Pro-Kolin Probiotic Paste for Dogs & Cats
As a product recommended by veterinarians, Pro-Kolin from Protexin is one of the most commonly prescribed probiotics when your dog or cat suffers any of the following:
- Diarrhoea or gastrointestinal issues
- During diet transitions
- Recovery from antibiotics
- Recovery from worming treatments
- During stressful situations (house move, travel, etc)
The product comes as a probiotic paste which makes your life easier as it’s highly palatable and easy to administer.
But here’s the clincher – whereas Pro-Kolin might get your pet back on track, there’s a lot to unpack with the above rather common issues which affect many of our pets.
In this review we’ll take a look at what Pro-Kolin is made of, as this can give a real insight into what you’re actually giving your pet.
Let’s go!
Where to buy
Pro-Kolin is available from many vets, but you will also find it available at Pet Circle:
Addressing the reasons why your pet needs probiotics
In some instances a probiotic paste can be used as a temporary measure to restore your pet’s gut health.
This is undeniably something you must do, but let’s consider why our pets suffer from poor gut health in the first place:
Diarrhoea or gastrointestinal issues
This can occur due to a virus, but often as a result of food the pet has been eating. Did they eat something unusual, or could your regular pet food be the cause?
During diet transitions
We commonly assume a change in diet can cause digestive upset, but we fail to consider the reason why.
The answer is simple – consuming the same food, especially processed food, for any period of time is inherently bad even if this is considered the way we should feed our pets.
Changing the food inevitably causes digestive upset in the same way it would upset your gut if you did the same.
Ask yourself why you feed your pet the same pet food day in day out.
Recovery from antibiotics
Antibiotics are sometimes a necessary evil, but it’s well known the havoc they can cause on the digestive system and gut.
Pets with a weaker immunity can react to antibiotics more than other pets, and I’ll cover those reasons below.
Recovery from worming treatments
Worming treatments can also be a necessary evil, but some pets show more side effects than others.
As with antibiotics, If your pet is affected by a worming treatment it could be a sign of poor health and immunity in general. I’ll tell you what to consider below.
Don’t rely on Pro-Kolin as the only solution – Take a holistic approach to truly benefit your pet
When our pets get sick we tend to turn to medication or treatments.
Whereas these may show clear results, they often don’t address the real cause.
All the issues discussed above are a sign your pet’s health and immune system isn’t as good as it should be, and these are real issues you must consider.
As a pet nutritionist with decades of experience in pet food and pet food marketing, it’s clear fact to me most domestic pets suffer from poor diet.
You will find this easy to understand when you realise most commercial cat and dog foods are processed, often made from inappropriate grains or grain-free alternatives for your carnivorous pet.
Ask yourself why most cat foods are high-carbohydrate when cats are factually obligate carnivore who have no biological need to consume these ingredients. Let that sink in, then consider if the same applies to your dog.
If you feed a plant the right food it will grow strong and healthy, and the same simple philosophy applies to both us and our pets.
For these reasons, I urge you to consider whatever dog or cat food you may be feeding, and find out if it really is as healthy and appropriate as you may think.
Don’t just rely on a probiotic paste like Pro-Kolin.
Pro-Kolin Probiotic Paste Review
The packaging of Pro-Kolin is clearly designed to fit in with other products branded “Veterinarian” – a word which makes us believe a product must be good, especially when endorsed by our vet.
Pro-Kolin touts a range of additives including gut flora stabilisers, Protexin probiotic, and Enterococcus faecium as a beneficial bacteria. It also contains a high concentration of live cultures – 200 billion CFU per kilogram or 200 million CFU per gram – and this should truly help your pet begin to restore digestive health.
However, let’s consider the main ingredients as Soya oil, Pectin, Preplex® prebiotic (Fructo-oligosaccharide), Dextrose.
Soya oil is interesting as the main ingredient as some pets react to soy. It’s not exactly an ideal ingredient in any product for cats or dog, but it should provide essential fatty acids.
Pectin is a fibre from fruit which is believed to support gut health. Fibre should help your pet firm up stools if they’re suffering diarrhoea, which will certainly make you and them feel a little better.
Preplex® prebiotic (fructo-oligosaccharide) feeds good gut bacteria and should help your pet to begin digesting their food better once more.
Dextrose is another interesting ingredient as it’s a sugar. You may think differently of the product if it listed sugar as one of the main ingredients, because we consider sugar unhealthy (for good reason). Dextrose may act as a carrier or stabiliser for live bacteria, but I expect it’s used more to make the paste “highly palatable” to your pet.
Is Pro-Kolin Probiotic Paste the Right Choice?
By all means, if your pet is suffering a condition which justifies your veterinarian making the recommendation, then Pro-Kolin should start getting their digestive system back on track.
I would recommend Pro-Kolin as a short term solution, for the main reason I don’t see the ingredients overly appropriate for either a cat or dog.
Start to consider your pet’s diet as a whole. Start with reading the ingredients and asking yourself “Are these appropriate for my carnivore cat or carnivore-bias dog?”
If a virus or medication was the cause of a disrupted microbiome or digestive system then Pro-Kolin will help, but if your dog or cat is currently surviving off an inappropriate processed food, then the ultimate win for their future health is changing their diet.
