[DieselJunki]

Should you give both or just one?

http://probiotics.mercola.com/probiotics-for-pets.html
The Probiotic I’ve been looking at.

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/digestive-enzymes-for-pet.aspx
The Digestive Enzymes I’ve been looking at.

[NectarMom]

I give enzymes on their food in the morning 1/8 cup of food and in the evening I give probiotics on their food 1/8 cup of food. Each one comes with a tiny scoop and I give 1/2 scoop of each on the food every day because their food already has some of each in it. It is working well for all 4 of my girls. I have 3 chihuahuas and an imperial shihtzu so small dogs. I even bought myself probiotics and enzymes from Mercola ….great products!

[InkedMarie]

I used both and both are Mercola products.

[brooklynp221]

I give a pet nutritionist’s (Ask Ariel) probiotic to my Brooklyn. Here is a link:
http://www.askariel.com/product-p/81.htm

[Mom2Cavs]

I have some favorites:
Wholistic Pet Digest All Plus (pre/probiotics/enzymes)
Ark Naturals Gentle Digest (pre/probiotics)
Fresh Digest or Optagest (same product, different name, prebiotics/enzymes)
Mercola Probiotics
Vetri-Science Mega Probiotics (pre/probiotics)
Hoistic Solutions (pre/probiotics/enzymes)
Naturvet (pre/probiotics/enzymes)
Nature’s Farmacy has some good supplements, too, that I like

[DogFoodie]

I give both Mercola probiotics and digestive enzymes to my dogs. I use their human versions of both myself with great results. My digestive issues have improved significantly!

[Mom2Cavs]

Wanted to note that in my reply above I listed some of my favorite products that I’ve used with success for my dogs over the years. I didn’t list Mercola enzymes for mine (even though I feel it is a good product) because they use animal based enzymes and not plant based. My dogs do better on plant based, it seems.

Oh, and I think the site Ask Aerial has some good looking products. I just haven’t got around to ordering any from her. I’m pretty sure she has a Cavalier, too, lol!

[brooklynp221]

My holistic vet told me to use the Ask Ariel probiotic because he has had several cats and dogs with diarrhea that did well with it. Brooklyn is really picky about supplements, and this is easy because I can just open the capsule and put it in her food.

http://www.askariel.com/product-p/81.htm

[MindyH]

I admit to being rather unhealthy in my own diet, therefor when our lab suffered food allergies and everyone was recommending probiotics I was at a loss. For this reason I visited numerous sites similar to DOG FOOD ADVISOR. I basically read reviews and comments of dog owners giving advice. I found a family experiencing the identical conditions our 8 year old lab was dealing with and followed their instructions to a T, luckily they where nice enough to respond to my comment with a detailed post. I try and share the 2 basic areas when I see it may be helpful. The first is use a supplement that contains the enzymes Aspergillus oryzae and, Aspergillus niger, ( I use the VitaHound dog supplement) but I have friends using other brands that contain the enzymes and they work the same. Second Feed a home prep diet of 50% of vegetables, 40% of meats and 10% of carbohydrates using three basic sources eg. chicken, rice, carrots. After 30 days, continue with dog supplement and discontinue the home made feedings to a quality dog food. BEST OF LUCK, our dog is allergy free, happy and healthy and I have read many thank yous over the years for passing on the wisdom.

[InkedMarie]

Mindy, I am not a guru on home prepared foods but I don’t think a food with only 40% meats but with 50% vegetables is healthy. I’ll wait for someone who knows to chime in. I may be wrong.

[Hound Dog Mom]

I agree with Marie – I would say you want at least 50% meat. Ideally 70% – 90% meat and 30% – 10% vegetables. No grains.

[theBCnut]

Wouldn’t that be something like 8-10% protein? That’s horrible! Not to mention extremely unbalanced.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the recommendation Mindy, I recently sort of inherited a dog. The poor thing itched until her skin was raw, I first believed it was nerves, however the condition continued. I visited VitaHound.com and decided to use their dog supplement. I have only been adding it to her food for the past 10 but it is providing relief. I truly think this stuff is going to continue to work. I will report back and pay it forward for the helpful advice.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the recommendation Mindy, I recently sort of inherited a dog. The poor thing itched until her skin was raw, I first believed it was nerves, however the condition continued. I visited VitaHound and decided to use their dog supplement. I have only been adding it to her food for the past 10 but it is providing relief. I truly think this stuff is going to continue to work. I will report back and pay it forward for the helpful advice.

[Mom2Cavs]

I’ve been using a new digestive supplement for mine from Herbsmith and I’m liking it alot! It’s called Microflora Plus. It comes in a capsule and contains pre/prob/enzymes along with some herbs that help with digestion like cinnamon, ginger and licorice. I just open a capsule and divide it among all 3 at each meal. It seems to be helping everyone, especially Laverne (who is my allergy prone dog).

[theBCnut]

That sounds interesting!

[Anonymous]

FYI Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus oryzae are species of fungi that are used as source organisms to derive enzymes from. Many digestive enzyme supplements come from fungal sources. Fungal enzymes are often stable over a much wider pH range than, for example, the animal-sourced enzymes. The enzymes may be on your labels as something like “Dried aspergillus oryzae fermentation extract” because of AAFCO labeling requirements. http://enzymesolutionsforanimalhealth.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/dried-aspergillus-what/

[Kathy H]

I cannot recommend Vitahound probiotics! I started my dog on these and increased it gradually. In fact I never got past one scoop. She had pancreatitis and recovered but wasn’t really wanting to eat. She finally started eating and I added the Vitahound back into her diet gradually. She began throwing up again. I took her back to the debt and she was tested and he did not have pancreatitis. She was put on prescription canned food. The next three weeks every time she had but a hound in her food she threw up. I hate to say it took me that long to figure it out it took me that long to figure it out but it did. She has been off Vitahound for four days and has not thrown up once. I do believe this is been the cause of her vomiting and as a result, very expensive vet that bills

[Author]

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