Gut Microbiome Test for Cats

My cat has FIV, heart murmur, kidney disease, and IBD. He was losing weight, had itchy skin, dirty ears, weepy eye, loose stool, and vomiting. He was on a hydrolyzed diet for years prior to this, thinking it was a food allergy, and this helped somewhat, but when he seemed more uncomfortable I knew I needed to keep searching for the problem. One expensive vet test (sent to A&M) showed a possible gut imbalance but did not have details on what was actually going on, and the only suggestion was use fortiflora which I had already been using (to try to improve appetite). My vet had not used fecal pills before so was fine with me trying them, but did not have any experience to share about them.
I submitted two samples to Animal Biome for testing, before and after using the Animal Biome products. The first showed my cat had an overabundance of bad bacteria (e coli) and very little diversity of good bacteria (2 types took up 80%). The consultation was very helpful in deciding what to try. After 30 pills of Gut Maintain (to try to get rid of the bad bacteria), and 90 pills of Gut Restore (as well as a diet change to single protein food, and budesonide recommended by my new vet) I retested. His results showed no bad bacteria, and an improvement in diversity of good bacteria. His gut is still considered imbalanced, and they recommend more sporadic use of Gut Restore to keep him on the right track, as well as their Mushroom Blend which I have not tried yet.
Because I changed several things at once (fecal pills, diet, and steroid use) it is hard to credit Animal Biome products alone, but regardless the test shows changes.
According to their own study, some cats will respond to Gut Restore and some won't, so for me, these test results help me decide if these products had any effect. I would recommend the test if you can afford it.

2 vets would not test her stool, ONE WAS A SPECIALIST ! she has jaundice. i knew there was something wrong with her digestion. they still would not test.
the test came back, she had high e-coli, Which can cause jaundice and practically no good bacteria least i knew what was causing her jaundice... I WOULD SAY THIS IS A VERY GOOD TEST.

My cat's story is similar to many others - chronic diarrhea, suspected IBD... Although I was working with an (expensive) internal medicine vet, nothing was working (food change, antibiotics, FortiFlora, Visbiome, hydrolyzed rx diet) and bloodwork was all normal. Throwing everything at the wall, I ordered the Animal Biome gut test, and of course, his gut was way out of balance. I think solving my kitty's problems was the combination of multiple factors: 1) understanding that the root problem was that his gut was out of whack; 2) calming inflammation down through immunosuppressants; 3) multiple rounds of various probiotics, including Animal Biome FOS; 4) change to a clean, high quality wet food. After about 8 weeks on immunosuppressants and 2 weeks on Farmina Digestion wet food products, and consistent use of probiotics, my kitty has been in the clear and med-free for 10 months. Thankful to Animal Biome for helping me understand how to support my kitty!

My cat was suffering from diarrhea the Microbiome Test was super helpful, We learned that my cat's Gut microbiome were imbalanced he has IBD ive being told with the consultation that the Gut restore and Gut Maintenace Plus will help
His stool now are more firm no more diarrhea and less trips to the bathroom .
The test was easy to do and the results report is comprehensive.

We decided to test our cat to see if microbiome imbalance was impacting her blood sugar and digestion. The test data doesn’t lie! Looking forward to trying the gut reset to see if we can control her diabetes through the gut.