If your pet’s gut, or gastrointestinal system, is disturbed and unbalanced, they will get sick easier and can feel permanently unwell.
Supporting the gut flora in cats and dogs
16 April 2020 — by Sara Roller
The gut is one of our most important organs. It’s not only responsible for digestion – a balanced and healthy gut flora has a major impact on our immune system and the health of other organs. A balanced gut flora is just as important for cats and dogs as for us humans.
Supporting your pet’s gut flora helps prevent and treat:
- Gastrointestinal infections
- Chronic or acute diarrhoea
- Flatulence
- Immune deficiencies and diseases
- Allergies
- Stress
- Parasite infections (for example Giardia)
It also assist treatment with antibiotics and other drugs as well as helps your pet in times of regeneration (for example after operations or serious illnesses). When the healthy balance of bacterial flora in the gut is disturbed, we call it dysbiosis or dysbacteriosis. Dysbiosis can result from gastrointestinal diseases such as diarrhoea, constipation, flatulence or chronic inflammation.
Antibiotika bei Hunden und Katzen - Fluch und Segen zugleich
Antibiotics – a blessing and a curse
The gut flora can also be disbalanced by the administration of certain drugs, such as antibiotics. Antibiotics, unfortunately, don’t only attach the “bad” bacteria and germs in the body, but also destroy the “good” bacteria that colonize the intestinal mucosa – the inner lining of the intestinal tract, more commonly known as the gut lining. In other words, dysbiosis can be a side effect of antibiotic treatment and manifest itself with symptoms of tiredness, diarrhea or flatulence. With some diseases, treatment with antibiotics can’t be avoided. This is why it’s all the more important to support your pet’s gut flora so it’s healthy and balanced at all times.
Other (vital) drugs can also have a negative impact on the gut flora and lead to an unbalanced gut flora, with the wrong bacteria or fungi colonising the gut lining. However, every pet reacts differently to medication and not all pets experience the side effects of the drugs. It’s best to first discuss with your veterinarian whether to start supporting the gut flora in parallel to, or after, a drug treatment. The vet can give good recommendations about how long to give your pet gut enhancement medication or supplements.
Plant-based, natural food supplements are mainly used to cleanse and strengthen the gut. You can support your pet’s gut health with herbs, prebiotics and natural intestinal bacteria (probiotics). A combination of natural ingredients and microcultures stabilizes the natural gut flora and strengthens the immune system.
FloraComplex: The food supplement that stabilizes the gut flora with a high concentration of probiotic cultures
After antibiotic treatment or other drug administrations that have a negative impact on the gut flora, your pet’s diet should be optimized with a high proportion of probiotic cultures and other immune-boosting supplements. The combination of natural ingredients and biological microcultures in FloraComplex acts to stabilize the natural gut flora. As FloraComplex contains a particularly high amount of probiotic intestinal cultures in each daily dose, it ensures that the cultures survive digestion and arrive where they’re supposed to: to the gut. The inulin (a prebiotic) in FloraComplex also ensures that the probiotic cultures can accumulate in the gut, as it promotes the growth of beneficial gut bacteria such as Enteroccus faecium while not supporting pathogenic (harmful) bacteria.
