Probiotics: Dogs and cats need friendly bacteria for whole health too!

Digestive health remains a leading reason for veterinarian visits, and natural health oriented consumers are increasingly curious about the benefits of probiotic supplementation for their pets. The effects of probiotic balance have much more far-reaching effects than simply promoting healthy digestion though.

Probiotics are key to healthy uptake of vital nutrients—which affects whole body health—and they even create some of the needed vitamins in a mammal’s system. The friendly bacteria also tend to navigate to other parts of the body where they are needed to support immune response. For these reasons, probiotic supplementation for cats and dogs has been connected to diverse health benefits:

• Healthy urinary tract
• Healthy skin and coat
• Fewer yeast infections and other microbial imbalances
• Fewer allergies
• Digestive regularity and less gas

Chlorinated water, antibiotic usage, and poor food can all lead to compromised probiotic balance in dogs and cats. As is the case for humans, balance is best maintained by multi-strain probiotic blends that mimic the diversity found in nature.

Potency, Stability, and Diversity: Dr. Shahani’s Keys

Nebraska Cultures founder Dr. Khem Shahani has developed a proprietary probiotic manufacturing process that assures total viable cell count, excellent shelf life, and survivability in the gut. It begins with a highly regulated growth process followed by carefully freeze-drying each concentrated strain in a special cryoprotective medium. Each batch is tested for viability, and the bacteria are stabilized with a proprietary stabilizer developed by Dr. Shahani to enhance their ability to colonize in the GI tract, and to help protect them from damage by heat, humidity, light, and oxygen.

Animal probiotic supplements are typically provided in powder form for ease of administration. But that means the product cannot rely on encapsulation or tableting to preserve probiotic viability through the entire digestive process. For this reason, Dr. Shahani’s stability-promoting processing method is especially attractive for pet products.

Nebraska Cultures ingredients have a substantial shelf life even at room temperature too. With respect to L. acidophilus DDS-1, at 77 degrees Fahrenheit, the loss over a 12-month period is only in the 18 to 20 percent range. (In an identical situation, other brands of L. acidophilus can degrade by as much as 60 percent.)

Available Probiotic Strains

In addition to the proprietary DDS-1 strain of L. acidophilus, Dr. Shahani’s line of lactobacillus bacteria includes:
L. bugaricus    L. plantarum   L. salivarius
L. brevis          L. casei            L. helveticus
L. rhamnosus

Each of these strains has specific properties that promote whole health—from producing essential vitamins to supporting the immune system. 

Bifidobacterium Strains
Through extensive research, Bifidobacterium bifidum has been proven as a powerful bacteria strain that supports detoxification and the immune system. There are five bifidobacterium strains available for formulation:

B. bifidum        B. breve
B. lactis           B. longum
B. infanti

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Why Ingredients from Wilke Resources?

Wilke Resources is a respected name in quality bulk nutritional supplements, offering raw ingredient products to the pharmaceutical, health-nutrition, and animal health markets. Wilke serves as both a sales and marketing agent for selected U.S. manufacturers and provides high-quality bulk dietary supplement ingredients through its China Direct sourcing program.

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