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Originally Posted by RawfedYorkieLuv  ...Another important factor is that a human's stomach acidity levels operate generally at the pH5 level. A dogs's stomach acid level is at pH1 which would be in comparison a 0.4% solution of Hydorchloric Acid which cannot be handled with bare hands, so the assumption is that anything and everything will be broken down in there! This next article...
To sum it all up, too little is known about this. I supplemented my senior yorkie with probiotics for some time and while I have heard of certain benefits (even some prey model feeders swear by it and report positive changes), I personally have not noticed a significant difference that I could attribute in favor of probiotics or against them and many others on this particular list haven't either hence the reason for this particular discussion in the first place. Whether food supply contamination is myth or truth or plays any significant role or not, my dogs fare much more better on prey model than on processed pellets...based on my research and talks with other prey model feeders coupled with my observations/experiences with my own dogs, I have decided that supplementing my dogs with probiotics is no longer acceptable. I will say this though, I would love to get my dog's stools tested while they're on and then off probiotics!  P.S. the probiotics in question were the kinds of powder (not contained in a pill), liquid and paste. |
Wow, all of that was really fascinating. The big take-aways for me right now (based on current literature) is 1) dog food stating that it contains probiotics may contain none that are viable at all and 2) even if they are viable, they may not survive the pH of a dog's stomach anyway.
Very interesting! I wonder if there are any probiotics that are properly buffered to NOT release until they are in the small intestine. I guess that's what a dog would really need if you truly wanted to try to deliver probiotics to the sm. intestine (theoretically, I should say). Feeding yogurt could be absolutely useless, but until they do more studies - I guess we won't know for sure. Argh.