Bene-bac 'dose' for hamsters

Eriathwen

Eriathwen

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I wasn't sure whether to put this in the nutrition section or health, so feel free to move if necessary!

But I recently got some bene-bac probiotic paste for one of my piggies who has chronic digestive issues, and of course its used with a wide range of species from dogs to hamsters, so I figured as both are very elderly, both on metacam and one of baytril indefinitely, I would maybe offer them some once a week or so.

My issue is the dosing information is unfortunately quite vague, because obviously a "newborn" of pretty much any other species is still bigger than my 2 dwarf hamsters! 😅

So I was wondering if anyone had used it before and how much they had given?
 
I've only used the powder for small animals before and dosing was very tricky. I think I needed something like a sixteenth of a quarter of a teaspoon by memory - which meant trying to divide a quarter of a teaspoonful into 16 little piles. I can't get hold of it in the Uk any more.

Can you screenshot the dosing on the back of the pack and see if we can work it out between us! I think if it's not the one for small animals it could be tricky.
 
I think probiotics are more related to health issues than nutrition so it can stay here! I think I might start a separate post about probiotics generally as well though!
 
Thanks! Yeah I only saw the big syringe of paste on Amazon, its not been available in the UK for some time which is why I grabbed some quickly when I saw it, its brilliant stuff compared to a lot other probiotics I've used.

This is the directions on the back

20221117_122641.jpg
 
How much does she weigh? It basically says 1g per 10lbs of body weight. 10lb in grammes is 4536g. So it would be 1gramme per 4536g body weight. So if a Dwarf hamster weighed, say 50g - it's going to be an extremely tiny amount. My maths isn't great!
 
She weighs 43g currently, so near enough, her current meds were dosed using 50g to make it easier I believe
 
The powder is easier to work out. This is the one I used and it includes lighter animals.Bene bac.jpg
 
Yes easier to go with 50g weight! So as you can see from above it was easier as it gives a dose for a 227g pet as 1/4 teaspoon. I think my robo was 30g so I divided it to get a proportion of 1/4 teaspoon.

If the gel is in grams - is it like a syringe? That's the only one I saw on Amazon. I think it might be for bigger animals although it does show a rabbit on the picture!

If it was the powder it would be 4.5th of a quarter teaspoon. A teaspoon is 2.7g so a quarter teaspoon is 0.675g and 4.5th of that is .......
 
Ok a fourth of 0.675 is 0.169. A fifth is 0.135. So somewhere in between 0.13 and 0.16 of a gramme. Say 0.15 approximately for her weight. You'd need a 1 ml syringe for that amount I think.
 
Brilliant, thanks! Yes it's the big syringe, although it does say hamsters on the pack I don't think they really thought through how people were meant to work out how much to give 😅
My maths is shocking so thankyou for the help with that! I'm up to my eyeballs in 1ml syringes currently as I've restocked my meds cupboard for the animals so that's just as well. Hopefully she likes it, it'd be just like her to love the baytril but hate the paste which is meant to taste nice lol
 
That would be 1.5 marking on a 1ml syringe so should be fairly easy :-). I am sure the dose isn't THAT crucial with probiotic as long as it's in the right region. I'd probably give the 0.15 though.
 
Only thing is - is the gel the same amount per gramme as the powder? I'd better do that calculation as well and see if it works out the same!

My maths is struggling with that one. Would it be worth emailing benebac and asking them the dose per gramme of hamster?!
 
Yes I'd imagine there's a reasonable amount of wiggle room with it, but I think emailing them might be worth a try, good call!

My main concern with it is it has both dextrose and sucrose listed as ingredients, with her being a dwarf I don't want to overdo the sugar.
 
Of course. Just looked at the powder ingredients and that also has sucrose high up in the list of ingredients. It sounds like it's mainly sugar powder with probiotics added. My robo had cancer (and wasn't a russian dwarf) so I decided not to worry about the sugar, and I wouldn't with a syrian either but it is a slight concern with a russian dwarf.

Maybe a different probiotic would be better. Another dwarf hamster owner always used Dr S Potent Brew (rat rations sell it). I don't think that has sugar in. The second link is the one to rat rations.

www.doctor-s-animalcare.com

DrS Potent Brew

A powerful liquid probiotic. Keeps the natural functions of the gut at their best. Can also improve the vigour of breeding animals and supports baby health.
www.doctor-s-animalcare.com www.doctor-s-animalcare.com


The dosage is still difficult to work out ha ha!
 
The dose for potent brew for 50g seems to be 0.05ml. Which would be about 2 or 3 drops if measured out in a 1ml syringe probably.
 
That looks like a much better alternative, thankyou! I have some 0.5ml syringes somewhere, I wonder if I can find them.. would make things a little easier 😅
 
Maz said:
How much does she weigh? It basically says 1g per 10lbs of body weight. 10lb in grammes is 4536g. So it would be 1gramme per 4536g body weight. So if a Dwarf hamster weighed, say 50g - it's going to be an extremely tiny amount. My maths isn't great!
Click to expand...
Ok the dosage will be less for the benebac gel. If it's 1g per 10lbs. That is 0.1g per 1 lb. 1lb is 453g So it would be 0.1g for 453g weight. 453 divided by 50 is 9.06. So you'd want a 9th of 0.1g. So it's actually about 0.01ml. Tried that calculation two different ways and it comes to about 0.01g or 0.01ml for the gel.
 
The 0.01 mark on the 1ml syringe is the first tiny mark - it would literally be about a drop or a drop and a bit of liquid. Is the gel quite stiff or runny? I think the Dr S looks easier :) Is she still on the antibiotics or have they finished now?

That's a big difference between the powder dosage and the gel dosage - the gel must be more concentrated.
 
The gel is incredibly thick, I think the Dr S is definitely the way to go for her, I'm not sure how I would get such a tiny amount into the syringe to be honest 😅

She hopefully only has another 10 days or so left of the baytril if I remember right, unless she starts snuffling once its finished, then she will be on it for the rest of her life
 
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