EPI * Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency

Craig,

What a beautiful photo of Ms. Lulu!!!! That's a keeper for sure!!

I think you did absolutely the right thing in starting from scractch and I'm glad you now have your culprit! Hopefully it'll be smooth sailing from now on!  

Miss Lulupants looks so elegant - such a pretty girl.

Great news - seems as if you are on the right path - made so much more difficult because of the lack of grain free availability.

Everybody has said it, but I will too. That is a stunningly beautiful picture. Gorgeous pup she is.  My JessAnneMarieLouise has food allergies that give her nasty ear ifnections. Finding the right food for her is always a challenge. We just started getting Canidae in NZ as well. Pretty excited about that.

Yes it's 3 o'clock in the morning here, we've just watched New Zealand draw with Italy (go Charlie-Pete! and you're up early Maggie-Lee??).

Lulu has been a sleepin'-weight slumped in my arms for the last two hours.

We hope we're on the right track, the next week will tell we think...

Craig

Well Craig... just so you know....we will be anxiously awaiting your posts about Ms. Lulupants next week -- - - and hoping for continued good results!

Hello Craig, Jemima & Miss Lulu,

While Boss is quite smitten with Lulu and considers her "his" girl, I do believe she has charmed all of us here on the Forum and has created her own little Fan Club following her life and times. Hopefully she likes living in the spotlight! Everything in the wonderful recent photo of her looks so peaceful... except her eyes. They look like she wistfully envisioning the hunt for those kangeroo bones and ready to go at a moments notice!

Sounds like you retreated and regrouped in the ongoing battle against SIBO. I can't tell you how many times I have stood in front of Boss's food/medicine cupboard at feeding time, studying the log, trying to make an educated decision on which variable needs to be adjusted. Sometimes I have felt I would have just about as much luck by going eeny, meeny, miny, mo to choose. I sure wish he had come with a manual and I could just turn to page 43 and get my answer! But, in lieu of that, I have always found steady guidance from members here on the Forum. Olesia has a special gift in the way she lay's out her advice that, to me, always makes logical sense and helps provide a beacon of light as to which way to turn. So I am glad you weighed her thoughts, bit the bullet and went back to square one. If grains are provoking Miss Lulu's SIBO it will be good to find something else for her beside the Eagle Pack as it is likely that if the two forms of rice listed were not 'split' that rice would be the primary ingredient in the food. While a good quality grain... it just may be too much for Miss Lulu. And while the hydrolyzed kibble (which Boss calls fake food) works for some, it does not work for all.  Has the illusive Tylan shown any greater positive effect than the Metro for her?

Enjoy your adventure hunting kangaroo bones and winter orchids. We will be waiting for an update and pictures upon your return (especially of the orchids please). Rich is demobing from fire and, weather permitting, we hope to fly out King Salmon fishing this week. If the fishing gods bestow upon us a nice 40 pounder we will hopefully have a picture of our adventure to share (but don't tell Boss and Scout we are going as they don't fit in the plane so have to stay home and they are not going to be happy campers about that!).

Yes indeed Becky, she may be half GSD but the other half is all cattle dog, never still, ever alert (except when she's staying up late watching the soccer with me). She's also very warm.

As far as the Tylan goes we *think* it is having a positive effect, poop did move up a modest notch, but as she's only been on it for just over a week it's hard to tell while the SIBO is being stoked by other elements. If the new food doesn't created a better environment I believe banging my head on Lulu's squeaky octopus might be a reasonable next move.

Wow, a 40 pounder? that's another Lulu! Can't wait to see pictures of that. perhaps one day we'll come a'callin' although I hope it'll not be because they send a contingent of us to fight a bushfire. Salmon fighting is my preferred cup of tea.

Craig

Craig- That picture is absolutely incredible. What a beautiful girl LuLu is..... I am so very glad she is doing better and glad she gets to be a dog again ....Good job!

Craig, What an absolutely beautiful portrait pic. of Miss Lulupants.  She does look a very fine young Miss indeed, (even though flirtatious, but we wont mention that) ;)..................   AND THE WORLD CUP...........  Don't think we will mention that either.............

Lynn & girls.

Craig, that has to be one of the most beautiful photos of Lulupants so far, it even surpasses the one of her on the beach.

I've just passed round the laptop to family members who have voted her 'Miss Australia' for sure.

I must commend you Craig and Jemima for your thorough researching and your recent action plan.  I so hope this is the breakthrough Miss Australia needs.  Mmmm am curious about the poo pic though. ... but if you can't post.......then I understand (sigh)

My Westie Chloe had a bad bout of Gastritis recently and I had to give her light digestible food but couldn't afford the Hills i/d food .... so gave her chappie highly digestible wet chicken and rice.........she was on antibiotics for 8 days, a little improvement......carried on three/four poops a day, waking up in the night to go again............semi formed puddings to sloppy dollops, back to vet, told to wait it out could be weather change :roll:, carry on the wet food, give time for the stomach to heal................ three weeks later, after another refusal for antibiotics.........and poops resembling an EPI dog........mucusy slime etc.........I thought could it be a food intolerence??? changed it to chappie wet fish and rice.................PERFECT POOPY DOOPIES..... I felt so guilty it was the food hindering her recovery.... its been ten days now and am now weening her back onto her kibble..........So the little girl is allergic to winged critters too:lol: 

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you all and look forward to updates on your Roo' adventure.

PS Can you please put a warning on your posts - Your comment  'just to remember she's a dog and not a 5% pancreas in a dog suit'   absolutely had me doubled up and my bladder just can't take the pressure......... I love your sense of humour.

Olesia - this could be a strap line

PPS Craig, feel lucky you don't have a goal keeper like ours......... Butter fingers Green........ you gotta hand it to him...........its the best way, he'd drop it otherwise:lol:

That picture of  Miss Lulu looks like it should be in a photographer's gallery, enticing other people who have dogs to have their pictures taken.  She is absolutely stunning. 

I hope you find the resolution to her problem soon  (so you don't have to become a "head banger").  I thought Kolby's diarrhea would not stop and then just like that it cleared up with what Becky's Boss calls "fake food."  Go figure.  Is it the hydrolization, the low fat, the combination?

The questions are endless....yet, somehow an answer emerges while you are still asking and/or banging your head.   Hang in. 

We are rooting for that gorgeous girl.

Barb

Thank you all for your kind wishes, I thought I'd post a quick update as you've all been so generous in your interest.

Having started Lulu on the Artemis grain free 4 days ago we've seen a marked improvement in the QOP (Quality of Poop) index on a scale of 5 stars from anything between 1-2.5 now consistently 3.5-4 stars. We've also been on the Tylan now for 9 days but the poo didn't start to improve until the grain free kicked in. Still some slime but we now have formed albeit still soft poop and as of yesterday a new weight record of 18.6kg (41 pounds), the highest since this EPI ride began! One side effect is that she is now dropping some fairly pungent fluffly-klangers but as I said in Kobe's thread we'll take fat over fart any day.

The new weigh-in will be interesting as will the next few weeks as hopefully the Tylan is given room to do its job.

So on a momentous day in this country where one female red-headed South Australian has become Prime Minister and another did some jolly good poop I leave you with a blurry phone picture of one of the two. You dear readers, will have to work out which it is...

Ahh Craig... i so enjoyed reading Lulu's updates!  That is just wonderful that she is showing signs of imporvement between the Tylan and different food. Amazing isn't it... it's always all about finding the right "balance"  for your very individual EPI dog!  and sometimes finding that damn balance is enough to drive us batty!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SO glad to read about a good turn of events for Miss Lulupants.... FINALLY!!!!!!  By the way... when my Izzy first startd on Tylan it took two WHOLE weeks before we saw even the slightest change... but then once she started improving she really improved!

Do keep the pictures coming and of course keep us posted!

Craig, Jemima & Miss Lulu - 

Congrats on tipping the scales at a whooping 41 pounds!  Hopefully a little more time on the Tylan plus a little more tweaking of food will equal a 5 star QOP rating!  

On think our favorite red heads here... Miss Lulu and Miss Tess should run for office.  I would vote for them!

Okay, here are our fishing adventure pictures.  No 40 pounders this year but even with smaller ones there was fresh salmon for dinner and plenty leftover for fish in the freezer.  Where are the pictures of your winter orchid and kangeroo bone hunting adventure?

Hells bells Becky, that's some chunk o' fish! But really it is a little unfair, you're not supposed to use the airplane to catch the thing! Here in the Antipodes  we use stick-like implements called 'rods' but then if you use them like I do you don't end up catching much. But then what the hey, if you've got the technology use it is what Lulu says. She also wants to know if you've ever thought about going into the kibble business at all? I can see those fish turned into grain free Alask-o-Salmon crunchy-bites in two shakes of a fluffly dog's tail. 

As for our orchid hunting the weather turned nasty with lovely lovely rain and at the end of a 10 year drought (we hope) while it was welcome it was also rather chilly to be frolicking around in Australian bush. As it happens though there's a break in the mizzle tomorrow and I'm going up to muck in with the local bush group and do a preliminary forage. I'll take 'Lu up next week for a canine cocaine hunt after next week's weigh-in, hopefully she'll need to run off a few pounds, the bone-induced zoomies that are sure to follow should help.

Boy would I love crack at a Mr Salmon that size one day, Lulu would be dead impressed kind of like she was during the new PM's first press conference the other day...

She's a tough crowd.

Craig

Becky,

I don't care how small you say it is, that is one BIG fish! I agree with Craig though...Using a plane to ctch a fish is a bit odd...:|

Craig, Ms. Lulupants certainly is one tough customer!!! What a sweet shot though...

Miss Lulu looks so pretty even when she is all tuckered out! I hope you get a break in your weather as I would love to see pictures of your orchids there... or any other photos of what life in Australia is like.

I myself did not have much luck this week with the rod... well, I guess it was more with the hook, as my fish got off during the tussle. But Rich caught two... he swears the secret is spitting on the hook!

A plane is pretty much a multi-purpose tool here. Besides transportation to get anywhere in the State, it does prove useful for other things like hanging up fish for picture taking or hanging up wet camping gear to dry. And the wings do double duty providing shelter if it is pouring down rain or even holding up the tent when you forget the tent poles!

If were going into the fish kibble business we would need volume so would have to change procurement techniques to netting. If you are an Alaska resident you can qualify for a subsistence fishing permit using nets to catch Red Salmon. You go out at low tide and set the net, wait for the tide to come in when the fish swim into the net and then you go out in the boat and pluck them out of the net. Here are pictures from a couple years ago of that style of fishing.

Setting the net at low tide -

Going out to pluck the fish at high tide -

Time to setup the "slime line" to clean the fish -

Oops!  Forgot to mention another use for a plane... naming a pup!  Our plane is a Citabria "Scout" model.  Our baby girl Scout's namesake

HI Becky,

Interesting on the fishing!  I love how you store them in the boat before cleaning...Cool!

That's funny how you got Scout's name.  Did you bring her home in the plane??  Tara was originally going to be named "Ruby", but hubby couldn't live with it. Zoey's name from the rescue was Sheeba, but I couldn't live with it. 

BTW, yes, I really do have a Corgi and I got a photo today of the illusive one...It wasn't too hot today, so he decided to join us.

Donna - 

How in the world do you manage to keep them out of the pool?  Mine would be wet doggies all day trying to empty all the water out of it!   Nice to see that Zeke decided to grace you with his presence.  Zoey looks to have a very full coat for all that heat!   Quiet here on the Forum today... Craig is gonna wake up and find that we have run amuck with Miss Lulu's thread   

While we have flown our plane once from Alaska down through Canada to Oregon and back, we did not bring Scout home in it.  Both her and Boss flew Alaska Airlines from Seattle to Anchorage.  Poor thing... she had been with us for 3 weeks and was still being called Baby Girl.  We have always had male GSDs and just could not agree on a name for a female.  After much negotiating Scout was agreed upon but she does still get called Baby Girl often.   Boss on the other hand was named within 30 minutes of being home... it was obvious right from the start who was running the show