What Does Your Dog's Gut and a Garden Have in Common

Blindly Throwing Probiotics in Your Pet's Dish Isn't Doing What You Think!

Has your vet recommended a probiotic lately? Diarrhea? Probiotic. Antibiotics? Probiotic. Sensitive stomach? Probiotic. Gas? Probiotic. Skin issues? Probiotic.

And don’t get me wrong, I LOVE probiotics. We recommend them all the time at House of Paws. BUT, probiotics have become one of those things we reach for automatically because we’ve been told they’re “good for the gut.” And they are, but which probiotic? For what purpose? For how long? And does your pet actually need one right now?

Because when it comes to the microbiome, more isn’t always better.

So today, we’re doing a little Probiotics 101. Actually, scratch that. We’re doing the Probiotic Master Class because there is A LOT to unpack.

🎙️ If you'd prefer to listen to this blog, you can find it here anywhere you love listening to podcasts! Look for S1 E44: "What Does Your Dog's Gut and a Garden Have in Common?".

First, What Exactly IS a Probiotic?

Your dog or cat’s digestive tract is home to trillions of microorganisms. We often hear them divided into “good bacteria” and “bad bacteria,” but it’s much more complicated than that. I want you to think of the gut as an ecosystem. A healthy gut isn’t about having one magical beneficial bacterium. It’s about having a diverse community of microorganisms living together in the right places and in the right balance.

Probiotics are live microorganisms that we introduce to help support that ecosystem. But before we start throwing probiotics into the bowl, there’s something else we need to talk about, the soil.

Prebiotics Are the Soil Probiotics Are the Seeds

This is how I explain it to customers in the store. Imagine planting a garden. You can buy the best seeds in the world, but if you continually throw those seeds onto depleted soil and never feed the soil, how successful is that garden going to be? Your pet’s gut works much the same way. This is why we started by asking, what does your dog's gut have in common with a garden!

Prebiotics are the soil. They are fibres and compounds that help feed the beneficial microorganisms already living in the gut. Foods like pumpkin contain prebiotic fibres, while certain mushrooms contain compounds such as beta glucans that can also help support the microbial environment.

Probiotics are the seeds. These are the living microorganisms we’re adding to the ecosystem. This is why I don’t want pet parents thinking gut health simply means adding a scoop of probiotic powder every morning. You can keep throwing seeds down, but we need to take care of the soil if we actually want that garden to thrive.

And because apparently two “biotics” weren’t enough, we also need to talk about postbiotics.

Wait...What Are Postbiotics?

You’re probably going to start hearing this word more and more, but I promise you don’t need a science degree to understand it.

If prebiotics are the soil and probiotics are the seeds, think of postbiotics as some of the beneficial things that come from all of that microbial activity. As microbes interact with and ferment what reaches the gut, they create compounds and other microbial components that can influence the gut environment and the body.

When we put them all together, the easy way to look at it is this:

Prebiotics are the soil, probiotics are the seeds and postbiotics are what the garden produces. In order to yield a good crop, the soil and seeds have to be cared for.

Postbiotics are still an emerging area of research, so I’m not going to send you down that rabbit hole today. The takeaway is much simpler. Gut health isn’t about dumping probiotics into your pet. We need to support the entire ecosystem.

So When SHOULD We Reach for Probiotics?

There are absolutely times when probiotics can be incredibly helpful. Digestive upset, loose stool, stress, dietary changes and recovery following certain medications are all situations where we may consider additional microbiome support.

One of the biggest ones is antibiotics.

I often describe antibiotics like a brush fire moving through the gut. Sometimes we NEED that fire. If your pet has a bacterial infection and your veterinarian has prescribed an antibiotic, that medication has an important job to do. The problem is that antibiotics aren't necessarily standing there with a clipboard saying, “Bad bacteria? You can go. Good bacteria? You stay.” They can disrupt beneficial bacterial populations too because they are designed to wipe out all bacteria, good or bad, hence the brush fire analogy.

That’s why we like to support the gut during a course of antibiotics rather than waiting until the prescription is finished. When we’re using bacterial probiotics or probiotic rich foods alongside antibiotics, we generally separate them from the antibiotic by about two hours, unless your integrative veterinarian or the specific product directions tell you otherwise.

Think of it as continually reseeding the garden while the brush fire is moving through. Fermented goat milk, fermented foods like plain, full fat unsweetened Greek yogurt with live active cultures or an appropriate probiotic may all be tools we consider during this period. We also don’t stop thinking about the gut the second the last antibiotic pill is swallowed because the microbiome may need time and nutritional support to recover. So if your pet needs a round of antibiotics, be sure to offer probiotics two hours before or after each antibiotic dose to help support the gut during the "brush fire". Then continue supporting the microbiome with probiotics and probiotic rich foods for several weeks after the antibiotics are finished. We typically aim for at least four to six weeks.

But Should My Pet Take a Probiotic EVERY DAY?

This is where my answer may surprise you. Not necessarily.

I don’t believe every dog and cat needs to eat the exact same concentrated probiotic every single day for the rest of their life. Remember what we’re trying to build, diversity. A healthy microbiome contains an enormous variety of microorganisms, so rather than thinking, “My dog takes a probiotic,” I want you thinking about how you’re supporting microbial diversity.

At House of Paws, we often pulse and rotate probiotic support rather than automatically feeding the exact same product indefinitely. That might mean using a probiotic strategically for a period of time, taking a break or changing the source of microbial support. It could also mean rotating different fermented foods.

Why? Because different probiotic foods and supplements can contain completely different microorganisms. Variety matters. We’re not simply trying to put MORE bacteria into the gut. We’re trying to support a diverse microbial community.

And this brings me to one of the most commonly recommended probiotics out there.

Let's Talk About Purina's FortiFlora

If your dog has ever had diarrhea, there’s a pretty good chance your veterinarian has sent you home with a little box of Purina FortiFlora. I swear vets hand this stuff out like candy.

Purina's FortiFlora is a manufactured probiotic supplement containing a single selected strain, rather than a naturally diverse fermented whole food. The Canadian powder provides Enterococcus faecium SF68 at 100 million CFUs per sachet, with animal digest and brewer’s yeast as inactive ingredients.

So, is FortiFlora terrible? No. But as you’ve likely heard me say before, we do not recommend Purina products, and I want you to understand exactly what you’re getting. One strain doesn’t automatically mean it’s useless. There is research behind this particular organism and FortiFlora may absolutely have a place as a targeted digestive tool, but it’s not the probiotic I’d want to rely on long term and think I’m offering the best gut support I can.

We need to remember our ecosystem. If our long term goal is microbial diversity, continually relying on one bacterial strain isn’t the same thing as exposing the gut to a broad variety of beneficial microorganisms. This is one of the reasons you’ll often hear us talk about fermented whole foods and rotating probiotic sources to help create a more diverse environment in your pet’s gut.

FortiFlora can be a tool. It just isn’t the tool we recommend, and it certainly isn’t the only option. Most importantly, I don’t believe it should automatically be THE probiotic for every digestive situation.

What About Those Bottles Screaming “50 BILLION CFUs!”?

First, what the heck is a CFU?

CFU stands for Colony Forming Unit. In very simple terms, it gives us an estimate of how many viable microorganisms are in that probiotic and capable of growing and reproducing. So you might see one probiotic containing 1 billion CFUs, another containing 10 billion and another advertising 50 billion.

Naturally, our brains go, “Well, 50 billion MUST be better than 1 billion!” Not so fast.

When you're choosing a probiotic, the first question shouldn't be how many CFUs it has. The first question should be WHY you're giving it. Are we dealing with diarrhea? Recovering from antibiotics? Trying to support everyday gut health? Dealing with SIBO? Different situations may call for different types of probiotic support.

Next, look at the actual organisms in the product. If we're looking for general gut and microbiome support, I like diversity. Rather than relying on one single strain day after day, look for a product that provides multiple strains or use naturally diverse fermented foods and rotate your probiotic sources. Remember, we're trying to build an ecosystem, not populate the entire garden with one type of seed.

We also want those probiotics to actually make it through the digestive system. Your pet's stomach is extremely acidic, so those little organisms have quite the journey ahead of them. This is one reason the TYPE of probiotic matters and why we're going to talk about soil based probiotics next.

THEN we can look at CFUs. The number matters because we want enough viable organisms to actually provide benefit, but more isn't automatically better. A probiotic with 50 billion CFUs isn't automatically superior to one with 5 billion simply because the number on the front of the package is bigger.

So if you've never bought a probiotic in your life and you're standing there staring at a wall of containers, remember this:

WHY am I using it? WHAT organisms am I getting? How DIVERSE is it? Can those organisms survive the digestive journey? THEN look at the CFUs.

And if that still feels like a lot, ask us. This is exactly what we're here for.

And Then We Have Soil Based Probiotics

These guys are fascinating because they behave differently from many of the traditional probiotics you may be familiar with. Soil based probiotics generally contain hardy, spore forming organisms, commonly species of Bacillus.

Think about the journey a probiotic has to make. It gets swallowed and then has to travel through a VERY acidic digestive environment before it reaches the places where we want it to do its job. Spore forming bacteria are basically wearing protective armour. Their hardy structure helps them survive conditions that can be challenging for some other probiotic organisms.

But there’s one situation where this conversation becomes particularly important, SIBO.

SIBO Changes the Rules

SIBO stands for Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. Essentially, we have too many bacteria living in an area of the digestive tract where we don’t want that level of bacterial activity.

And I learned about this one the hard way with Zaner.

Zaner developed SIBO and that experience completely changed the way I thought about probiotics. Because when you’ve got bacterial overgrowth happening in the small intestine, blindly adding more traditional bacterial probiotics isn’t necessarily the answer.

In our integrative approach, this is where we use soil based probiotics. Soil based, spore forming probiotics behave differently from many of the traditional Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium probiotics you’ll commonly see in supplements. If your dog has diagnosed or suspected SIBO, this isn’t the time to grab a random probiotic off the shelf because “probiotics are good for digestion.” The TYPE of probiotic matters.

Zaner’s experience is also one of the reasons I became much more intentional about probiotics and switched to a soil based probiotic. I don’t look at them as something we should blindly add to every bowl forever because they’re “healthy.” We want to know what we’re adding, why we’re adding it and what we’re trying to accomplish.

More isn’t always better.

Don't Forget About FOOD

This might be my favourite part because supporting the microbiome doesn’t always have to come from a plastic tub of powder.

Fermented goat milk is one of our favourites because it can provide naturally occurring beneficial microorganisms while also adding moisture and nutrition to the bowl. Certain yogurts can provide live cultures too, although you need to choose carefully. We’re looking for plain, full fat varieties with appropriate live cultures, not the strawberry cheesecake yogurt sitting in the grocery store.

Fermented vegetables and other properly prepared fermented foods can introduce different microorganisms too. Mushrooms can play another role. Some provide prebiotic compounds that help feed and support the microbial community, while fermented mushroom products may also provide live beneficial microorganisms depending on how they’re produced.

Even something as simple as pumpkin can contribute to gut health, but remember, pumpkin isn’t technically a probiotic. Go back to our garden. Pumpkin helps feed the soil.

So when someone asks me, “What probiotic should my dog be on?” my answer isn’t necessarily going to be the name of a supplement.

I’m going to want to know WHY we’re using one in the first place.

Here's What I Want You to Remember

Probiotics are incredible tools, but they’re exactly that, tools. We don’t use every tool for every job.

There are absolutely times when we want targeted probiotic support. There are other times when I’d rather focus on feeding the existing microbiome with prebiotic whole foods, introducing different fermented foods and supporting diversity instead of automatically reaching for another scoop of concentrated bacteria.

And probiotics don't fix everything! That is actually what compelled me to write this in the first place. I have customers coming into the store daily with a variety of issues and somehow, after a trip to the clinic, “probiotics” has become the answer for everything. Skin issues? Try a probiotic. Digestive issues? Try a probiotic. On antibiotics? Try a probiotic. And while there may absolutely be situations where probiotics can help, we still need to ask WHY we're using them and what we're actually trying to accomplish.

The ultimate goal isn’t to make your pet dependent on the same probiotic every morning. We want to help create a resilient, diverse microbial ecosystem.

Feed the Soil. Plant Different Seeds. Support the Garden.

Use probiotics intentionally. Rotate your sources. Don’t assume the biggest CFU number is automatically the best. Understand that soil based probiotics behave differently from many traditional probiotics. And don’t underestimate the power of real, whole and fermented foods when it comes to supporting your pet’s gut.

Because the question shouldn’t simply be, “Should I give my pet a probiotic?”

The better question is:

Why am I giving it, which one am I giving and how long do I actually need it?

And THAT is how we start looking at gut health differently.

If you need help, we're always here!