cyphix333

Seems like it's caught up in some legality mess: https://www.visbiome.com/blogs/visbiome-vs-vsl-3/note-to-healthcare-professionals-and-patients Without reading the whole page unsure if the same formula is still even made and is the one referenced in the study, and what the difference is between Visbiome and the below: https://www.vsl3.com/ But either way, that is a massive amount of CFU's haha - usable for dogs?

I guess we could try that, just didn't wanna underfeed her haha. Probably wouldn't be able to up it though because it would be too much fat I'd say.

Yes, by the sound of my post I agree But, as I said, the primary reason for looking into this was because of wanting to feed some food with a higher fat content and hence seeing if I could cut down on the amount fed. Why do I want to feed higher fat foods? Well it's not that I want to feed higher fat foods specifically, it's that there are certain products I want to feed her, but they are a bit higher in fat than I would usually like to see and hence the issue of seeing if I could feed less; and the other benefit of feeding a variety of foods.

Thanks. I realise there isn't any conclusive evidence at the moment, but there has been some anecdotal reports as well as varying other studies of them being helpful for certain things; and honestly there shouldn't be any harm in trying them out and seeing if they help your dog, if they do, great, if not then nothing lost? I checked out that link and the associated study, and came to pretty much the same conclusion, there is a lack of strong evidence to support probiotics, but that linked study isn't any evidence against them because of it's varied limitations, namely referencing many underpowered studies and also not having any information on the strains used, which make a BIG difference. Additionally, this study doesn't factor in the use of prebiotics as well. I also checked out some of the referenced studies regarding certain points, of which had some level of promise to them. Potential advantages to using VSL#3 strains for dogs with IBD: (Though study you referenced stated that "it took longer to achieve remission with probiotics compared with conventional treatment.") https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0094699 Stimulation of Immune Functions in young dogs with Enterococcus faecium: https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/133/4/1158/4688074 Also, just as an interest point, I found this study previously and it found an association between gut microbiome structure and dog aggression: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6330041/ Of note: "Consistently, the genus Lactobacillus was more abundant in aggressive dogs, while the genus Fusobacteria was more abundant in non-aggressive dogs (p < 0.05, q < 0.2). " However they do stress that further studies are needed against other dog populations and larger sample sizes. Just some other ones I found (if of interest): https://www.vetfolio.com/learn/article/clinical-benefits-of-probiotic-canine-derived-bifidobacterium-animalis-strain-ahc7-in-dogs-with-acute-idiopathic-diarrhea https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29212912/ http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-84782010001000019 Thanks. We actually did ask our vet recently and yeah, he basically said there isn't a lot of evidence so far. As for your dogs IBD, check out that study I posted above

I'm looking to add prebitoics/probiotics to our dogs diets and I know different dogs will get different results on different types, but I was just generally looking to see what others have had success with so I could then go on to read about each one further and see what one sounds best for our situation. If you have used on or are currently using one, what one do you use and what was the primary purpose for adding it to your dogs diet? Also, do you use it every day or say for a couple of weeks every few months to "maintain" a good balance?

Hey guys, just trying to understand how Kcals work and how much your dog should get etc... We've never really bothered in the past about how much Kcals are in the food, we just usually focus on how many grams we are giving them, but recently have started to wonder about the Kcals as some foods are a lot higher in Kcals compared to others and if this is the case it wouldn't be as much of a concern if we fed our dog (who is on a moderate fat diet) less of a food that has more fat I assume as long as it was meeting their required Kcals? So, using a few different Kcals calculators on the net I found I got varied results for how many Kcals they should be having, for example, our Shitzu x Maltese who is 6.2kg I got values between 334 - 375 Kcals per day, but the median seemed to be about 350. Now, calculating this out based on different foods they have it varied from the lowest at 750Kcals/1kg stating she should have 230g/meal! I found this amount unusually high, in the past we had been feeding her 125g/meal (have recently upped it to 150g of this one) of whatever food she had and her current weight is fine; our 5kg poodle states to give her 195g/meal, and I really don't see her eating this much, her weight is fine as well and she sometimes even leaves some left over when we feed her just 100g of this. Then we move into a higher calorie food that has 1325Kcals and it works out to 130g/meal for our Shitzu and 110g for our Poodle; so pretty close to what we have been feeding them. Now, getting to the crux of my question, is feeding my Kcals the correct way? Like, I'm confused, like, with the two examples above, the first one advises feeding almost twice as much as the higher Kcal one, and considering that BOTH foods are balanced, wouldn't they be getting far less nutrients with the higher kcal food since you are feeding far less of a balanced meal? So for example, for humans, if we ate based on Kcals, there is a LOT of calories in a chocolate cake, but we wouldn't be getting the nutrients we needed just by eating a chocolate cake simply because it met our required calorie intake - so same thing applies with dog food? Don't they need a certain amount in grams of a balanced meal to get the required nutrients despite of the Kcals? So, the primary point of this post as explained was wanting to feed our dog that is on a moderate fat diet other foods that are a bit higher in fat than we would usually give her as long as they are higher in calories and hence we wouldn't need to feed her as much and thus she would be getting around the same fat in total as her other meals. Thanks!

That's a shame. Yeah, as mentioned one of ours was a little trouble, completely hiding it inside the other food at first, then when it became more noticable it got a little harder, when there was a considerable amount of it one time I just hand fed most of it to her (which, was quite messy LOL); but she eventually got to eating it herself.

Been feeding Frontier for a few months now; though their fat content recently went up in their food, which was unfortunate as we try to keep one of our dogs on a moderate-fat diet. But, quality wise it's pretty awesome - one of our dogs who is a fusspot took a while to get her to eat it, had to slowly mix it into her other food so she could get a taste for it, but once it became more noticeable we had a few issues, but we eventually got her to eat it. Our other one who will eat a lot more things than her had no issues with it, it was looking like it was her fav thing to have, though recently, for whatever reason she seems to have gone off it.

Obviously dogs can have allergies to a huge range of things, but has anyone tried cutting out grains from their diets? Our dog used to have very very bad skin (chest, paws, ears all inflamed), she used to get injections from the vet as that was the only thing that helped, but we were advised it wasn't a good long term solution, then my sister who had a dog with similar issues cut grains out of his diet and it cleared it right up - we tried the same thing, and worked for us too - took a few weeks to completely go away, but she now has no issues with her skin.

We have been treating our dog with medications the Vet gave us but someone also suggested we try some homeopathic medication and gave us a few things to try via another Vet; we checked with our Vet (not a homeopathic one) and they said they should be fine to take. Anyway, not a big fan of putting a million different things into her body, especially since they weren't given to us specifically by our Vet, but at the same time we want to do everything we can to help her recover - just wary as they weren't exactly on her "treatment plan" as I said. Anyway, the homeopathic meds we got given were: Traumeel (tablets) Arnica (Pellets) Hypericum (Pellets) I did a lot of research on these items and they sound good, but I also have my concerns. I noticed Traumeel has both Arnica + Hypericum listed as ingredients, so are the extra pellets really necessary and I assume wouldn't cause an overdose? My research on Arnica states you should wait at least 15 mins AFTER using it to give food OR wait 15 mins after food to give them Arnica - but Traumeel contains Arnica and I don't see any such recommendations for this, in fact we were told to mix it WITH food. We actually did give her one tablet of Traumeel with food, so I hope that was ok!? Does anybody know the reason why you have to wait 15 mins either side? I have read that using the herb of Arnica (Wolf's Bane) or Hypericum (St. John's Wart) would be toxic to dogs, but this is different to using the homeopathic versions correct such as the ones listed above? A quote I read on Arnica was: It is unclear if this is just referencing the Herb or the homeopathic version as well!? I read these about Hypericum in another discussion I found: But it sounds like these points don't affect the homeopathic versions and only the herb? Lastly I also read this on Hypericum: Unclear if that is about the Herb only or Homeopathic versions as well, I think it's only regarding the herb - full article (first slide): https://www.pawculture.com/pet-wellness/natural/9-holistic-pet-treatments-you-should-skip/ Does anyone have much knowledge in this area and can give us any advice? Thanks very much!