Is it better to give a probiotic to your pet with or without food and why? Learn more about how to properly supplement your pawed pal.
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So you're new to supplementing your pawed pal with probiotics and the directions on how to give them are not clear, or maybe they suggest with or without food.
How do you know when is the best time to give them? What about if your pet is on antibiotics? Should you skip the probiotics and resume later?
To be frank - there is no single golden rule but there are some good things to keep in mind. |
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If your pet's gut health supplement contains only probiotics, it is best to be given away from food as probiotics will pass through the stomach quickly when no food is present. Some will suggest that stomach acid, from an empty stomach, will kill probiotics, but if the probiotics are spores (bacillus strains) they are acid resistant.
Another good option is to give probiotics to your pet with a small amount of food such as coating the capsule with peanut butter or folding it into a healthy snack.
Choosing something healthy like hummus or peanut butter for a snack to give probiotics (rather than a kibble treat) is ideal as processed foods can actually feed bad gut bacteria.
The highest quality probiotics are provided in capsule form and oftentimes, such as in the case of our Restore M3® probiotic, they are enteric encapsulated and acid resistant.
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Probiotics paired with Prebiotics
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If your supplement contains both prebiotics and probiotics, it's actually best to be given with food. Why is that? The reason for this is that prebiotics help clear our space for the probiotics to adhere to the gut lining. They also help to feed good bacteria and give the probiotic microbes a good chance of staying and proliferating in the gut.
The same is true for products containing digestive enzymes which most certainly should be given with food as the enzymes assist with breaking down the nutrients in your dog or cat's meals. Supplementing digestive enzymes take the stress of digesting food off of their own digestive enzyme producing organ (the pancreas and gallbladder).
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What about when Your Pet is Taking Antibiotics?
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When administering antibiotics to your pet it is important to still give probiotics. Antibiotics kill off bad pathogenic bacteria, however they also kill good microbes too.
When you give antibiotics make sure to supplement them at a separate time than probiotics. A good rule of thumb is to space them apart from each other. Give the probiotics 4 hours after you give the antibiotics to replenish any good bacteria that is killed off in the process of knocking out the bad bacteria. |
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