My husband is experiencing, for the first time, what we believe is pouchitis. He's had his pouch for 1 1/2 years. ("Classic" symptoms: bloating, feels like still have to go, abdominal/gut pain, blood, tired, increased frequency, watery stools.)

As I'm reading through the recent posts about pouchitis, I keep seeing VSL#3 and FloraQ mentioned as "good" probiotics to use. What about other kinds -- do they work as well, or is it the "higher" probiotic count per dose in the two above that makes them so much better?

I ask b/c my husband, when he was battling the UC, used to take a kind from the natural foods store here in town (they were $18 per bottle). Would those work?

Since he's not diagnosed with pouchitis yet (he'll call his specialist tomorrow), I know he'll probably be put on an antibiotic first (don't antibiotics cause the stool to be even more watery?!)... and then we can start probiotic treatment when the antibiotic treatment is done...

Is that correct? Thank you for any input -- you're all so wonderful!

He probably needs to be scoped to see if it's pouchitis or cuffitis. They're treated differently. Blood usually means cuffitis rather than pouchitis. But not always. And he might have a bit of both. Probiotics will not cure pouchitis. It needs meds to knock it down. The probiotics are then used to keep it in remission.

It's the higher live culture count that makes a probiotic more effective. But you should try whatever you can get and see if it helps. If it doesn't, try another brand.

Good luck - kathy

I warned him he probably will need to be scoped. He's thrilled at the thought.

Thanks for the advice -- we'll see what the doctor says tomorrow & go from there... I'm sure he'll have to have some sort of treatment for whatever's happening -- there definately is *something* wrong.

Once that's all done, we'll probably try the probiotics he was taking with the UC first. If that doesn't work, we'll look into the FloraQ or VSL#3 (they both have pretty decent sites with product info -- http://www.floraq.com/ and http://www.vsl3.com/.

Thanks again!