Animal Welfare Professionals

Hello,

This is my first post, so I hope I have gotten it right!

I work for a large cat rescue/medical facility/spay and neuter as well as adoption center in North Hollywood CA. I also am a huge cat person with 3 of my own cats, now 15 years old. They are all from the same litter.  Due to an extreme health issue plus diabetes with one of my cats, I have learned a lot over the past month dealing with a critical situation. I am wondering if anyone is familiar with Visbiome? I have always given my cats Fortiflora, but apparently that is nowhere near as effective as Visbiome (a probiotic). 

I have just started it with my cat and I'll let everyone know how it goes...

Stomach issues are so common in the cat community and everything I read about this antibiotic says it's like a miracle.  Unfortunately, it may not be doable for rescue organizations as a standard protocol, it is expensive.  

#CommunityCatManagement

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Suzanne Phillips
Development Manager
Heaven on Earth
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Visbiome is not an antibiotic unless there's a second product. It's a probiotic. Fortiflora has one strain of probiotic, but Visbiome (and several others, like proviable and animal biome) are made with more than one strain, so the thought process is that it is more 'potent'. Personally, I use proviable and add s boulardii with my rescue cats that need more digestive help. Having a high quality food also helps.

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Celeste Bailey
Director
Celestial Zoo Pet Rescue
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Thank you Celeste! I misspoke and meant to say probiotic!

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Suzanne Phillips
Development Manager
Heaven on Earth
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-17-2023 08:35 PM
From: Celeste Bailey
Subject: Visbiome

Visbiome is not an antibiotic unless there's a second product. It's a probiotic. Fortiflora has one strain of probiotic, but Visbiome (and several others, like proviable and animal biome) are made with more than one strain, so the thought process is that it is more 'potent'. Personally, I use proviable and add s boulardii with my rescue cats that need more digestive help. Having a high quality food also helps.

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Celeste Bailey
Director
Celestial Zoo Pet Rescue
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My vet recommended Visbiome to me when one of our cats was in kidney failure a while back, and I have to say, I am a believer. He eventually passed, but I give it to our other kitty now. She's paralyzed and tends to get UTIs, and I feel like the Visbiome has helped in staving some of them off. It's pricy but I feel like it's been worth it for us.

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Kelly Duer
Senior Community Solutions Initiative Specialist
Maddie's Fund
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Hi Suzanne,

I used to run a large kitten program, and we used visbiome quite often with good results. It was often prescribed for kittens that had digestive issues that were unresolved after doing all the standard treatments--deworming, running fecals, trying antibiotics, etc.  I've done a little reading about diarrhea in kittens and it's such a delicate balance to keep their gut bacteria in good shape. We had several cases where visbiome was the only thing that helped! The kittens also seemed to really like the taste of it compared to fortiflora. 

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Kate Rachiele
Pet Program Advocate
Willow Domestic Violence Center of Greater Roc.
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If anyone in Europe/Australasia is interested in trying Visbiome, it's sold as Vivomixx here. 

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Bettina Vine
Animal Health Director
The Kitten Connection
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-27-2023 04:32 AM
From: Kate Rachiele
Subject: Visbiome

Hi Suzanne,

I used to run a large kitten program, and we used visbiome quite often with good results. It was often prescribed for kittens that had digestive issues that were unresolved after doing all the standard treatments--deworming, running fecals, trying antibiotics, etc.  I've done a little reading about diarrhea in kittens and it's such a delicate balance to keep their gut bacteria in good shape. We had several cases where visbiome was the only thing that helped! The kittens also seemed to really like the taste of it compared to fortiflora. 

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Kate Rachiele
Pet Program Advocate
Willow Domestic Violence Center of Greater Roc.
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Thanks Kate, I just started my cat on it, I'm started out with a lower dose and working my way up. 

Kittens are very delicate, we are in LA so we have a tremendous population of homeless cats, and kitten season is an explosion at our shelter (and every other shelter in LA) so I know how challenging that can be. My hat's off to you for doing that work, it's really all-encompassing but so important.

I'm glad to have so much good feedback on Visbiome!

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Suzanne Phillips
Development Manager
Heaven on Earth
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: 08-27-2023 04:32 AM
From: Kate Rachiele
Subject: Visbiome

Hi Suzanne,

I used to run a large kitten program, and we used visbiome quite often with good results. It was often prescribed for kittens that had digestive issues that were unresolved after doing all the standard treatments--deworming, running fecals, trying antibiotics, etc.  I've done a little reading about diarrhea in kittens and it's such a delicate balance to keep their gut bacteria in good shape. We had several cases where visbiome was the only thing that helped! The kittens also seemed to really like the taste of it compared to fortiflora. 

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Kate Rachiele
Pet Program Advocate
Willow Domestic Violence Center of Greater Roc.
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Hi, I'm super late to this thread but researching Visbiome for kittens and just stumbled across this. We just joined Visbiome's shelter program and they provided us a case for free! Might be worth applying if cost is a barrier. https://visbiomevet.com/pages/shelter-program 

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Victoria Poe
Foster Program Manager
Humane Rescue Alliance
Washington DC
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