Dear friends -

You know how when you laugh too hard and too long, you start to make those unattractive little piggy-sounding snorts and your eyes start running?  Well, I am wiping both eyes with my little paws and helplessly snorting and giggling over the latest priceless advertisement my Mom got from a dog food company.  I’m not telling you which one sent it to my Mom (and I guess every other Veterinarian in the country), but the name of this company starts with a “P” and ends with an “a” and has 6 letters.  You figure it out.

OH MY......my tummy hurts from so much laughing.  Anyway, I had a point here, if I can just dry my eyes and remember it *snort*.

The advertisement is about something the company calls “NEW” and “INNOVATIVE” and a “BREAKTHROUGH.”  Funny, because it’s something my Mom has been giving me for at least 10 years.  A lot of people have used it for a long time, too.  It’s been recommended by holistic Doctors and Veterinarians all over the country for years and years now.  It’s called a probiotic.

My soon-to-be-enlightened readers out there, do you use probiotics for yourself and for your pets?  You maybe ought to think about it.  Probiotics are bacteria that can help you digest your food better.  They are packaged inside little teeny capsules (microcapsules) so they stay alive until they get into your digestive tract.  They get there by you swallowing them (they don’t taste bad).  Probiotics come both in powder form and in capsules, usually.  Some of them - the best ones - come with something called F.O.S.  Mom says that stands for fructo-oligosaccharides but all I know is that the F.O.S. gives the good bacteria a place to hide out when they get into your intestines so they stay alive longer and can do their job better.  Some probiotics come in a bottle and some in a little foil package and some need to be kept in the fridge.

One thing this P----a company got right is that probiotics really can make your digestion a lot better.  And when your digestion is better, your immune system will be better.  One reason is because bad bacteria in your intestines can do a thing called “translocation” - every holistic vet has known about this for a long time - and those bad bacteria go right through the sides of your intestine and get into your bloodstream and important organs like your liver and then you can get very sick or even die.  Or maybe you’ll just have diarrhea or stomach cramps or a lot of gas build-up and you’ll feel like dying.

And, when you have bad bacteria in your intestines they can stunt the growth of the good bacteria that help you digest your food.  Then you get so many bad bacteria that you get all gassy and smelly and noisy and, after a while, no one even wants to be near you!  Even your breath can start to smell really bad, not to mention the smell that can come from your - well, I’m a lady, so I won’t say it,  but if you’ve ever seen the movie Blazing Saddles you know where I’m going.  I tell you, that Mel Brooks was a genius...his movies just kill me.  It’s twoo!  It’s weely, weely, twoo! (**snort***)

OK.  Let me get serious for a minute here.  *snort*! If you know another dog or cat who has a bad diarrhea problem, or if they have a “delicate stomach”, or even if they are just needing to be on an antibiotic, a probiotic can really help.  They can help keep you regular, keep your immune system healthy, and will help you be closer to your humans, because you won’t be all smelly and gassy. 

But you don’t need a NEW!  INNOVATIVE! BREAKTHROUGH! (I think what that really means is EXPENSIVE!) probiotic from P----a.  What you need to do is toddle on down to your local health food store and support those folks who have been trying to tell you about what is good for you, for a long time.  We have some good health food stores in our area.  My favorite one is called Fruitful Yield and they are nice people -  and I bet you have one or two in your area, too. 

They can help you pick out a good probiotic - you want one that has several different bacteria. Look for bacteria names like Lactobacilli, Bifidobacteria, and Enterococci (do you ever wonder why bacteria don’t have names like Spike and Fred and Wilma? I do...)  Don’t get a really cheap one, because in the cheap ones the bacteria are often already dead - and if you get one that needs to be kept in the fridge (that’s what we use at home) remember to bring a little cooler to keep it in for the trip home.

Like I said, probiotics aren’t a new idea, but they are a really good one.  I betcha that everyone will start hearing more about them soon, because it looks like this P----a company will be spending a lot of money on advertising. 

Just remember that you heard about probiotics from your good friend Lizzie, first.