply pre-filled syringes.

If the rabbit is having gut issues it should still be put on a supplement to put good bacteria back into the gut regardless of how the antibiotics are given. The injectable abx are still killing the bacteria, its whattheir designed to do.

 

[tamsin]

Watermelons wrote:

tamsin wrote:

If your rabbit has a history of digestive issues or has developed them because of the antibiotics, one option is to switch to injectable antibiotics - because this by-passes the gut it usually by-passes the problem. It has practical issues though many vets will work with owners to teach them how to give injections at home and supply pre-filled syringes.

If the rabbit is having gut issues it should still be put on a supplement to put good bacteria back into the gut regardless of how the antibiotics are given. The injectable abx are still killing the bacteria, its whattheir designed to do.

Obviously if they are already having gut issues then it makes sense to give probiotics as part of treatment, and it doesn't hurt to give as a precaution even with injectable abs

The method of giving antibiotics (orally/topical/injectable/implanted beads etc.) effects how it spreads throughout the body and the effect it has on the gut. Giving antibiotics via injection can prevent the associated gut problems, for example that's why penicillin (used to treat syphilis) is only given by injection and that antibiotic eye drops aren't usually associated with gut problems.

 

[Watermelons]

FLORENTERO

For use in Dogs, Cats, small animals and more!
Yes this product is totally bunny safe.

Indication
Dietary product for dogs, cats, rabbits and ferrets to be used to restore normal and efficient intestinal bacterial flora in all cases of dysmicrobism due to: diarrhea, chronic motility disorders, dietary and climatic stress, intense competitive physical activity, environmental or dietary changes, pharmacologic treatments upsetting the normal intestinal bacterial flora composition, food intoxication and organic weakness following infectious and parasitic diseases of the GI tract.


http://www.florentero.com/en/hp_en.html

http://www.florentero.com/filemanager/img/brochure/Brochure_USA_FLORENTERO.pdf

Any vet should be able to order this product in for you and get you the correct dose.