What You Need To Know About Probiotics For Cats

From immune function to elimination of toxins, the bacterial balance in the gut can affect almost all aspects of your health, especially brain function. So this is why it is essential to maintain a balanced and diverse microbiome for good health and to keep those bad bacteria away.

Let’s try to understand the other side of our microbiome makeup, which is the bad bacteria we need to address and the purpose of providing probiotics for cats.

Our Recommendations

Probiotics for Cats Reviews

1. Purina Pro Plan FortiFlora Probiotic
2. Premo Probiotic for Cats
3. PetUltimates Probiotics for Cats
4. MaryRuth’s Cat Liquid Probiotics
5. Pet Naturals of Vermont
6. Nexabiotic Probiotic for Cats

Powder form probiotic supplements:

1. Purina Pro Plan FortiFlora Cat Probiotic Supplement

You’ve got what it takes to restore your cat’s digestive system and health with Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets FortiFlora Feline Probiotic Supplement. This safe and effective probiotic powder supplement is said to be formulated for managing adult cats and kittens’ diet in the event of diarrhea.

For immune support, Fortiflora for cats contains antioxidants in each dose. Each packet contains a level of live microorganisms to help promote intestinal microflora. You can follow your veterinarian's advice when using FortiFlora Feline Probiotic Supplement. The producer behind this probiotic product is a member of the NASC. So this means you’re in good hands using this one.

2. Premo Probiotic for Cats

This probiotic has a concentrated formula that combines both the latest research and clinical studies specifically formulated for cats. Premo Pet Probiotic for cats is made at a USA Certified Natural Products Association (NPA) and an Approved Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility. It contains the selected researched and tested species of beneficial bacteria that makes your cat healthy.

These are Bifidobacterium animalis lactis, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, Lactobacillus salivarius, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus reuteri.

3. Pet Ultimates Probiotics for Cats

With Pet Ultimates Probiotics for cats, each tasty serving is said to contain a total of five billion good gut bacteria that are known to promote regular digestion and renewed vitality.

Among the benefits are reduced shedding, less smell in the litter box, firmer stool, and more!

The healthy microorganisms in this probiotic supplement guard the feline colon against toxic bacteria and other harmful microorganisms.

This is made in the USA at a certified GMP lab, so you can trust Pet Ultimates Probiotics for Cats to help keep your pet’s digestive system healthy, whether they've had issues as long as you can remember or just need a little extra help recovering from a recent round of Amoxicillin.

Liquid form probiotic supplements:

4. MaryRuth’s Cat Liquid Probiotics

MaryRuth’s Cat Liquid Probiotics is a USDA certified supplement. It increases your furry friend’s natural resistance to infectious disease in the gastrointestinal tract. Optimizing your cat’s digestive processes to allow more nutritional benefit from the food. As for cases like diarrhea, this liquid probiotic will help with the bowel movement.

While the digestive tract benefits from this, your cat’s immune system will also improve, being able to resist food poisoning and be able to tolerate lactose substances.

Other benefits include:

• Improving cholesterol levels
• Improving liver function
• Increase energy levels
• Can help with weight loss
• Fight yeast and fungal infections

Chew form probiotic supplements:

5. Pet Naturals of Vermont

The Pet Naturals of Vermont contains probiotics that also support good, functioning digestion and immune system health of your cat.

This chew supplement is said to be an extremely durable probiotic, containing bacillus coagulans that supports digestion by stimulating the growth of a wide spectrum of enzymes and boosting the ability of the cat’s system to eliminate bad bacteria.

Taking one chew a day is recommended for dealing with daily stress and regular digestive issues.

Among other ingredients, the product contains natural duck flavor, rosemary extract, aloe vera gel concentrate. Even when we’ve recommended this one, when you’ve decided to use this supplement, you can consult your vet to see if they approve it for your cat.

Capsule form probiotic supplements:

6. Nexabiotic Probiotic for Cats

DrFormulas Nexabiotic probiotic for cats can help treat your pet’s diarrhea and maintain healthy intestinal health. This probiotic contains a proprietary blend of 23 different probiotic strains and is clinically proven to support regular bowel movements and feline health.

These include Saccharomyces boulardii, B. animalis lactis (formerly named B. infantis), Lactobacillus acidophilus, S. thermophilus, L. rhamnosus LB3, and L. brevis. This probiotic has been made in an FDA and GMP inspected facility. You can also choose Nexabiotic to help keep your cat healthy and happy.

What is good vs. bad gut bacteria

It’s said that around 85% of normal gut bacteria is made up of beneficial bacteria. It consists of the species we want to keep in the gut due to the functions it makes such as breaking down food to convert it into energy, as well as absorbing vitamins. The rest that makes up 15%, however, is made up of potentially unfavorable bacteria. The bacteria that can cause any disease if its production gets out of hand.

Once we maintain a good balance of the right bacteria, maintaining the 85:15 ratio, that’s when we call it the state of eubiosis, which is a good state to be in. Your cat’s digestive enzymes fully function even during moments when you expect them to catch another gastrointestinal complication.

However, the state in which there are more unfavorable bacteria that do more harm than good on your health is known as dysbiosis. So what we’ll learn from this is how we can maintain your cat’s state of eubiosis.

What happens if my pet's gut bacteria get out of balance?

Immune reactions provoked by an imbalance in intestinal bacteria can seriously compromise your pet's health.

Signs of an unhappy gut

When your microbiome is upset by stress, what makes your gut more unhappy or upset will be any form of illness even close to the gastrointestinal system, infection, and a diet that is high in refined sugar.

What happens when there is an imbalance in gut bacteria is a wide variety of digestive issues associated with other problems, including:

• Indigestion
• Constipation
• Diarrhea vomiting
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Bloating
• Brain fog
• Allergies
• Fatigue

So an overgrowth of bad intestinal bacteria can contain proteins that your cat's immune system may associate for healthy bacteria, which can lead to these problems.

Can any of these conditions develop in your cat? Unfortunately, yes, but it’s not too late to regain balance in your cat’s gut health.

How to get your cat's gut health back in balance

At the height of any sickness and intestinal complications, it’s best to have good bacteria be replaced when destroyed by any of the complications mentioned above. Probiotics help to replace destroyed good bacteria especially when an event of the use of antibiotics may have taken place in your cat’s life.

Probiotic bacteria not only hinder the progress of bad bacteria, it also helps keep your cat's gut mucosal lining at its optimum health.

When your cat’s intestinal lining seems unhealthy, it becomes more susceptible to pathogens, which can develop into a disease in the long run.

If your pet is going through any of the above complications and has not tried administering a probiotic, it might be the best time to learn about the intervention to administer it as early as now.

What are probiotics for cats?

The strength of our pets’ immunity also highly depends on how healthy their gut is. A lot like us humans, even cats need to maintain a level of health within their gut as bacteria coming from the gut can form into diseases when we’re not too careful with our cat’s diet and health maintenance.

So keeping our cat’s gut balanced with an array of good bacteria is becomes the right way to ensure that your special feline’s immunity stays strong and healthy.

One possible way to keep your cat’s gut health is by supplementing your furry feline’s diet with probiotics for cats. Probiotics contain friendly or good bacteria that help to regulate your cat’s digestive tract which will then improve their overall health.

Good bacteria are live microorganisms believed to help prevent a variety of illnesses coming from the gut, especially diseases that are related to the intestinal system.

But how do you know if your cat needs probiotics? Which kind should you give to your cat, and how often should you administer them?

What are the types of probiotics for cats?

If you go shopping for probiotics for cats, you don’t have to look too hard to find a wide range of choices. When it comes to probiotics for cats, you’ll observe that the probiotics most stores have are in powder, liquid, chew and in capsule form.

Cat probiotics in powder form are often the easiest way for your cat to consume during their meals as it easily settles into your cat’s system.

Other forms include dry cat food and supplements. However, powder form seems to work best when considering the item’s shelflife, while they remain packed with the most live cultures per scoop.

Any probiotic that is easy to add to your cat’s food is usually odorless and tasteless, so you need not have to worry about your cat’s smell and taste preferences or having your cat adapt to the changes in their diet once administering probiotics. As for other types, you can also get probiotics in capsule form.

Does it matter which you choose?

Yes, it does matter!

With a lot of forms of probiotics in the market, surely the ones contained in a metal can couldn’t even survive the canning process. So it’s okay to opt-out of using any canned food claiming to contain probiotics.

Even probiotics in pet food form are typically formulated and packaged to have a longer shelf life. So rather than purchasing a pet food with probiotics, you can opt for purchasing a probiotic supplement that has not been sterilized and possess a shorter shelf life.

As you make your choice of probiotics, it’s best we recommend consulting your vet before moving forward with your choice to add to your cat’s diet, especially if you’re trying to aim for a specific health concern.

Besides elaborating on the forms of probiotics for cats that you can check from providers or store owners near you, we’ve also got great recommendations you can choose from!

What are the possible side effects?

Thankfully, any adverse effects of probiotics seem to be rare in cats. However, while we’re tempted to try any brand that may work on our feline, it’s always wise to choose the one that best suits your cat’s gut.

While supplement industries are loosely regulated, we do recommend products that have the NASC Quality Seal or label as NASC Preferred Suppliers are pre-qualified companies that supply products and services that are safe to accept and use without additional vendor qualifications and procedures.

This program helps to ensure total quality standards in the products they approve of. So you can check any product before purchase for the Quality Seal once you decide on getting feline probiotics.

The National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the health of domesticated animals such as cats and dogs. For as long as you see the NASC Quality Seal on a certain product, you can trust that it comes from a reputable company that has successfully passed NASC’s audit.

Other labels which tell you that a product is certified, safe and effective to use once you consider purchasing it, are:

• USDA certified
• Made and/or inspected in a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) facility under the NSF guidelines
• Made in a Certified Natural Products Association (NPA) Facility
• Vet approved

What are the benefits of probiotics for cats?

When using the appropriate probiotics for cats onto your feline friend, the substance packed with good bacteria will stimulate a variety of anti-inflammatory cytokines, help modulate the immune system, restore the function of the digestive system, reduce any production of pathogenic bacteria.

The right probiotics help stop the course of diarrhea through boosting the growth of friendly bacteria, which in time should improve your cat’s digestion, and then strengthen their immunity.

What positive effects to expect from giving probiotics to my cat?

The positive effects you can expect your cat to benefit from the probiotics is a balanced population of gut bacteria that matches the 85:15 friendly vs. bad bacteria ratio.

The right probiotics for cats can help alleviate any intestinal complications such as acute diarrhea and stress-related diarrhea. It may even work to improve diarrhea associated with antibiotics, which pose a risk for cats that already have an unstable gut.

Long-term administration may beneficially improve the immune system, which can tackle chronic diseases.

As you move forward with your choice, your cat will experience fewer clinical signs of digestive upset, such as having a decreased appetite, vomiting, potential of experiencing undesirable stool changes or the development of diarrhea.

How long do Probiotics take to work in cats?

Any probiotic that makes a subtle impact on your cat can take some time to start working. While minor improvements of your cat’s digestive system might be observed during the first 3-5 days, you’ll really start to see the full effects after your cat has been on it for a week or two.

How to give Probiotics to your cat?

What affects gut health can be any disease, that we know for sure. However, there’s also an intervention that may compromise your cat’s gut health as well, and that’s antibiotics.

You see, they are notorious for wiping out healthy gut flora, which is the gastrointestinal makeup your cat needs to strengthen their immunity. In order to combat this, some veterinarians even recommend giving your pet cat a daily dose of probiotics when antibiotics have been consumed in order to help repopulate the good bacteria in the digestive tract.

In order to administer a dosage, it’s best to follow the directions that come with the probiotics. Either it’s been prescribed by a vet or packaged as probiotic supplements that you can purchase from the store, the quantity of doses and the frequency of giving that dose per day needs to be followed for best results.

Best results also mean a minimum to no side effects for your furry friend’s experience in boosting their gut health.

Final Thoughts

Choosing to use a cat probiotic for your furry friend will do wonders for their digestive health and overall well-being! Just make sure that before giving your cat probiotics, make sure to have received that suggested supplement from your veterinarian or you've definitely done your research and have found a reputable brand.

After all, probiotic products aren’t a one-size-fits-all remedy for all cats. So we better make sure that the right one is a good fit for your pet!