Live Active Cultures

wolfsnaps · 06-23-2009, 12:09 AM

I see a lot of pills marketed for helping with digestion...probiotics, prebiotics, ahhhh. Isn't yogurt better because the stuff is alive and ready to go? If I give my dogs yogurt, do they really need these kinds of pills?

CorgiKarma · 06-23-2009, 01:24 AM

I give Bailey and the dachshund 1/8 cup of plain non fat yogurt with live active cultures with their dinner. I'm not a fan of pills so if I can give it naturally I would go that route instead. Feeding cultures is pretty pointless if they're not live active cultures.

GottaLuvMutts · 06-23-2009, 02:09 AM

Strange this should come up, cause I was just going to start a thread about feeding yogurt!

Wednesday night Kit woke me up in the middle of the night cause she had to go #1. This is not normal for her. Thursday she was squatting a lot on our morning walk, and she's not a marker. She was also licking herself. By Friday afternoon I was convinced she had a UTI, so I took her to the vet. They did 3 tests including a urinalysis and came up with nothing: healthy as a horse. The symptoms I noticed continued, though. Saturday night I went out with friends and she peed in her crate while I was gone, which is again, very abnormal for her.

So I decided if the vet couldn't give me any antibiotics, maybe I could treat it myself. I did a little reading and found out that yogurt is recommended for preventing UTI's in humans. It's also totally safe for dogs. She's gotten a couple of tablespoons with each meal since Sunday afternoon, and I haven't seen any symptoms since the first time I gave it. I can't really believe it was that easy, but if the symptoms stay gone, I'll keep feeding it.

Bonus: Having it in her food bowl actually slows her down a bit!

Never heard of it helping with digestion, though. How does that work?

CorgiKarma · 06-23-2009, 02:33 AM

Yogurt contains lactobacillus acidophilus and is a probiotic. Heres an article about it: http://www.qualitydogs.com/dog-artic...-for-dogs.html

Bailey has had two UTIs, she actually just finished up her antibiotics for the last one. I started giving her organic unsweetened cranberry juice in her bowl as a snack to hopefully prevent more UTIs. Keep in mind, though, that home remedies will probably not cure UTIs unless they have been caught very early. For this last one Bailey had to have an antibiotic shot and pills for two weeks.

wolfsnaps · 06-29-2009, 11:27 PM

CorgiKarma, thanks for that article. It was very informative!

boon4376 · 06-30-2009, 03:59 PM

I second the opinion on yogurt, good stuff.