Antibiotics and the gut, three weeks later

Antibiotics do not aim carefully. A course that clears an infection also thins out the population of bacteria that were doing useful work in the gut, and the gap shows up as loose stools, wind, and a dog that seems fine in themselves but is unpleasant to follow around the garden.

Left alone, most dogs repopulate on their own over a few weeks. What live cultures do is give that process a head start, and what a prebiotic like inulin does is feed the bacteria you are trying to re-establish. Slippery elm and kaolin sit alongside them and settle the lining rather than the population.

A fortnight is a fair window. Owners often see it turn in the first week, but two weeks is where we would expect stools to be consistently normal again.

If they are not, stop guessing. Loose stools that persist past three weeks, or that come with weight loss, blood, or a dog that is genuinely off, are a vet conversation. There are half a dozen things that look identical from the outside and only one of them is answered by a tub of live cultures.