With all the hype about probiotics, as a pet owner, why should I care about postbiotics? Is there any difference?  Let’s discuss the differences between probiotics and postbiotics.  Probiotics are live bacteria.  Probiotics act as mini-manufacturing facilities in the dog’s digestive tract.  Postbiotics are essentially the “products” of probiotics. 

Pros and Cons

Postbiotics directly provide the health benefit to the host.  Probiotics, on the other hand, take time to grow and establish themselves.  Probiotics can establish themselves and be a constant source of postbiotics in the digestive tract.  Postbiotics are known to provide health benefits to the host; whereas what the probiotics produce can change over time and, potentially, be less potent in their health impact.  Probiotics have an added advantage of being able to positively influence their environment.  Both probiotics and postbiotics need to be continually dosed to the dog to maintain their efficacy at improving host health.

What to Choose

The toughest question is which do I use, a probiotic or a postbiotic?  Every dog is a unique individual just like all humans are uniquely and wonderfully made!  Because of their different benefits, often providing both probiotics and postbiotics is ideal.  Certain product forms are not as conducive to maintaining the efficacy of live probiotics.  Thus, probiotics can be susceptible to degradation and reduced activity.  Postbiotics tend to be hardier in harsh processing and sensitive environments.  Harsh processing includes using ingredients in products that are heated such as extrusion and canning (retort).  Sensitive environments include those where the product is exposed to air (oxygen), light (UV radiation), and humidity.  Probiotics have the ability to produce multiple postbiotics and influence the composition of their environment.  But if the process, packaging, and storage conditions challenge the survival of probiotics, postbiotics may be the better option.

The Best Approach

It is important to discern and question a manufacturer’s approach to adding probiotics and postbiotics.  Are the probiotics stable in their process and package?  What is the rationale for using postbiotics in their products?  Why don’t they use probiotics as well as postbiotics in their product?

Certain yeast extracts are known to positively influence gut immune health in dogs.  Yeast cultures can also promote good gut health.  When the product form is conducive, adding postbiotics like these as well as probiotics to a product can produce a powerful combination against various challenges your pet may face.