What are Probiotics and how do they work?

Almost everyone knows that Doctors and Veterinarians use antibiotics to fight bacterial diseases. Antibiotics kill disease-causing bacteria. Unfortunately they also can kill off beneficial bacteria needed for digesting food. That is why digestive tract disorders often accompany an antibiotic treatment. Probiotics can accomplish the same results without harming beneficial bacteria and without causing the resulting digestion problems.

The concept is rather simple once you understand it. There is a limited amount of surface area in the digestive system that is available for bacterial growth. Both beneficial and harmful bacteria co-exist in the intestines of all animals. In healthy animals these two basic types of bacteria arein balance. When an animal is stressed or exposed to excess harmful bacteria, the system becomes unbalanced. Harmful bacteria take over and the animal becomes ill.

As an example imagine a dry sponge. Take the dry sponge and soak it in a bowl of water. It will absorb water until it is saturated. When you lift up the soaked sponge, the excess water runs off. If you move the soaked sponge into another bowl of water, it will not absorb any additional water because there just isn’t any more room. The intestinal tract acts in a similar way.

If the digestive tract is full of beneficial bacteria, there just isn’t room for harmful ones. Probiotic treatment is simply providing additional beneficial bacteria so that the surface area in the intestine that is available for bacterial growth is flooded with the beneficial bacteria. When beneficial bacteria occupy all available space, the harmful bacteria have nowhere to attach and grow. They therefore pass through the system and are expelled as waste.

Probiotic treatment is especially helpful during times of stress like breeding, showing, and molting. Use of probiotics can also be helpful as a follow up to antibiotic treatment. After an antibiotic treatment, probiotics help to quickly re-establish the beneficial bacterial cultures that are destroyed by the antibiotics.

Avi-Culture is a probiotic consisting of live beneficial bacteria necessary for proper food digestion. Avi-culture contains Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei, Bifido bacterium bifidium, and Streptococccus faecium.

Quikon Med acts in a similar fashion that can be used in conjunction with probiotic treatment to further improve the auto-immune system. Med naturally kills off many harmful bacteria, protozoa, parasites, and fungi. The Med and probiotic work together to remove harmful bacteria while increasing beneficial bacteria.