How Are Digestive Issues Connected to Your Cat’s Gut Health?
When your cat’s gut microbiome is out of balance, common digestive symptoms like diarrhea, constipation, regurgitation, or vomiting may result.
Such gastrointestinal (GI) issues are often a sign that your cat’s gut microbiome is not functioning properly. So what is the gut microbiome? It’s the community of bacteria, fungi, and other microbes that live in your cat’s digestive tract and are essential for good health.
How Does a Cat’s Gut Become Imbalanced?
A gut microbiome is imbalanced when it’s missing good bacteria, has too many harmful bacteria, or doesn’t have enough diversity. Factors like disease, age, diet, and medications—especially antibiotics—can cause this kind of imbalance in your cat’s gut.
Missing Good Bacteria
Too Many Harmful Bacteria
Not Enough Diversity
How Can You Know What’s Going On in Your Cat’s Gut?
We recommend testing your cat’s gut microbiome with our at-home KittyBiome™ Gut Health Test.
Gut microbiome testing can give you a detailed understanding of what’s going on in your cat’s gut, revealing any imbalances that can cause GI symptoms.
You send us a small poop sample from your cat, and we do the rest. Using DNA sequencing, our scientists analyze all the types of bacteria in your cat’s poop and compare them to our healthy cat reference set. We then provide an interactive online report on your cat’s gut microbiome with personalized diet and supplement recommendations to help relieve symptoms and improve their digestive and overall health.
How Can You Restore Your Cat’s Gut and Relieve Their Symptoms?
For cats who suffer from moderate to severe chronic diarrhea or other GI issues, we recommend our KittyBiome™ Gut Restore Supplement.
The supplement introduces an entire community of beneficial cat-specific bacteria to add diversity and bring balance to the gut while relieving symptoms. Gut Restore is a fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) in an oral capsule. FMT has been shown to improve symptoms in cats with ongoing digestive issues. Replenishing important missing bacterial populations can often resolve GI symptoms quickly by restoring a healthy balance to your cat’s gut. If possible, we still recommend testing your cat’s gut microbiome with a Gut Health Test.
For relief of short-term occasional mild diarrhea or GI discomfort, we recommend KittyBiome™ GMP.
KittyBiome GMP for cats is a unique blend of prebiotics, probiotics, and phages. Ingredients: the phage PreforPro® helps reduce harmful E. coli and C. difficile bacteria, yeast-based probiotic S. boulardii helps resolve diarrhea by restoring microbiome balance, and prebiotic MOS helps good bacteria to grow.
How Can You Help Prevent Cat Gut and Digestive Symptoms in the Future?
Feed your cat a healthy diet and maintain a balanced gut microbiome with KittyBiome™ S. boulardii + FOS Powder daily supplement.
With active ingredients Saccharomyces boulardii and fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS), this probiotic plus prebiotic supplement improves stool consistency and supports your cat’s digestive health.
Health Tip
Feeding a healthy, balanced diet is the best way to manage your cat’s gut microbiome. If you’ve taken our Gut Health Test, follow the diet recommendations in your cat’s personalized report to support the growth of beneficial bacteria.
Since the microbiome is an ever-changing ecosystem that is impacted by multiple factors, including diet and medications, we suggest re-testing your cat’s gut health annually or anytime symptoms arise. A well-balanced gut microbiome will help your cat live a healthier, happier life.