A new study has reported encouraging results for a prebiotic and postbiotic supplement designed to support digestive health in dogs and cats with mild gastrointestinal problems.
Researchers assessed the effects of a 28-day course of a nutritional supplement containing baobab fruit pulp and acacia gum as prebiotics, together with inactivated Lactobacillus helveticus and selected yeast fractions as postbiotics. The product was tested in pet dogs and cats in France that were otherwise healthy but showed mild digestive issues such as soft stools, increased stool quantity, flatulence or occasional vomiting.
In total, 57 dogs and 57 cats completed the study. Owners were asked to score their pets’ digestive health over the course of the trial, while faecal samples were also collected from a smaller number of animals to assess changes in the gut microbiota.
The supplement was well accepted, with 94% of dogs and 91% of cats taking it either on its own or mixed with food at the start of the study. By the end of the trial, acceptance had improved further.
According to owner reports, digestive health improved significantly in both species, with changes seen as early as seven days after supplementation began. Median digestive health scores increased from 7 out of 10 at the start of the study to 8 out of 10 by day 28 in both dogs and cats.
The researchers also reported improvements in several specific digestive signs. Among animals that started the study with abnormal stool consistency, around two thirds of dogs and cats moved into the optimal stool range by the end of the 28 days. Stool odour improved from the first week, while flatulence and vomiting were both markedly reduced.
In dogs, the proportion reported to have flatulence fell from 96% to 51%, while vomiting dropped from 67% to 16%. In cats, flatulence fell from 75% to 12%, and vomiting from 65% to 11%.
The microbiota findings were more modest. Analysis suggested that the supplement did not cause major changes to the overall gut microbial community in either dogs or cats. Instead, it appeared to influence a number of lower-abundance bacterial groups. The researchers say these subtle changes may still be relevant, but their biological significance remains unclear.
The authors note that the study had several limitations, including the lack of a control group, relatively small numbers for the microbiota analysis, and considerable variation between individual animals. They also point out that most pets in the study had only mild digestive disturbances to begin with, which may have limited the scale of any detectable microbiome changes.
Even so, the results suggest the supplement may offer a practical nutritional option for supporting digestive health in dogs and cats with mild gastrointestinal upset, particularly where signs such as soft stools, unpleasant stool odour, flatulence and vomiting are present.
The researchers conclude that the product showed clear benefits for digestive signs, while its effects on the gut microbiota were more limited and will need further investigation in larger studies.
