Alternative To Fortiflora?

[lgail]

My cat Pudden suffers from chronic constipation and was put on Fortiflora by her vet. Since being put on it and with the help of pumpkin everyday she has been very regular. The problem is the Fortiflora is very expensive. Pudden has a lot of health issues and everything adds up, so I am trying to cut down costs.

Is there a cheaper human alternative to Fortiflora that others are using? She gets a pack split between the AM and PM and I would need the dosing to be the same as the Fortiflora. I feel bad experimenting with other probiotics when she is doing so well, but the price just went up and now it is approaching $30 a month just for probiotics! There's got to be something more reasonable out there, so I thought I would ask.

 

[LTS3]

There's a $5 coupon for FortiFlora on the Purina web site: FortiFlora® Probiotic Supplement for Cat Diarrhea

There's a product called Advita which is similar to FortiFlora that you could try. Anyone Use Advita versus FortiFlora?

There are plent of Human probiotics you can give to a cat There some good basic info here:

Probiotics for Cats - Why and Which Ones
Probiotics Search - Human Grade and CFUs

You do split a Human pill into two doses, half in the morning and half at night. A store generic brand will work and costs less than a name brand.

 

[Kat0121]

I found this product on Amazon that is very similar to Fortiflora but just shy of half the price. It's hard to do an exact comparison since I don't see the amount of CFU's of probiotics in the FF but it listed on this product. It is also 30 packs but instead of $25.99 for the FF, this one is $13.98. It is water soluble but some reviewers sprinkle it on food with good results. One reviewer tasted it and said it has no flavor. I'll post the links to both.

ETA- I cannot get the links to stay in the post. The second product is Tomlyn.

 

[LTS3]

I found this:

Looks like the minimum CFU is 1x10⁸ CFU per gram. And the only bacteria is Enteroccoccus faecium. Haman probiotics, and maybe some other brands of pet probiotics, have multiple strains of bacteria.

This sugggests that cats start at 100 billion CFU for any benefit to be seen. It also suggests that FortiFlora isn't the best to use:

Regarding FortiFlora, the “probiotic” many vets recommend. Marketed as a nutritional supplement, please take a look at the ingredients: “Animal digest, Enterococcus faecium, brewers dried yeast, L-ascorbyl-2-polyphosphate (source of Vitamin C), Vitamin E supplement, beta-Carotene, zinc proteinate, taurine, salt, manganese proteinate, ferrous sulfate, copper proteinate, calcium iodate, sodium selenite.” The first ingredient is animal digest. The supplement contains one strain of probiotic, E faecium, with just 100 million colony forming units – the very lowest end of the range of probiotic doses discussed by Dr. Suchodolski. If you are using FortiFlora and it hasn’t worked, that does not mean that “probiotics” do not help your cat. You have not been using the right probiotic for your cat.

 

[Kat0121]

OK. So that's 1 billion CFU's. Tomlyn claims to have over 4 billion. Interesting. I may get a box of the Tomlyn brand for the kids. I have used that brand in the past but not in packet form. They are very picky eaters and had no issue with it

 

[Zandalee]

My cat Pudden suffers from chronic constipation and was put on Fortiflora by her vet. Since being put on it and with the help of pumpkin everyday she has been very regular. The problem is the Fortiflora is very expensive. Pudden has a lot of health issues and everything adds up, so I am trying to cut down costs.

Is there a cheaper human alternative to Fortiflora that others are using? She gets a pack split between the AM and PM and I would need the dosing to be the same as the Fortiflora. I feel bad experimenting with other probiotics when she is doing so well, but the price just went up and now it is approaching $30 a month just for probiotics! There's got to be something more reasonable out there, so I thought I would ask.

My cat Meriaten was on that for IBD and except for adding a bit of flavor, it is worthless. It has only one strain of probiotic which does nothing. I give human probiotic which contains 35 billion, 8 strains and survives stomach acid. I just sprinkle a bit in food twice a day.

 

[LuckySimonsMom]

My cat Meriaten was on that for IBD and except for adding a bit of flavor, it is worthless. It has only one strain of probiotic which does nothing. I give human probiotic which contains 35 billion, 8 strains and survives stomach acid. I just sprinkle a bit in food twice a day.

Do you mind if I ask the name of the probiotic you're using? Thank you.

 

[stephanietx]

Are you also feeding her mostly wet food with a little extra water added in? That might help. We use Proviable DC with our kitties as well as plain canned pumpkin. We have the opposite problem with one of my kitties, prone to loose stools.

 

[WMM201]

My cat specialty vet advised Proviable, so I have been giving that to my cat who also has bowel issues now and then. It seems to be working well, but it's not cheap. I might look into the Tomlyn powder now myself.