Pro Kolin making this worse?

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GeorgesDad
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Pro Kolin making this worse?

Post by GeorgesDad »

Hi, I've been having a nightmare with my cats possible IBS. He's been having colitis on and off for a couple of months now. We've taken him to the vet and he doesn't show any other bad signs except blood in poop once or twice a week.

We were giving gastrointestinal food which went straight through him and gave him diarrhoea. Plain chicken does the same. He was given Pro Kolin powder on Friday to try and today his colitis has really flared up.

I have no idea what's going on. I'm sending a stool sample to them tomorrow.

Has anyone found that Pro Kolin actually makes things worse? and do you know the reason? I tried him on FortiFlora in January after the first time and I think that did the same.

Any help would be great. Thanks
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Mollycat
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Re: Pro Kolin making this worse?

Post by Mollycat »

I didn't know you could get ProKolin in powder form, I've only ever had the paste and both cats refused to eat it, so I'd be interested to try.

However we had a prebiotic and probiotic combination supplement and yes that made the Dire Rear truly terrible, it was awful. I don't remember the brand name.

Pre and pro biotic preparations contain a very limited number of strains of gut-living bacteria and each cat's gut biome is diverse and unique. It's not a matter of "good bacteria bad bacteria" but balance and diversity - a selection of encouraged species considered "good" can still cause more problems if for instance there is already a surplus of those species relative to others. I don't know about cats but for humans I believe the evidence of human benefit of these preparations is at best sketchy. For sure it will be good for some people, but not others.
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fjm
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Re: Pro Kolin making this worse?

Post by fjm »

I have used Pro-Kolin powder successfully for a dog with suspected SIBO secondary to liver failure. It took 8 weeks to really be effective, and I introduced it slowly, along with a very small dose of metronidazole. I once tried probiotics myself for IBS and the results were not good...
koshka77
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Re: Pro Kolin making this worse?

Post by koshka77 »

Sorry- I know this post is from some time ago but I was wondering the same thing.
I also have some information that might be helpful to you.
Both my cats have explosive diarrhoea if they have Fortiflora. The reason is the brewers yeast. Brewers yeast is added to some foods for vitamin B but also because it tastes nice! Hydrolysed food can taste bitter so it seems it’s often added to that. Protexin, who make pro-kolin told me that the Beta glucans in their Pro-kolin enterogenic sachets is derived from Brewers Yeast! I also saw that Beta glucans are listed in their Pro-kolin advance paste.
Their regular pro-kolin doesn’t have the beta-glucans but after using that for a day my cat Freddy’s diarrhoea got worse.
My vet uses Promax as a anti diarrhoea paste which also has beta glucans in so I haven’t used it. However, a quick Google shows these beta glucans can also be derived from oats, barley, algae, bacteria and mushrooms. So it’s a minefield if your cat can’t tolerate yeast!

I hope you have found a solution before now and that your cat is much better. Please let me know if you found something that worked!
If you are still struggling, I hope this information about brewers yeast being a possible cause to bowel inflammation might help.
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