Probiotics- what type?

I have a dog that will shortly be coming off a long (60 days) treatment of antibiotics for Lyme disease. I want to put her on Probiotics, but I hear so much conflicting info about what type is best...

Anyone care to share what THEY use, and why?

For the record- I use Animal Naturals Show Coat, which includes some, Obviously in powder form that is not refrigerated.

My first choice would be fresh (or frozen) green tripe

Otherwise I usually use a good quality one that I have on hand for myself. There are plenty of good brands, I prefer refrigerated ones.

I cannot find, unless I ship it in, green tripe locally.

I have heard that the refrigerated ones are better. Can you tell me why, and what to look out for? Guess it would not hurt me, either lol. IBD is not fun.

I give the dogs the same probiotics I take - Solaray in the past, currently Natures Made Primadophilis, have also used NOW (8 billion version). All are refrigerated.

In the past I have used regular ones made for humans. I have tried Forti-flora in the past and was not impressed (and after reading the ingredients I will NOT be using it again, ever). I have something right now that I got for Gavroche since he was on cephalexin, but again not happy with it. The human ones are the ones I have had the best luck with. That being said, the dog ones I used did not need to be refrigerated, the human ones did.

Logan can't have probiotics, except for whatever's in Showstopper. He gets diarrhea from all the others. No idea why. It sucks because he really benefits from an enzyme/prebiotic supplement, but most of them have probiotics in them as well.

Well, the probiotics are alive....so refrigerating keeps them fresher and more viable. There are plenty of shelved ones that may work and claim to be stable...but I dont know, doesnt really make sense to me. Short term sure, but not for long term storage.

Oh yeah- it's Showstopper not Show Coat lol. Thanks

So- a health store is going to be my best bet? I DID do the yoghurt from the store with LIVE cultures, but heard that was also not so good.

My vet (also my boss) has one available, but it is powdered, non-cold form. Not sure it is much better than Showstopper and it is SUPER expensive, even with my discount. Now, if it works the best, I don't mind paying...but I need to know it's the best, and I don't think this one is.

Thank you!

My favorite Joint supplement people make one now, but again, not refrigerated.

I use Dr.Mercola's http://shop.mercola.com/checkout/shoppingcart.aspx

Glad to hear this. We use Forti-flora at work and I've never noticed any benefit from it. Thought it was just me.

I'm interested to hear about other options, I'll be following this thread.

Most yogurts carried in stores are pretty processed and do not have as much activity as say a good homemade yogurt (or kefir is even better!) Also, with many dogs having lactose intolerance, even though most of the lactose in converted in the culturing, it can still bother dogs.

I've been using this daily for my GSD as she has an on and off problem with colitis.

http://www.renewlife.com/digestive-support-sensitive-stomach.html

I stopped using it for a while as I didn't think it mattered, but when she was off it she did end up with the colitis, and when I put her back on it I haven't seen another bout of it. If one of my dogs gets the runs I will give them a dose and it usually rights them pretty quickly. I haven't compared it to anything else, but it's worked for my purposes.

Ok makes sense.

What about a refrigerated after opening product like Missing Link?

I have heard good things about missing link.

Thank you all! I love forums for questions and answers like this.

Now...can I bring up PREbiotics? hehehehe

And the darn odds that we bring home TWO puppies housed together in Holland until 9 weeks, but only one (Asten) has Lymes. :yikes:

Payton is currently on Forti-flora. I hate that he's on it but I needed something right away, and it was slightly cheaper than Culturelle which was my other option. So far so good, no pudding poops at all since he's been on it, but I have yet to start loading him with training treats which may in fact be the culprit more than the need for a probiotic. I am looking to switch him off it onto something better though - I'm almost through the box so now is the time to switch.

There was a member here ages ago (Redeyre) who recommended a good one, particularly when people were switching onto raw, but I can't remember what it was and would have to go slogging through old posts to try and find it. It may have been Nature's Farmacy DOGZYMES but I can't swear for sure. =/

ETA: I just searched for DOGZYMES and yup, Nature's Farmacy is what she swore by. I may order some for Pay...

There is Nature's Farmacy West here in my town, we've fed the Dogzymes before. The base is Parmesan cheese, I think, though.

Again, a non-refrigerated product though. I think I still have some on the shelf (I don't throw ANYTHING away) let me look at it.

*Bump*

I've decided that Keegan needs probiotics and I'm trying to figure out what to get for him. Maybe other members have advice on this thread??

Well, after Payton ran out of the Forti-flora and then runny poo cropped right back up, I ordered the Digestive Enhancer from Nature's Farmacy. He's only been on it a week but so far I'm really happy with it. He hasn't even had poo-smelling farts like he sometimes would still get on Forti-flora. And no runny poo of course - we've even done some treat heavy training so I'm thrilled.
NO MORE RUNNY POO ON MY BEDROOM FLOOR YAY

When Zander was all messed up from Blue, we gave him Pre and Pro -biotics. One was a white bottle w/ pink/purple cap that we picked up at the local farmers store, the other was from the vet, powdered form. Also gave him the "A" one that you keep in the fridge.

Yeah, sorry, one of those days. But I hoped that helped somewhat! Lol. We also mixed in whole(!) yogurt.

I did notice he did very well on all of them. I was expecting at least a 2-3 month recovery time(#@*$ Sibes and their sensitive GI) and he was ship-shape in maybe one month.