Are Probiotics Important for Cats?
There have been research made on the human side about how critical the healthy gut is to get a stronger immune system, good mental healthy and having a healthy body weight and composition. Having a healthy gut will help in minimizing risks of various diseases that includes diabetes as well as cancer. Probiotics are truly important to promote good intestinal health and though there are fewer studies with regards to its beneficial effects to animals, studies show that probiotics also have the same positive effect towards animals.
Probiotics are known as microorganisms that’s known as “friendly bacteria” that will reside in our digestive tract. This even includes Lactobacillus acidophilus and even other kinds of Lactobacillus species such as Bifidobacteria, Enterococcus as well as Streptococcus. This will help on the promotion of a healthy balance of bacteria in our gut, which is very important to get a complete digestion and an absorption of nutrients.
When you have a healthy gut, this will have plenty of friendly bacteria. The problems will start when they are challenged or were outnumbered because of inadequate diet, stress of a compromised immune system. Also, environmental toxins like chemical pollutants could also damage the intestinal health. This may also be caused by natural events such as aging, which impacts the balance of the healthy bacteria in the gut.
With probiotics, it could help to restore the natural health of the gut. This will also help in keeping the immune system of the cat strong. It is crucial for cats who have any digestive problems. The fact that antibiotics destroys a healthy gut flora, probiotics should be given concurrently with the antibiotics.
The best way on how you can actually provide your cat with probiotics is through providing them with its appropriate diet and one that’s minimally processed. The processed their food becomes, the more nutrients would be lost from it. The best thing to do is to give a good probiotic supplement which has to be given daily with each meal.
Bear in mind that not all probiotics are made equally. Even with the label claims, there are few commercially available probiotics that contains live bacteria. However, even the dead bacteria which is present in such products could still give beneficial impacts when it comes to digestion.
When choosing, see to it that you look for products that are pure cat probiotics and not having not having any supplement added. Take note that there are many popular product that you could find today, which is why it is important to make a selection properly. Some of these cat probiotics are used as flavor enhancers in dry food manufacturing and is found to be the reason why many cats are not addicted with dry food.