Hair loss due to malnutrition

Just before we started the enzyme treatment I noticed that there were a few pink spots along Piper's muzzle. Within a day or two I noticed the top of her nose was also pink. She had started to loose her hair due to malnutrition. Like any other dog she was shedding but due to her condition her body was unable to replace the lost hair because she was unable to process the food she was eating. Her body could not unlock the nutrients required to synthesize new hair.

She may be thin but she has energy to burn

June 16, 2009

She was diagnosed and we were waiting for our enzymes to arrive in the mail. Although Piper had dramatic weight loss she still had energy to burn. I tried to keep her energy expenditure down to a minimum but, NOTHING would stop her from playing with her Frisbee, of course before she can have the Frisbee she must do a trick!

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.

Why start this blog?

Although this is a treatable disease dogs living with E.P.I have individual treatment plans that suit their personal physiology and their physiology changes with time, as her pancrease continues to atrophy adjustments will need to be made to accommodate her needs. That being said, it is helpful to keep a journal of what works and what doesn't work as well as pictures to show how she is progressing. I thought that a blog would be the best way to accomplish this.

Piper at 9 months old.

A summary of her history

Piper at 8 Months

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.

On September 6th 2008, she was almost 4 years old, I noticed she was a bit lethargic, she threw up and there was a trace amount of blood, then she started having bloody diarrhea. I slept on the floor by her kennel for the night and in the morning when there was still blood in her stool we took her to an ER vet where she was rehydrated, treated and released. We took her the following day to our vet where she was treated and a course of action was discussed. We decided that even though every fecal sample run had ALWAYS come back negative we would de-worm her and this would help ensure that she was not suffering from a parasite. She was dewormed in September and had the runs (or as we fondly called them pudding poop) in November. December came and went without an incident but, then in January it happened again. We tried everything from adding a meat tenderizer to her food, putting her on Metronidazole and even plant derived enzymes. When all else failed and she started to lose weight we put her on Hills Science Diet ID a a prescription food that would cover any food allergies she may have and it was easy to digest. At about $50.00 for a 20 pound bag I was a little frustrated when she had the runs AGAIN!

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.