A good gut feeling for your four-legged friend

Gut flora: Cats and dogs

The health of your four-legged friend is the most important thing for every cat and dog owner. It is therefore recommended to consider how an imbalance of the microbiome may be a contributing cause of various digestive problems that your pet may be having.

What does my pet's gut flora do?

The microbiome - i.e. the beneficial bacteria on and in the body, especially in the intestine - is not only centrally responsible for human health: Did you know that the well-being of cats and dogs also depends to a large extent on an optimal colonisation of the intestine?

The microbiome of cats and dogs fulfils vital tasks and is very similar to that of humans in composition and function. Among other things, the friends in the animal intestine are responsible for ensuring that food can be utilised and indigestible or harmful substances are excreted. Important vitamins, enzymes, antibiotically active substances and hormones are also produced by the intestinal bacteria, as are important short-chain fatty acids. These are particularly important for maintaining the health of the intestinal mucosa, as they supply its cells with energy. The intestinal mucosa itself forms an effective barrier against harmful substances and pathogenic viruses, parasites and germs, just as it does in humans. In addition, up to 80 % of all immune cells in the body are located in the intestine, which, together with the intestinal barrier, are of central importance for animal health.

Diarrhoea? Why?

Every pet owner has experienced their own four-legged friend struggling with intestinal problems, and often disturbed digestion results in diarrhoea. The animal's body tries to get rid of foreign or harmful substances as quickly as possible by emptying their intestines. The faeces are very soft to liquid, and sometimes also contain food residues or foreign substances. However, diarrhoea is usually a symptom of an existing problem - and often the reason for the digestive problems is that the animal's intestinal flora is out of balance.

What causes an imbalance in your pet's gut?

Think about your own intestines: When do you have problems? When your diet changes (e.g. when you resort to high-fat fast food due to lack of time), when you experience increased stress or when medicines such as antibiotics kill off not only the harmful germs but also the beneficial bacteria. The same applies to your pet!

Indigestion due to food

Diet-related diarrhoea is one of the most common complaints of the animal's digestive tract. Abrupt changes in food lead to diarrhoea and / or vomiting in up to 49% of cats: This is because the food also serves as food for the intestinal bacteria - and if this is changed, this deprives important microbes of their basis of life and the composition of the intestinal flora is disturbed. Feeding errors (spoiled food, too much sugar, fat or lactose) as well as food allergies often cause digestive problems in our four-legged friends.

New home or new owner

When the familiar environment changes, this can cause great stress to animals. A change of location (e.g. due to a move of the owner, accommodation in a boarding kennel, etc.) or a new caregiver (due to a change of owner) often trigger diarrhoea in cats and dogs. Diarrhoea is especially common in puppies and kittens after nursing, because at this time the young animals are often separated from their mother, experience a new home with new owners and become accustomed to normal food - many changes that can stress the soul and intestines.

Antibiotics: Clear-cutting in the gut

Antibiotics are a "magic bullet" for both humans and animals when it comes to fighting harmful germs. Unfortunately, however, these drugs cannot distinguish between good and bad bacteria, and so every antibiotic therapy destroys the useful "helpers" in the animal intestine as well. The result: pathogenic germs (e.g. Clostridium perfringens, salmonella) can spread almost unhindered and not only trigger diarrhoea, but also permanently change the composition of the intestinal flora, so that the intestinal bacteria are permanently impaired in carrying out their tasks.

Probiotics: Highly active bacteria for the animal gut

Many problems the animal has with their intestines are due to dysbiosis. This is the term used to describe the condition when the healthy composition of the beneficial intestinal bacteria is disturbed. In order to restore the balance in the intestine and get rid of diarrhoea, scientifically tested probiotics with bacteria that are especially suitable for animals are ideal. For acute as well as chronic intestinal diseases, probiotics are a sensible measure that has been scientifically tested in detail and clearly classified as safe. For cats and dogs, Enterococcus faecium DSM 10663/NCIMB 10415 and Lactobacillus acidophilus CECT 4529 are two special bacterial strains that support the animal intestine in several ways: Both bacterial strains improve the consistency of the faeces by, among other things, reducing the water content in the faeces - which is why their use in diarrhoea makes sense in any case. In addition, they are able to regulate the pH value in the intestine in such a way that an optimal habitat is created for the entire beneficial microbiome and pathogenic germs (e.g. enterotoxic Escherichia coli (ETEC), salmonella, shigella and clostridia) do not feel at home and are displaced.  In this way, the bacterial balance in the intestine is regulated in a natural way - which is why these two probiotic bacterial strains are also called intestinal flora stabilisers.

Get diarrhoea under control

The positive effects of probiotics in animals are clearly confirmed in studies: A research study in 51 dogs showed that the probiotic administered was able to stop diarrhoea 1.6 times faster than the placebo. And probiotics also show the same effect in cats: compared to the placebo group, in which every fifth cat suffered from diarrhoea for more than 2 days, the probiotic was able to significantly reduce the frequency of diarrhoea by 64 %. Just as for humans, it is already known for cats and dogs that the positive effect of specially selected probiotic strains is not limited to the digestive tract, but rather benefits the entire organism: It has been proven that probiotics also have a positive influence on the animal's immune system, metabolism (blood fat and blood sugar levels) and inflammation of the urogenital area.

Prebiotics: Dietary fibre as food for bacteria

Both animal and human intestines are colonised by several hundred different strains of bacteria. However, a large proportion of these useful intestinal inhabitants react extremely sensitively to oxygen and can therefore not be supplemented so easily in the form of a probiotic. But there is another way to specifically promote the growth of these bacteria, namely with special dietary fibres - the food and life basis of our intestinal bacteria.

These so-called prebiotics are certain carbohydrate compounds that are not absorbed in the intestine but are available exclusively to the intestinal bacteria as an energy supplier: The dietary fibres are metabolised by the bacteria and, among other things, converted into important short-chain fatty acids (e.g. butyrate). These are particularly important for the intestinal barrier because they promote the formation of healthy intestinal cells - so the intestinal barrier remains stable and keeps harmful substances and disease-causing germs from entering the animal body. Furthermore, it has been clearly demonstrated that the administration of dietary fibre also promotes the growth of several beneficial bacterial species, namely bifidobacteria and lactobacilli - a valuable contribution to keeping the bacterial colonisation of the intestine in a healthy balance.

Defence support

For cats and dogs, the so-called mannose oligosaccharides (called "MOS" for short) have proven to be particularly useful. The regular use of MOS not only increases the number of important bacteria species and the production of short-chain fatty acids, but also supports the animal's immune system: these special prebiotic dietary fibres have the special ability to prevent pathogenic, harmful germs such as Escherichia coli and Salmonella strains from adhering to the intestines - pathogens can no longer remain in the animal's body and are excreted when the faeces are discharged.

A good gut feeling for your four-legged friend!

OMNi-BiOTiC® CAT & DOG

What makes OMNi-BiOTiC® CAT & DOG so special?

Just like in humans, the intestine is also the seat of health in animals. OMNi-BiOTiC® CAT & DOG is an innovative probiotic specially developed for cats and dogs to stabilise the sensitive animal intestinal flora. As with our products for human owners, the proven OMNi-BiOTiC® quality is the top priority in OMNi-BiOTiC® CAT & DOG: two strains of bacteria specially suited and scientifically tested for cats and dogs - Enterococcus faecium DSM 10663/NCIMB 10415 and Lactobacillus acidophilus CECT 4529 - which are particularly well-suited to stabilising the intestinal flora, are combined in OMNi-BiOTiC® CAT & DOG.