I bet this explains the change:
http://www.protexinvet.com/pet-health/362/general-faqs Scroll down to 'what makes a good probiotic' and it says that " Within the EU all probiotics must be registered for use in an individual animal species. For example, Enterococcus faecium (NCIMB 10415) E1707 is registered for use in dogs."
So I reckon a few years ago there was a change in EU regulation as above, and while this particular strain of bacteria is registered for use in dogs, it isn't for cats so they aren't allowed to claim on the labelling that it has health benefits for cats even though actually nothing has changed in practice. If the same is true here as it is with rabbits which it probably is (especially given all the literature about the use of c.faecium in cats) it's nothing to do with safety, but probably just the cost/faff is prohibitive for them to bother registering it with cats so they rely on people using the prescribing cascade for its ongoing use.
Geoffrey is better still this evening
and he's being a pest for food again. I can only imagine that this past week he has felt like he has had food poisoning, but he's definitely on the mend now. Fingers crossed it stays that way!