Acidophilus

[BenD188]

I am switching my chin to a new food. I have been trying the 50/50 and 25/75 but he seems to be picking out the new stuff and making a huge mess of the pellets which he hasn't been doing before.

So I am thinking of just switching to all new food with none of the old mixed in and sprinkling some acidophilus over it to be safe. Walmart and another local pharmacy seems to only have tablets, do I just crush them up with a hammer and sprinkle it over them? I was hoping it would be a capsule that I could just open and sprinkle, but I haven't had luck finding that. Also, I read that 3 billion CFU's is the best, but would 1 billion CFUs work?

So my main questions are do I just crush the tablets up and sprinkle it over the food (would I just do 1 tablet on the bowl of food)? And will 1 billion CFU's be alright.

Thanks for any help,

Ben

 

[AZChins]

I used to do that. I'd crush up the tablets and sprinkle them right over the food and sort of mix them in. The acidophilus seems to stick to the pellets really well, it coats them so that every bit of pellet has a little probiotic.

The 1 billion count tablets aren't going to hurt the chins, it's alright to use them. If it use it every night, it will be most effective. A higher organism count would be better because it would mean more is getting into the chins, but what you are using is just fine.

 

[BenD188]

Thanks a lot! I wasn't clear on if crushing them up would work.

 

[TammyC]

What about Acidophilus with Pectin?

 

[AZChins]

I can't imagine that it would be harmful. What are the extra ingredients? Is the pectin being used as a pre-biotic?

I'm totally going to do a websearch on that now.

 

[AZChins]

I was looking at some of the brand out there with the pectin added.

The only thing that really jumped out as being potentially bad is that some of them have extra calcium added to them.

This brand would probably be unacceptable because it seems to have extra things added to it:

http://www.herbsmd.com/detail/Acidophilus-with-Pectin-13.htm

In the other brands it seemed unclear if they had the extra calcium AND I can't seem to find the purpose of the pectin.

 

[ticklechin]

The pectin is just a soluble fiber, helps move things along in a human with issues, I personally would not use it in a healthy chin because they already ingest plenty of fiber but I may consider it in a loose poo situation. (in chins)

 

[TammyC]

Thanks! I will purchase the regular. Just happend to see the one with Pectin when I was shopping and wanted to get some opinions.

 

[NOLA Chins]

I use Bene-Bac, 1 cc of the gel every other day. Works great, chins love it, vets recommend it and it works out to $5 per chin per month.

The billion counts are not writ in stone. When dealing with a heavy-duty antibiotic they are very useful- if the chin will eat it. But for daily use or with an antibiotic like bactrim, Bene-bac works just fine.

Note: the powder is about 99% sugar.