About Piper

Piper is a long haired German shepherd dog who was born on September 24, 2004. She was brought home by my family on April 5, 2005. On June 12, 2009 she was diagnosed with Enzyme Pancreatic Insufficiency or E.P.I. Simply put her pancreas is no longer secreting the enzymes that are required for her to properly digest her food so she has been slowly starving to death. Now that she has been diagnosed she can begin treatment and live a full and active life.

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Piper's Weight Over Time

In the beginning Piper's weight was not an issue it was easily maintained as she grew. She started out in 2005 at 54 pounds and for two years grew at a steady pace. In 2007 I was having a difficult time keeping weight on her and she just seemed a bit slim, so we increased the amount of food she was receiving and she gained a few pounds. She held steady weighing in at 63.1 pounds for a year. She was never driven by food, would never touch food left out on the counter (anything on the floor or children sized furniture was fair game), if we were training at the kennel she would refuse treats and so she received a ton of praise instead.

She started to loose weight slowly in 2008 dropping to 58 pounds which was not noticeable because of all her hair. In early 2009 she dropped a pound but we assumed it was water weight or due to an increase in activity level. It wasn't until she started loosing weight drastically during the spring of 2009 that we were able to notice the weight loss. From April 27th to June 9th she dropped almost 10 pounds and was RAVENOUS all the time.



A year ago we could have left a steak on the counter and she would not have touched it, now nothing is safe. After feeding her dinner last night I went upstairs to check on the kids only to hear a crash in the kitchen. I ran downstairs only to find that she was cleaning off the dirty dishes in the kitchen sink. She is currently being fed a 1 1/4 C. of kibble (which is pretreated with enymes) three times a day and a 1/2C. of the treated kibble as a snack when she needs it. On June 9th she weighed in at 46 pounds.

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