A healthy diet is the best way to manage the gut microbiome. Since the bacteria that live in the gut help digest your pet’s food, what you feed your cat or dog influences which groups of gut bacteria thrive and multiply. For example, some commercially available pet diets are highly processed foods that contain a lot of carbohydrates, which encourage the growth of particular groups of gut bacteria that love carbs. When these bacteria multiply too successfully, they can crowd out other important bacteria groups, reducing diversity in the microbiome. And some carb-loving bacteria groups are associated with excessive inflammation, which can cause a variety of problems throughout the body.

Cats are obligate carnivores, so their gut microbiomes function best on a diet that’s high in protein (containing more than 40% protein on a dry-matter basis) and low in carbohydrates. Dogs are carnivores too, though in living closely with humans over thousands of years, they’ve developed the ability to metabolize a wider variety of foods. A balanced dog diet should be more than 35% protein on a dry-matter basis, should be low in fat, and should include healthy whole grains and other nutritious elements, such as fermented foods.

Regular assessments of your pet’s gut microbiome can help you keep up with any changes before they lead to symptoms. For healthy cats and dogs, a Gut Health Test once a year—and after any antibiotic use—can tell you whether you need to adjust your pet’s diet, as well as which foods or supplements might be most helpful. If your cat or dog has chronic health issues, like IBD or diabetes, more frequent microbiome testing can give you the information you need to help them live longer, happier lives.

In some situations, antibiotics can be a valuable, even life-saving treatment. If your pet has a serious infection or an overgrowth of harmful bacteria, a course of antibiotics may be absolutely necessary. But because these drugs tend to kill a lot of beneficial bacteria along with the “bad bacteria,” antibiotics can make drastic, long-term changes in your pet’s gut microbiome.

So if your veterinarian recommends a course of antibiotics, it’s important to ask questions, including which particular bacteria the proposed antibiotic has been shown to work against and whether there are any alternative treatment options to consider.

If your cat or dog does need antibiotics, there’s still a lot you can do to help them feel better during and after treatment. Because antibiotics disrupt the normal functioning of the gut microbiome, diarrhea is a common side effect. AnimalBiome’s Gut Maintenance Plus supplement was specifically designed to help resolve flare-ups of diarrhea caused by antibiotics.

Gut Maintenance Plus contains both the probiotic S. boulardii—a species of yeast (so it’s not killed off by antibiotics)—and FOS, a prebiotic that S. boulardii likes to eat. A substantial body of research has demonstrated that S. boulardii resolves diarrhea caused by antibiotics, and FOS has been shown to work together with S. boulardii to improve intestinal health.