Taken June 16, 2009
YIKES! That is a skinny dog!
Taken August 3, 2009
Taken October 14, 2009
After comparing these photos side by side I am shocked that she was ever that emaciated and amazed at the transformation she has made.
A journal of the life of a dog diagnosed with E.P.I (Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency)
YIKES! That is a skinny dog!
Taken August 3, 2009
Taken October 14, 2009
It would be a stinky 5 hour car ride plus we would be in the middle of nowhere without medication. I put in a call to my vet and picked up a prescription of Metronidazole to take with us just in case it was the beginning of SIBO. I increased the enzyme back to the original ratio but that night when she had nasty stinking pudding poop I started the medication. Although the car ride was still a bit stinky at times, within 48 hours she was regular again and despite the stress of traveling to a new place her appetite increased and she was finishing off her meals again.
She even went for her first swim, Not such a big fan of the water, but atleast she tried.
Trying to keep one eye on the children in the house and one eye on the child in the raft .
For the most part she just enjoyed relaxing in the cool sand.
It is important that you allow the enzyme enough time to break down and predigest the food. If the enzyme has not had enough time to react with the food your dog will not acquire the maximum nutrients, still may display the symptoms of E.P.I and there is a greater risk that it will cause oral ulcers and sores. Piper's food soaks for a total of 45 minutes.
Oh, where to begin? I guess we always just assumed Piper had a sensitive stomach. It started when she was just about two years old. She would get the runs and we assumed she had either gotten into a snack left out by one of the kids or she was eating her poop (a nasty habit she had from the start). It happened often enough that I knew the protocol by heart, the vet would prescribe Lomotil (an antidiarrhea medication) and antibiotics for bacterial overgrowth, she would be fed rice and boiled chicken for a few days and then slowly put back on her regular food and eventually everything would be fine. That is until the next time.
After reading a post about another dog with similar symptoms and her diagnosis with EPI, I took Piper to the vet and had the vet run a blood test called a trypsin-like immunoreativity (cTLI) which is the only way to properly diagnose this condition. While we were there I had them weigh her, she had dropped from 56 pounds at the end of April to 46 pounds in June. On June 12th 2009, when the results came back she was diagnosed with EPI. A healthy dog will have a range of 5-35 and Piper’s was less than 1. She was literally starving to death.
She was always hungry, so hungry in fact she would steal food off of the counters and eat items she otherwise would NEVER have touched - like strawberries.
Piper is pictured here guarding marshmallows for our s'mores. Now a days they wouldn't have lasted 30 seconds !
Piper is currently being treated for this disease and we hope to find just the right balance of enzymes, food and supplements so that she can live a long and healthy life with our family.