Probiotics – or good bacteria – are live organisms which live in your dogs gut. These beneficial bacteria play a number or roles which support your dogs’ general digestive health. This includes assisting in food digestion, producing key vitamins, reducing the pH of the gut, produce enzymes, produce fatty acids which discourage growth of harmful bacteria as well as producing serotonin which influences mood.

Prebiotics – essentially these are a type of fibre which feed the good bacteria (probiotics) in your dogs gut. These generally come in two forms, soluble fibre and resistant starch. Soluble fibre, as the name suggests, forms a hydrated mass with water. When this passes through the gut it is almost completely fermented by the bacteria present in the gut. Resistant starch passes through the small intestine unchanged as it is resistant to the enzymes present there. Once it reaches the colon it is fermented by the bacteria residing there supporting their colony.

Support of the Immune System – as the bacteria digest the prebiotics they produce short chain fatty acids. These will either remain in the colon or travel into the body via the bloodstream. These short chain fatty acids play a diverse role supporting your dogs health – feed friendly gut bacteria and discourage growth of harmful bacteria, reduce glucose level, build T-cells in the immune system, protect against food allergens, enhance body’s ability to absorb magnesium, calcium and other essential nutrients.

As these probiotics support your dogs overall immune system there are a number of conditions which can be supported by supplementing your dogs’ diet with probiotics. For example dogs prone to yeast infections, urinary tract infections, diarrhoea, obesity, allergy problems or mood disorders. Moreover, bacterial populations in your dogs’ gut can be affected by antibiotic therapy, toxins, ageing as well as a high starch diet or high fat diet. Supplementing with good quality probiotics can help alleviate these bacterial population shifts.

The type and form of probiotics you chose to supplement your dog with will largely depend upon the reason for supplementing as well as the length of treatment you are looking to give.

For short term digestive upsets the most popular products are generally in paste form. With handy dial-a-dose syringes products such as Protexin Pro-Kolin or Canikur Pro-Paste provide probiotics as well as binding agents to help support digestive function and quickly return your dogs digestive health to normal. These products are ideal to keep on hand for those occasions where your dog is suffering a short term digestive upset.

For longer term supplementation pelleted forms to add to their daily food ration offer a convenient way to ensure your dog has the correct amount of fibre as well as probiotics to maintain their gut health. Fibor contains five different fibre sources to ensure effective gut function. Protexin Pro-Fibre contains a pelleted form of probiotica as well as soluble and insoluble fibre. There are also tablet forms available which can be useful in order to ensure that the correct amount is given for your particular dog as well as ensuring they get the complete amount which cannot always be guaranteed when supplementing in the daily food ration.