Probiotics comparison

❄ Our view

The benchmark, and the one most vets reach for first. The strain is the one that counts: Enterococcus faecium SF68, deposited under number NCIMB 10415, registered as zootechnical additive 4b1705. It is by far the best documented in cats, and the only case on this page where one knows precisely what one is dealing with.

With an advantage of its own: 55 % protein, which makes it the most palatable of the lot. With a cat that turns its nose up, that detail decides everything — a refused probiotic serves no purpose. Three correctly dosed antioxidants come with it: vitamin E, vitamin C and beta-carotene.

We first ranked it second, behind the Plus. The arithmetic changed our mind, and we would rather say so: the Plus does not supply more bacteria, it supplies psyllium. We set out that reasoning in the next review. At equal bacterial dose, this is therefore the cheaper of the two, and the more palatable.

What we hold against it is what we hold against others: “meat and animal by-products”, without a single species named. And a price to look in the face — €1,166 per kilo of powder. You are not buying powder by weight, you are buying microencapsulated live bacteria and a traced strain: but at over a euro per cat per day, this is not a supplement to give a whole cattery all year round.

❄ Our view

We first placed this product at the top, on the strength of the CFU calculation. We were wrong, and the correction deserves to be explained in full, because it holds for a great many other labels.

The starting reasoning looked sound: 5×10¹¹ CFU/kg makes 5×10⁸ per gram, the sachet weighs 1.5 g, therefore 7.5×10⁸ per dose against 5×10⁸ for the classic. One and a half times more. Except that three things say otherwise.

First, the analytical constituents. Protein falls from 55 % to 37 %, fat from 19 % to 12.5 %. In both cases, exactly two thirds. That is not a reformulation: it is a dilution. The Plus is two thirds of classic FortiFlora and one third psyllium — 0.5 g of fibre in a 1.5 g sachet.

Then the North American labels of the same products, which declare the dose per sachet rather than per gram: 1×10⁸ CFU per sachet for the 1 g format as for the 1.5 g format. Identical.

Finally, common sense: psyllium contains no bacteria. Diluting a powder with fibre does not create any.

Conclusion: the Plus is the classic with 0.5 g of psyllium added per sachet. And that is where the price becomes interesting to look at. The box holds 15 g of psyllium in total. In bulk, that fibre sells for between €17 and €60 a kilo depending on brand and packaging: those 15 g are therefore worth between 25 and 90 cents. You pay €1 to €4.50 more than for the classic, depending on the seller.

It is no scandal at €36 — a euro for not having to dose a fibre yourself is defensible. It is rather more of one at €39.45. A curiosity in passing: the Plus is cheaper per kilo than the classic, €800 against €1,166… precisely because a third of the box is psyllium sold at the probiotic’s price.

That said, the fibre has a real interest when stools are loose, and having it pre-dosed in the sachet is convenient. If that is what you are after, talk to your vet: psyllium is also given separately, for a few cents a day, and your vet is the one who will know whether it is indicated for your cat.

❄ Our view

On paper it is the most interesting challenger to the two Purinas: same bacterial species, same price, made in France, and a palatability base we like better — hydrolysed chicken liver and heart, named, where Purina writes “meat and by-products”. Vitamin E, selenium and rosemary as a natural antioxidant round it off neatly.

Two things stop us ranking it higher, and both are label problems, not product problems.

The unit, first. The box announces “3.5×10¹⁰ CFU/g” under a heading reading “per kg”. Both cannot be true at once: read per gram, it would be seventy times the FortiFlora; read per kilo, fourteen times less. It is the single most important figure on a probiotic, and it is unreadable.

The strain number, next. The one we noted does not match the reference deposit for the feline strain, NCIMB 10415. That may be a misreading of a tiny label — or a different strain, which changes everything.

We will update this review as soon as we can read the packaging properly. As it stands, a promising product that cannot honestly be compared with the other two.

❄ Our view

There is no living micro-organism in here, and that has to be said at once. The “yeasts” appear in the ingredients, with no strain and no CFU count: were they alive, the regulation would require them to be declared as a zootechnical additive with their number, as Purina does. They are therefore, in all likelihood, inactivated yeasts.

What it really is: inulin and pectin — two prebiotics —, pumpkin powder for fibre, and kaolin, an adsorbent clay. In other words a stool firmer. And that is exactly what Francodex announces, in plain words on the box: “improves stool consistency”. The brand is not cheating; it is the shelf that muddles everything.

Useful, then, but for something else. Three limits worth knowing, given by the manufacturer itself: no more than seven consecutive days, not before three months, and never in case of constipation. On a kitten in the middle of a food change, it is not the product you are looking for.

And its value for money does not hold either: at €0.33 a tablet you are paying for inulin, pectin and kaolin, when half a gram of loose psyllium costs under 3 cents and does the same job. We set that calculation out a little further down.

❄ Our view

Last, and by a distance. First because it is not a probiotic: FOS and inulin are prebiotics, and there is not a living bacterium in the pouch.

Then, and this is what bothers us most, because of the name. “Vers O Net” — vers means worms in French —, traditional deworming plants on the front, an antiparasitic shelf at several retailers: everything suggests a wormer. It does not deworm. No treat replaces a veterinary wormer, and in a cattery that point is not negotiable — a worming protocol is decided with your vet, not in the treats aisle.

A word on the plants, keeping a sense of proportion. Garlic is toxic to cats: it damages red blood cells, and cats are more sensitive to it than dogs. Tansy contains thujone, which is neurotoxic. At the levels present — 0.08 % and 0.03 % — the amount actually swallowed is minute and there is no danger at the recommended dose. But putting garlic in a product meant for cats remains, to us, a questionable choice.

What is left is what it really is: a treat at 24 % fat, with vitamins and a little fibre. As a treat, why not. As an answer to a digestive problem, no.