Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Often, when reviewing nutritional items for my pets, I can only talk about the ingredients and what benefit I know the ingredients have; I don't often expect or see drastic changes since I already have my dogs on a very high-quality diet (Acana) and supplement them with fish oils (for healthy skin/coat) and glucosamine and chondroitin (for healthy bones/joints). So generally, when I try a new type of item, a new brand, flavor, etc., I expect for things to maintain or get a little better, but I don't expect to have a lot to rave about beyond "it's kept doing what it should." However, with these probiotics, I actually have something to concretely rave about! First off, I have three elderly rescue dogs - one German Shepherd/border collie mix, one Jindo/German Shepherd/hound mix, and one rottweiler/pibble/hound mix. Two of them are going on 11 years old in November, and the third is anywhere between 9-12 years old. Their health is incredibly important to me, and I will never settle for less than the best when it comes to their nutrition, supplements, and care. One of my dogs (the rottweiler/pibble/hound mix) has been in good health, had a great diet since she came to live with us two years ago, and her teeth are in good condition. However, her breath has always been AWFUL. I mean shrivel the hair off of your arms and make you gag awful. So bad, her breath made us gag even when her mouth was CLOSED. Our vet checked her teeth and general health and said everything looked fine, that some dogs just have horrible breath originating in their stomach/digestive tract. He didn't propose any real solutions, just kind of considered it a fact of life that some dogs and cats have this problem. Well, I finally heard through the grapevine about probiotics potentially being able to help this sort of issue. I figured it never hurts to try, and at the very least, our pups would be able to replace their healthy gut flora after the numerous illnesses and antibiotics they've had over the years. I didn't expect to notice any drastic difference, but figured it would be worth supplementing with probiotics just to know I was doing what I could to keep them healthy on the inside. I don't expect this result to be typical for every problem across the board, but my dog that had the drop-you-dead bad breath? Last night, after about a week of serving her probiotics with her meals, she came up and panted in my face while I was lying on the couch. I gave her love and sent her on her way, then stopped in my tracks. I realized I hadn't recoiled in horror from her breath. I hadn't even NOTICED her breath at all, aside from the fact that I could hear it and feel it. Stunned, but skeptical, I called her back over to me and took a big breath. Nothing. I got her all playful so she'd open her mouth and pant again, giving me a chance to get a full face of her formerly-foul stench. Still no smell. I couldn't believe it. I STILL can't believe it. So I called my partner over, thinking I must just not be in my right senses. I sometimes don't notice smells as much as he does, so I figured he would surely smell the usual stench and tell me I was out of my mind. "Let Emma pant in your face." Okay, maybe I could have phrased it better. He looked at me like I was crazy. "Seriously," I assured him, "It's not a cruel joke. I need you to see if her breath is still toxic because...I might be crazy, but I am not smelling a THING." He looked at me dubiously and cautiously, slowly, and carefully put his nose next to our dog's closed mouth, expecting the usual horror. His eyes widened as he realized he couldn't smell anything. Relieved that he was experiencing the same thing I was, I repeated my earlier test of getting her to open-mouthed breath. He looked astonished, but confirmed that I wasn't just suddenly really bad at smelling things. Her breath was actually not in any way objectionable. We're both still completely flabbergasted, but holy moly. In this case, at least, these probiotics did far more than I ever expected or could have hoped. Seriously, miracles have been at work here! XD Okay, now down to the nitty gritty. This probiotic is a powder, and comes with a very small serving scoop. For the size of my dogs, I give them one scoop per day, per dog. After measuring out their food and drizzling their fish oil on top of the food, I sprinkle the probiotics over the top, then release them to eat. They gobble it all up together and lick their bowls clean! For how small the scoop is and how much powder comes in the container, I imagine this will give me about 120 servings total (the label says "up to 240" servings, so I imagine that's for the smallest dose, which is half a scoop). For three medium-large dogs, that's over a month of probiotics before I have to re-order. Not bad! I am very happy this product is also made in the USA (I do NOT buy anything my pets will ingest that is made in China!), and honestly don't know if I'll ever end up trying another brand at all. This brand has been so surprisingly effective already, I may just stick with it from here on out. I'll be sure to come back and update my review if I notice any other beneficial changes in my other two dogs. My GSD/Jindo/hound pup does have extreme allergies to a lot of things and eats some really awful stuff sometimes before I can catch her, and my GSD/border collie has a compromised immune system that causes skin issues periodically in his old age, so I'm eager to see if there is also improvement over time to either of those issues on this probiotic. One way or the other, it seems to have fixed my third dog's toxic breath, so even just that is enough for me to be ecstatic (especially since that's also the dog that tries to sneak tongue bleps whenever she can)! PLEASE NOTE: Although this worked for my dog's breath, please be aware that whether it helps your dog's breath or not will totally depend on the actual underlying CAUSE of the bad breath! My dog had a bacterial imbalance in her digestive system that was causing her bad breath, and I imagine it will work the same for others whose dogs have a bacterial imbalance as well. However, if your dog has an abscessed tooth, tooth decay, mouth cancer, or something of that nature that is causing the bad breath, I don't imagine probiotics will fix the issue. When in doubt, please always consult with your vet and have a complete examination to help identify the source of the issue! It's always better to be safe than sorry! I'm also attaching a photo of my three elderly goofballs. They are the light of my life! The lady on the left is the one who had the toxic breath. :)