Dr. Mercola Pet Probiotics Product and Knowledge

When it comes to the health of your pets – especially keeping their sensitive digestive systems happy and working well – there is one option that is finally receiving the recognition it deserves.

It's a solution that may provide the occasional gastrointestinal relief and daily support your cats and dogs need to help maintain their active lifestyle.

It’s also a healthy choice that gives you peace of mind, knowing you're taking the best possible care of your furry friends.

But getting here hasn't been easy...

The Answer to Your Pet's Bowel Health That Many Traditional Vets Don't Recognize

It's a fact: Bowel health is one of the top 10 reasons pet owners bring their pets to the vet for health care.

I see cats and dogs with less-than-optimal bowel health every day.

But it doesn't have to be this way...

You see, for years, holistic veterinarians like me have argued that supplementing your pet’s diet with probiotics is an essential way to help maintain and promote his optimal gastrointestinal health.

With a healthy GI system, your pet can potentially:

• Achieve peak strength, fitness, and vigor.
• Maximize optimum health and well-being no matter what stage of life they're in.
• Fully enjoy a rich life of companionship with you.

Supporting your pet's gastrointestinal health is a key factor in helping to make sure he is living the best life possible.

But traditional vets have long taken a very condescending view of probiotics.

Mainstream vets claimed that pet probiotics were "ineffective," "a waste of money," and that if taken, "they don't even pass through the gastric acids in your pet's stomach."

This kind of thinking may very well have contributed to the fact that bowel health still remains one of the top concerns voiced by pet owners today.

Thankfully, recent studies by traditional veterinarians themselves are supporting what I and my fellow holistic vets have known all along...

Probiotics Are the Beneficial Healthy Good Bacteria Your Cats and Dogs Need

In the past two years, exciting new research indicates that a complete pet probiotic can promote:

• Overall gastrointestinal maintenance and health.
• Faster promotion of gut health.
• Helps to cope with external stresses.

So how do probiotics do all this?

The term probiotics originate from the Greek word that means "for life." When ingested, these living microorganisms replenish the microflora in your pet's intestinal tract. This results in the promotion of a number of health-enhancing functions, including enhanced digestive function.

So why does your pet need these "health-enhancing functions?"

The answer is stress.

Just like humans, your pet encounters emotional and physiological stresses every day – and every one of these stresses can potentially affect her GI tract.

You see, as the largest immune barrier in her body, the gastrointestinal tract bears the brunt of these stresses.

Everything from eating sticks and grass to dietary changes experienced when being boarded or even just you being gone for the day can rock the delicate balance of good bacteria in your pet’s gut, which opens the door to less-than-optimal health.

Add to that, poor diet choices of highly processed pet foods as well as a stress-filled environment, and you can quickly understand why supporting your pet's immune system, healthy digestion and overall good health is so important.

Your Pet's Digestive and Immune Systems Want Your Help

With so many challenges to your pet's health and well-being, it's no wonder bowel health questions are among the most common we receive at the clinic.

But you can help...

You can help your pet's GI tract by supplementing his diet with probiotics that flood his system with the correct, beneficial bacteria, supporting his digestion, nutrient absorption, and overall health.

Research suggests that probiotic therapy is effective, safe, and a real way to promote total gastrointestinal health. And that's exactly why traditional veterinarians are finally agreeing that probiotics are beneficial for your pets.

As a result, the marketplace has been saturated with pet probiotics, which can make finding the right probiotic a real challenge.

All Pet Probiotics Are NOT Created Equal

If you're like most concerned pet owners, you have any questions of what to look for in a pet probiotic, including:

1. How many strains of beneficial bacteria does my pet need?
2. How many beneficial bacteria per gram are best?
3. Are the viability, potency, and purity of a probiotic important to know? If so, how do I assess these factors?

• How many strains of beneficial bacteria does my pet need?

  Probiotics are considered "beneficial" or "good" bacteria. There are many different kinds, or strains, of these bacteria. Each works to create a healthy balance in your pet's gastrointestinal system.

  Individual strands are helpful for maintaining overall health as well as uniquely responding to the variety of daily stressors, both emotional and physiological, that your pet encounters.

  Research shows that 10 or more strains are recommended for promoting optimal health.

  So if you find a pet probiotic product has one to two strains of bacteria – as is the case with many probiotics available today – that's fine. But, in my opinion, selecting a probiotic that has 10 or more beneficial strains is a much-preferred option.

  Why? The more beneficial strains you have in your probiotic, the better able they are to respond to the wide variety of stressors that can affect your pet's gastrointestinal system.

• How many beneficial bacteria per scoop are best?

• The potency of your probiotic is very, very important. Knowing how many beneficial bacteria per scoop it has will potentially tell you how effective it can be.

  As you know, your multivitamin can contain numerous vitamins and minerals, but if any of these ingredients are not included in at least the daily recommended allotment, their value may be limited.

  So even if your probiotic contains numerous strands of beneficial bacteria, you need to make sure it also contains a sufficient number of bacteria per scoop.

  Many products today contain between one and three million beneficial bacteria per scoop. This is OK, as any amount of probiotics can be helpful. However, in my opinion, if you really want to make sure you're promoting optimal health and well-being, you can do far better.

  Ideally, I believe you’ll want to find a probiotic formula with 20, 30, 40 million, or more beneficial bacteria per scoop.

• Are the viability, potency, and purity of a probiotic important to know?

• It’s important as a pet owner for you to be able to know and trust exactly what's inside that probiotics bottle.

  At best, you don't need to waste your time and money on products that don't have what your pet needs at the recommended potency. At worst, you cannot risk having "something" in there that is impure or could potentially be harmful.

  Recent research has shown that many probiotics simply do not live up to their labels. In more than 20 types of probiotics tested in one study, researchers found numerous instances of products that:

  • Did not contain at least 14 strains of bacteria.
  • Were contaminated with such things as mold.
  • Had misspellings of the bacteria included?
  • Misidentified the bacteria included with outdated names and/or "nonexistent" strands.
  • Did not have any live bacteria organisms, which are needed to be considered a probiotic at all.
  • Did not include the number of live bacteria that could be expected to be contained based on the expiration date.

  So how do I assess the viability, potency, and purity of a probiotic?

  In my opinion, the best way is to find a probiotic that is manufactured in a facility that has received international certification for meeting or exceeding GMP requirements.

  GMP, or Good Manufacturing Practice, regulations require that a manufacturer take proactive steps to help ensure their product is safe, potent, and pure, and that their manufacturing process is technologically adequate to avoid contaminations or errors.

  But how can you tell if a probiotic has been manufactured in a facility with a GMP certification?

  Because you will often not find this information on the label, you need to do your homework to make sure your selected probiotic has been produced in a facility that has this certification to help protect your pet by one of the highest standards in dietary supplementation.

To recap, as you look for the best in pet probiotics, you're looking for how many strands and how much bacteria per gram are available in the product and whether it is produced in a GMP compliant facility, which can help assure viability, potency, and purity.

Complete Probiotics for Cats & Dogs, a Probiotic Powerhouse that Packs 38 Billion Good Bacteria into EVERY Scoop

With my Complete Probiotics for Cats & Dogs, your pet will receive a minimum of 38 billion "good" bacteria in every scoop when used by the expiration date on the package.

Compare that to the competition's offering of one to three million, and you’ll realize there's no comparison.

Bringing together 14 of the most powerful strains of beneficial bacteria, our Complete Probiotics for Cats & Dogs is manufactured in a facility that has earned the GMP compliance certification and contains a special blend of the appropriate strains that are most effective for promoting optimal gastrointestinal health in your cats and dogs.

Unlike other probiotics you may have seen, each and every scoop of Complete Probiotics for Cats & Dogs contains:

1. Bifidobacterium lactis: a friendly bacteria often found in yogurt that is known to help support a healthy immune response.
2. Bifidobacterium animalis: a unique bacteria that promotes optimal health and intestinal well-being
3. Lactobacillus acidophilus: supports the health of your pet's entire digestive tract.
4. Bifidobacterium longum: keeps your pet's digestive system running smoothly by supporting proper digestion and bowel health.
5. Bifidobacterium bifidum: helps promote a healthy balance of flora in your pet's intestine. What's more, this organism is especially helpful for enhancing the immune response.
6. Lactobacillus casei: works with other helpful organisms and helps to encourage the growth of other "good" bacteria.
7. Lactobacillus Plantarum helps to ensure that the nutrients in vitamins and supplements are getting to your pet's cells.

Add to this three more potent strains, and you can see why I'm even more impressed with this concentrated pet probiotic formula:

1. Lactobacillus rhamnosus: assists your pet's elimination and occasional intestinal discomfort by working to stabilize her intestinal microflora.
2. Lactobacillus bulgaricus: works with other Lactobacillus strains to provide your pet with a potential source of dietary antioxidants.
3. Bacillus coagulans: You get 38 billion bacterial "buddies" ready to help support your pet's digestive tract and promote a natural balance of bacteria to this all-important area of her body.

The end results: You get 38 billion bacterial "buddies" ready to help support your pet's digestive tract and promote a natural balance of bacteria to this all-important area of their body.

Can Any Other Probiotic Nourish and Support Good Bacteria Like This?

Probiotics can put your pet on the path to better health as long as you choose one that delivers all that it claims.

However, as I have shown you, not all pet probiotics on the market are created equal.

Probiotic bacteria found in today's products vary significantly in composition, biological activity, and portion. Plus, as you've learned, how a product is manufactured can make a huge impact on its potency and, therefore, effectiveness.

To help you make sense of all the different options available to you, I've put together a chart so you can compare Complete Probiotics for Cats & Dogs to the other products out there.

More Reasons Why Complete Probiotics for Cats & Dogs is Right for You

Discover more reasons why Complete Probiotics for Cats & Dogs is the right choice for you and your pets, as it:

• Maintains your pet's ideal "good" to "other" bacteria ratio by promoting the optimal environment for the growth of good bacteria.
• Supports your pet's production of B vitamins, especially folic acid, biotin, and vitamin K.
• Promotes healthy metabolism.
• Helps your pet maintain appropriate bowel transit time.
• Supports your pet’s normal detoxification processes.
• Produces lactic acid for support of digestive processes and colon pH balance.
• Supports normal immune response.
• Helps promote oral health.

Trust Your Gut and Choose Complete Probiotics for Cats & Dogs for Your Pet's Health

Don't let less-than-optimal bowel health keep your pet from the good life she deserves. If you've never used a pet probiotic before, you can feel comfortable knowing you've made the right choice from day one.

You might not see it at first, but on the inside, your pet will be happier than ever. Help support the overall health of your pet, and order your supply of Complete Probiotics for Cats & Dogs today!