The three foods I use are Breeder’s Choice Pinnacle, Natural Balance Limited Ingredient Diets and Timberwolf. Natural Balance has no probiotics. Pinnacle and Timberwolf (previously Timberwolf Organics) use lactobacillus strains.
I am also immune compromised, and give my dogs human grade probiotics…Kyo-dophilus is a good one because is contains both Lactobacillus (predominant in small bowel) and Bifidobacter (predominant in large bowel) strains. I’ve used other brands as well…including Primal Defense for both myself and my dogs. Totalbiotics is brand designed for dogs that does not contain E. Faecium.
Here’s a good resource with people very knowledgeable about K9 GI issues….
http://www.epi4dogs.com/sidsibo.htm … scroll down for a list of probiotics and articles regarding Small Intestinal Bacteria Overgrowth a/k/a Small Intestinal Dysbiosis (imbalance). And a separate page on probiotics… http://www.epi4dogs.com/probioticstrains.htm … be sure to look at the label though because some of those listed do contain E. Faecium.
I’m currently dealing with some pretty severe GI issues in my female GSD after 15 months of high doses of antifungal drugs for a Blastomycosis infection. We saved her life, but her gut is a mess. She has a great deal of inflammation and is extremely intolerant of any food variations (does not even tolerate Purina HA hydrolyzed food), as well as very touchy about any amount of probiotics. I’m using DGL, Slippery Elm, Arabinogalactan with a small pinch of Kyodophilus, NAG, a small amount of 8x Pancreatin and Tylosin as we work towards healing her GI tract. She eats Natural Balance kibble double soaked (soak to absorb water, and then add a bit more water mix in the enzymes and slippery elm, stir an allow to soak some more…sometimes overnight) along with a bit of canned mixed in.
Two ready made supplements that might be helpful are Only Natural Pet GI Support or VetriScience’s Acetylator.
A good resource on supplements is Dr. Messonnier’s book, “The Natural Health Bible for Dogs and Cats”.
While I can tell you that I have had repeated success treating my own dogs’ GI issues. I am not a vet, so I highly recommend that you discuss the use of these supplements with your vet.
Best of luck to you.
