S. Boulardii and Probiotics

Dexy

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Hello, my rescue cat has had soft stools since we got him a 6 weeks ago. He had tape worms we cured and a recent fecal PCR test shows positive for Feline Corona and Clostridium perfringens with a high level of alphatoxin gene.

He did a second round of Metronidazole and i have been giving him S. Boulardii (not the one with MOS i have that on order and waiting for it). Although there is no longer any blood in his stool it is still soft, not normal like the cats I had in the past. Can I also give him Proviable probiotic with the S. Boulardii? Also the vet put him on RC Gastro and I did not see much of a difference. Less frequency of stools but he gained a bit of weight.

Has anyone had a similar instance?

Thank you in advance for any advice.
 

daftcat75

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I had a cat with c. perf. Hang in there. It took about two months to resolve. Luckily Krista liked s. boulardii because she ate a lot of it that summer. I would open a 5 Billion CFU capsule and roll half of it into a small amount of food and feed her these yeast balls. Then she could enjoy the rest of her meal without anything mixed into it. She got 1/4 to 1/2 capsule, two to four times a day, and as frequent as every two hours if her poops were coming more frequently. There isn't really a ceiling to how much you can give. But I would reduce to the 1/4 capsule dose when I was giving it more frequently or 1/2 capsule when it was 2 to 4 times a day.

I don't know about Proviable for c. perf. I know Metro is more harm than good. It kills off good gut bacteria which could be the reason why his stools are still soft. But metronidazole also spares E. coli. Cats naturally have some of this in their gut and it generally doesn't cause issues. But given conditions where it is allowed to flourish (aka antibiotic use), it can become a problem. And because e. coli feeds off dead epithelial cells, inflammation feeds more inflammation.

Stop the metronidazole. Use s. boulardii. AnimalBiome makes an s. boulardii product that contains MOS, a valuable prebiotic that will help re-establish the good bacteria lost to the metro, and PreforPro, a bacteriophage (eats bacteria) prebiotic that specifically targets e. coli and clostridium. My Betty has high e. coli populations in her gut after a round of antibiotics. Though she's not symptomatic. Her stools are fine. Unlike Krista, Betty doesn't like the taste of s. boulardii. Unlike Krista, Betty is a breeze to medicate because she pills herself. But she does have trouble with these big capsules. These are size 3 capsules. I re-pack them into size fours (larger size means smaller capsule) for her. Since she'd be taking these for awhile, I bought a capsule filling machine off Etsy ($27.) It was a breeze to unpack and repack these into smaller capsules. If you go this route, the dose is one size four capsule twice a day.

KittyBiome™ GMP – AnimalBiome

If you can pill your guy, AnimalBiome sells a product (Gut Restore Supplement) that is head and shoulders above probiotics. It cannot be opened into his food though. The capsule coating allows the pill contents to survive his stomach acid. If you cannot pill him (or get him to pill himself), then this isn't the product for him. But if you can get him to take that one pill a day, their Gut Restore Supplement will help get his biome back in order after the metro damage. AnimalBiome also sells a testing product so you can see where you are starting from and gauge your progress. It may take a few months to get his gut microbiome back in order.
Our Science

I can share Betty's reports with you if you think you can get these pills into him and this might be something you're interested in.
 
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Dexy

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THank you so much for the reply. I split a 5 bill CFU pill twice a day, can I keep this up for a couple weeks? I have no issues pilling him, I wonder if that doesnt work if I should try the fecal pill. How long did you give that pill for to clear up your kitty's issue?
 

daftcat75

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THank you so much for the reply. I split a 5 bill CFU pill twice a day, can I keep this up for a couple weeks? I have no issues pilling him, I wonder if that doesnt work if I should try the fecal pill. How long did you give that pill for to clear up your kitty's issue?
You can do both the s boulardii and the FMT pills.

For the s boulardii, it took about two months for us to get through clostridium. But we didn’t have the FMT pills back then. (Maybe those will help reduce the duration?)

You can give the s boulardii indefinitely—as long as he needs it.
 
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Dexy

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Thank you for the insight, how long did you have to use the FMT pills? From what I have read it is once a day?
 

daftcat75

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Thank you for the insight, how long did you have to use the FMT pills? From what I have read it is once a day?
Betty eats a junky diet. Hills I/D chicken and vegetable stew. It’s very high in carbs and lower in protein than I would like. But this is what she wants to eat. And her IBD does not seem food reactive at this time. Diet plays a large role in microbiome composition. Because Betty has an active disease process (IBD) and a junky diet, I plan on giving her these pills as long as the testing says she needs them. I regard them as part of her medicine. Like expensive probiotics.

Betty’s first report showed signs of being a former kibble addict (before I adopted her.) I only let her have a little in the first few weeks just as long as I was figuring out what wet she wanted to eat. One month of the FMT showed great improvement. And then we had a setback. She had some kind of reaction to her endoscopy: fever of unknown origin, lethargy, not eating. We decided to try a course of antibiotics with her in case there was some bacteria translocation from the endo (a very rare complication I was told.) The antibiotics turned her around within one dose. We completed the five day course as prescribed. And then I sent another poop sample to AnimalBiome. Sure enough, the antibiotics decimated her microbiome. Large groups of beneficial bacteria were gone. And in their place, some not so beneficial strains flourished. Now we’re playing a catch up game trying to control the clostridium and E. coli populations while rebuilding the beneficial populations. Fortunately, she’s not symptomatic for either of these. Still. E. coli feeds off dead cells in the gut. Inflammation feeds more inflammation.

There’s a correlation between recent antibiotic use and the emergence of IBD symptoms in dogs and cats. I don’t think they are willing to say A leads to B yet. But it makes sense. IBD is a disease of gut dysbiosis.

So how long am I giving her the FMT pills? As long as she needs them. I give one a day of the Gut Restore (FMT) and one Gut Maintenance (s boulardii and bacteriophage for the clostridium and E. coli) separated into two daily doses. I test about every couple of months.

As far as I’m concerned, her gut microbiome is just another organ that needs loving care. And until I can convince her to improve her diet, she’ll keep getting those poop pills and yeasty beasties. And in any case, we’re still working the steroids taper. I’m hesitant to try too many changes right now until we figure out her steroids maintenance dose. I tried to give her a break from the poop pills before and her appetite cratered and her nausea came back. So clearly they continue to help her.
 
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daftcat75

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Thank you for the insight, how long did you have to use the FMT pills? From what I have read it is once a day?
For clarification, Krista was my last cat. She was the one who had the active clostridium infection with liquid poops for a couple of months. I got her through it on mostly s. boulardii. We tried metro. It worked for a couple of days and then seemed to be no better. We did one AnimalBiome Gut Health test with her. But she never took the FMT pills. She was a very difficult one to pill. And in case, I believe AnimalBiome themselves don't recommend the FMT pills for cats with active diarrhea. I would contact them at [email protected] before ordering the Gut Restore Supplement. You can still do the Gut Health testing and their GMP would be beneficial. It's their version of s. boulardii that has an additional bacteriophage (eats bacteria) that targets e. coli. If your girl took metro, you can almost count on her having elevated e. coli now.

Betty is my current cat. She started having hairballs within weeks of bringing her home. Trying to simply treat it as hairballs didn't help anyone. On one of her ER visits--because these hairballs would tear her up for half a day and often ending in pink spits from an irritated esophagus--that's when she got a few cans of Hills I/D pate and stew. For the first time since I adopted her, she found a food she enjoyed and would eat enough of. It wasn't simply drop a can on a plate and hope for the best at the end of the day. She actually showed up for meals and ate right away. Fast forward through more ER visits until I finally got her into an IM specialist where an ultrasound and endoscopy confirmed IBD despite "only" having hairballs. It was while we were waiting for that first IM appointment (two month lead time for initial consultation) that I started her on the AnimalBiome Gut Restore Supplement and also sent out for her first test. Within a week or two of starting the Gut Restore, her appetite and nausea improved. When that first bottle was finished, I decided to give her a break and wait for the report. That's when her appetite cratered and her nausea returned. That's when I decided I would keep giving her these pills as long as they benefit her. I can afford it and she does better with them than without them. And every couple of months, I send in a sample to see how we're doing on correcting her imbalances--the ones I inherited from her former family and the ones created by the recent antibiotics use.
 
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