What Can You Give A Dog For Upset Stomach From Antibiotics?
Here’s what to do to help protect your dog from antibiotic damage … and restore his gut health after antibiotics.
Tip 1: Yeast-based Probiotic S boulardii
Saccharomyces boulardii, or S boulardii for short, is a special probiotic that is unlike most other probiotics, because it is a strain of yeast, not bacteria.
Unlike many bacterial probiotics, S boulardii is extremely resilient: yeasts are unaffected by antibiotics, so a yeast-based probiotic like S boulardii remains highly effective for pets that require antibiotic treatment. In addition, S boulardii travel through the stomach acid with ease, making it to the intestines perfectly intact and alive, while many bacterial probiotics quickly die when they encounter stomach acid.
Antibiotics will kill many bacterial probiotics because the antibiotics cannot distinguish between helpful and harmful bacteria. But since S boulardii is a yeast, it is unaffected by antibiotics. In fact, studies have shown that when giving S boulardii along with an antibiotic, pets are much less likely to develop diarrhea during or after the course of antibiotics. We know that antibiotics may cause digestive symptoms in up to 25 percent of patients who use them, and S boulardii has been shown to greatly decrease the risk of these symptoms occurring in your pet.
In one study that aimed to further our understanding of precisely how S boulardii works in the presence of antibiotics, healthy dogs were given very high doses of antibiotics for several days. Under ordinary circumstances, this dose of antibiotic will typically lead to diarrhea. And 75 percent of the dogs that received only the antibiotic did develop diarrhea, lasting an average of 7 days. But a subset of these dogs were given a dose of S boulardii along with their antibiotic, and 100 percent of those dogs remained diarrhea-free throughout the trial.
Our S. boulardii + FOS Powder for cats and dogs are probiotic plus prebiotic supplements designed to support healthy gut function and reduce diarrhea, including flare-ups of diarrhea during antibiotic treatment. “FOS” stands for Fructooligosaccharides, which are tiny, soluble fibers that are the preferred food of beneficial microbes like the ones in your pets gut. Studies in both cats and dogs have shown that adding FOS to the diet improves gut health.
What are the alternatives to antibiotics? Prebiotics—that is, substances fed to the microbiome to get it back on track. High-fiber pet diets and psyllium additives fall in this category. There are also probiotics, or “good bacteria,” Dr. Granick explained. The result of these two is post-biotics, which include metabolites, short-chain fatty acids, and functional proteins.
Dr. Jennifer Granick, an associate professor of small animal internal medicine at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine, suggested that treatment should focus instead on restoring the health of the complex system of bacteria and other microbes within the gastrointestinal tract.
“We don’t do that anymore because there are plenty of studies that say early enteral feeding is more helpful for getting these animals well sooner,” she said. “The key to that is feeding the gut because the gut needs the bacteria to eat in order to stay healthy.”
Gut microbiota in dogs and cats consist primarily of the genus Firmacutes, Bacteroides species, and fusobacteria, Dr. Granick said. The canine GI tract contains large amounts of Enterococcus and lactic acid–producing species, whereas Lactobacillus, Enterococcus, and Bifidobacterium species are found within the feline GI tract.
The gut microbiome has been shown to be an essential part of host health. As Dr. Granick explained, these microbes create defensive barriers against potential pathogenic organisms, aid in nutrient breakdown and energy release from ingested foods, provide nutritional metabolites for enterocytes, help regulate immunity, and metabolize substances the host can’t, such as drugs.
Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhoea / Trends in Microbiology June 2016 (Vol. 24 Issue 6)
The antibiotics rollercoaster… how can you avoid it for your dog? If your veterinarian has prescribed antibiotics it is probably with good reason. But when your pet is done with antibiotic therapy, what can you do to get your pets health stable fast?
But first, its important to understand the reason why your dog was put on antibiotics in the first place. If properly prescribed, antibiotics often are the best possible thing to use in an acute state (aka “emergency”).
In contrast, antibiotics are not meant for chronic care. Understanding the difference between acute and chronic is important in knowing the next steps post-antibiotic therapy.