What are probiotics? What are the functions?
Probiotics is a general term for beneficial active microorganisms hosted in the intestinal tract of animals. People and animals can supplement probiotics to improve gastrointestinal problems, but you will find that the common probiotics on the market are divided into human probiotics and pet probiotics, why? That's because people and animals have different gastrointestinal structures, such as dogs with short intestines, which are suitable for different probiotics. So far, scientists have found that probiotics can be roughly divided into three categories, different types of probiotics are divided into different strains, each strain in the gastrointestinal role is also different.
Function: Probiotics can effectively inhibit the damage of pathogenic bacteria to the intestinal tract of dogs, repair and rebuild the intestinal biological barrier, improve the immunity of dogs, and promote the absorption of nutrients.
Therefore, it is necessary for dogs to take probiotics.
Which dogs need probiotics?
① When the dog has vomiting and diarrhea, it will cause the loss of probiotics in the body, which may cause the imbalance of intestinal flora.
② During the period of antibiotic treatment, the body can not recognize the beneficial bacteria, which will affect the intestinal balance of the dog. That's why dogs lose their appetite when they're recovering from illness. Supplementing probiotics
at these times can help dogs re-establish the balance of intestinal flora and maintain gastrointestinal health.
How to choose probiotics?
Now there are more and more pet probiotics on the market. Faced with a wide range of probiotics, how can we choose good probiotics?
① Activity of probiotics (amount of viable bacteria)
Active probiotics can increase the number of bacteria in the intestinal flora of dogs, increase the diversity of intestinal bacteria in dogs, promote the "precocity" of intestinal microorganisms in dogs, and establish a relatively stable intestinal colony structure. The active bacteria of a high-quality probiotic for dogs should ensure that there are billions of them.
② Different strains
of probiotics can determine the overall role of probiotics. In the selection of probiotics, it is necessary to carefully look at the ingredients list. The best strains are Bifidobacterium animalis, Lactobacillus plantarum, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei and Bacillus subtilis. Some brands also add fructooligosaccharides. At the same time, it can also regulate the balance of microflora in the intestinal tract of animals.
③ Activity-preserving technology (production process)
Some brands have developed probiotics with freeze-dried powder carrier, which can maintain high activity of bacteria and multi-layer embedding technology to resist the erosion of gastric acid and bile.
How to use probiotics?
There are three ways to eat probiotics, adding them to food, taking them with warm water and eating them directly.
Convenience: direct consumption > added to food > warm water is definitely the most convenient to
open the bag to eat, the first choice for urgent use. The most convenient way is to eat it directly. According to Doggy's mother's observation, dogs are willing to eat it directly most of the time, but it may taste a little dry, or sometimes they are not willing to eat it directly because of their poor appetite.
Palatability: Add to food > take with warm water > eat
directly. It can be observed that dogs prefer to eat when added to food!
Residue: Take with warm water < add to food < eat
directly Relatively speaking, taking with warm water is the most complete way to eat probiotics without any residue. The other two have more or less enzyme bacteria left in the bowl.
Three ways to eat, from the dog's point of view, it is definitely the best to add to the food; but Doggy's mother, from the point of view of the shoveling officer, thinks that it is best to take it with warm water. Although feeding will be a little troublesome, it needs to be stirred with warm water below 40 ℃, but this way of feeding is the most accurate in dosage and the most complete in eating.
Precautions for feeding probiotics:
① The water temperature for mixing probiotics must be below 40 degrees, because too high water temperature can easily lead to the failure of probiotics.
② Try to eat one pack at a time to reduce the exposure time of probiotics in the air to ensure their activity.
③ Using probiotics when the dog has the least gastric acid secretion can reduce the influence of gastric acid on the activity of probiotics, so feeding on an empty stomach is the best.
