Hi Jack,
It’s best to give your dog a probiotic without any food, dog foods with probiotics are sprayed over the kibble, then these kibbles are shipped in hot containers, hot trucks, stored in hot pet shops the probiotic bacteria die…….
Heat kills any live bacteria/cultures in the probiotic, have a look at “Purina Florti Floria” dog probiotic, when they tested 10 dog probiotics only 3 came back with live cultures the rest of te dog probiotics were a waste of money…..I was adding 1 teaspoon probiotic powder to 10-15ml water swirl water around to dissolve the powder probiotic & then let your dog drink the probiotic when stomach is empty, normally 3-4 hours after eating a meal the stomach empties..as a dog or human ages it’s stomach takes longer to empty & we dont make as much Hydrochloric Acid like we did when we were younger so immue system starts to suffer, I think giving him a daily liquid probiotic drink will help strengthen his immune system..
Purina Fortiflora has live cultures, when tested Fortiflora came 1st with live cultures.. also a probiotics shouldn’t be given with a meal/food as Hydrochloric Acid (stomach acid) kills the live bacteria cultures in the probiotic, it’s best to take a probiotics on an empty stomach, inbeween meals or first thing of a morning 30mins before eating… I give my boy 1/2 of my “Yakult” probiotic drink around 11am inbetween his meals… https://www.chewy.com/purina-pro-plan-veterinary-diets/dp/50000
With his diet can you go back to home cooked meals? but change the ingredients you were feeding & look for recipes with ingredients that are for dogs with urinary problems…
If your on face book join “Monica Segal” f/b group called “K-9 Kitchen” she has a few recipes for dogs with urinary problems… also “Dr Judy Morgan DVM” has easy to recipes.
Even if just 1 of his meals is a cooked meal then the other meal is a dry kibble, if feeding any dry kibbles that are grain free make sure it’s has no more then 20% Legumes, stay away from any dog foods that are high in Legumes, (Peas, Lentils, Chickpeas, Beans) expecially if you have medium to large breed dogs…
Vitamin C streghthens the immune system, High Potency vitamin C for dogs but make sure you slowly introduce over 1-2 weeks…
