How is a fecal microbiota transplant different from a probiotic?

Commercial probiotics typically have anywhere from one to ten different strains of bacteria, whereas a healthy gut contains hundreds to thousands of different bacterial strains. Because our material is sourced directly from healthy pets, it contains a much more diverse range of bacteria than a probiotic, meaning that it has the potential to bring larger-scale changes to your pet’s health.

Commercial probiotics contain strains of bacteria isolated from either human infants or from soil. This is true of both human-grade and veterinary-grade probiotics. These bacteria are not well-adapted to living inside of a cat or dog’s gut, and as a result, they typically do not colonize and bring about lasting health changes. Once you stop administering probiotics, any health benefits you saw will likely be lost as the remaining probiotic bacteria pass through the system. In a fecal microbiota transplant, the bacteria came from healthy dogs and cats, and so are already well-adapted to life in a dog or cat’s digestive tract. For this reason, they can become established in the gut and remain after the full course of capsules are administered.

Commercial probiotics do not contain species-specific strains. The types of bacteria in standard probiotics are very rarely found in a healthy dog or cat that has not been on a probiotic. Naturally-occurring bacteria from the guts of cats and dogs do not typically grow well in a laboratory, so it’s difficult to produce them on a large scale and put them into a probiotic formulation. At this time, the only way to transfer the full range of species-specific, healthy bacteria into a sick pet is by sourcing them from the stool of a healthy animal.