EPI * Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency

Has anyone had any luck using this product to treat EPI.  I am really needing to find a treatment that is affordable to us.  I have an order of enzymes coming from Diane's but really do not see this as a long time treatment options.  My other thought was to try the plant based enyzme to see if Kaysee would respond to those. 

Hi,

We use PancreaPlus Tabs with great success for both our dogs.  Most people have not had as good a success with tablets as we have and prefer to use the powder.  We use 1 tablet per cup of food plus 1 tablet or so...kinda hard to know exactly as we also had either cooked ground turkey (1/4 lb. per meal) or a half a can of canned food with each meal.  We order 500 tablets at a time and that lasts us about 5 to 6 weeks for two dogs at a cost of a bit over $100 per 500 tablets.  So if you feed about what we do, you would need about 6 to 8 tablets a day, which means the 500 tablets would last about 2 to 3 months....so your cost would be about $30 to $50/month for tablets. 

My husband worked it out one time and thought that it was still less to go through enzymediane, but since we have had such good success with PancreaPlus tablets we are not willing to change at this time. 

I would not use the plant based enzymes....to get any kind of results you have to use a LOT of tablets so besides not treating your pup with the best medicine for the condition it would probably end up costing more as you would have to use more tablets. 

Maybe some others can chime in who use enzymediane powder to give you an idea of how much it costs them per month using the enzyme.  You may have posted elsewhere, but how much are you feeding Kaysee per meal/per day?  And which food are you using?

Also you may want to look into the cost of Creon...I have no idea what that costs here in the US but a number of people use those capsules with great success.

Thank you for the response.  I penciled out the cost of the 6x enzymes and it would cost me $70 for a 33 day supply, and I am just not in a a position to do that.  Kaysee is on salmon and sweet potato no grain dog food from costco.  I am feeding her 3 cups of dog food a day mixed with a little wet with 3 tsp. of meat tenderizer my vet suggested I try as an alternative as it has some of the enzymes.  I went ahead and tried this route while I was trying to figure out what to order.  She has been on this mixture (well the dog food was new as of Sunday) for about 10 days.  I am going to take her back in and weigh her tomorrow to see if she is benefiting from anything.

hi

meat tenderiser may well break down protein which is what is used for but it wont break down fats or carbohydrates and it is full of MSG  and for our dogs to survive they need to break down all three elements

So you need proper enzymes to replace the pancreatic enzymes which our dogs no longer produce

Plant enzymes will not stand the test and basically are a waste of precious money

I f I were you I would go with Enzyme Diane most folk here use her with a very good result and huge saving

Also if you get one that works stick to it

unfortunately this is not a cheap illness especially in UK but then what is?????

It costs at the cheapest £100.00 PER MONTH if you use Lypex some of our me,mbers use raw pig pancreas but it is certaily not convenient as it needs to be processed then there is the antibiotics and the b12 on top

Not easy

Someone will jump in with a costing  comparison for you

Anyway good luck

Jeanx 

HI Cindy,

I am thinking your math calculations are off as far as how long you are thinking the 6X pancreatin will last you.  You mentioned a cost of $70, so I am assuming here that you bought 1/2 kilo (500 grams).   A 1/2 kilo of pancreatin is 178 tsp.  Also assuming (yes, I know I shouldn't do that!) that you are starting with the recommended 1 tsp pancreatin per cup of food.  You said you are feeding 3 cups of food per day.  Therefore, 178 tsp divided by 3tsp(3 cups of food per day)   would equal 59 days.     So a 1/2 kilo of pancreatin should last much longer than 33 days....nearly twice that.   Roughly comes to $35 per  month.  

Lisa

I knew someone would

I thought the costing you said seemed a bit off beam having read all kinds and been jealous of the costs over there from Enzyme Diane and the results

Jx

I am sorry, I thougth the post let me go back and edit it it, evidently not.  I am feeding her 3 cups TWICE a day at this time.

As Jean said, there is not cheap fix for EPI....unfortunately they are often diagnosed young and then need to be treated the remainder of their lifetime.  As far as the powdered enzymes go, Diane is the cheapest.  Some people have success with the tablets, but probably just as many find they don't work....that will be trial and error if it is a good choice for Kaysee.

On the bright side, you will have the enzymes from Diane to try.  I am betting that once your dog gets stable, you will be able to feed less than the current 6 cups per day....right now everything is just going right through her and not absorbing well.  So when it does, you may be able to save money by feeding a smaller amount and thus using less enzymes.  Also, some people find that they are able to adjust the amount of enzymes DOWN a bit once the dog is stable....again that is trial and error...not the case for everyone but it is possible.

Lisa

Hi Cindy,

I am in agreement that once you are using the correct enzymes and your pup is absorbing all the nutrition you will be feeding less so that you will save on both the cost of food and enzymes.  Our pups get about 4 cups of food a day kibble plus 1/2lb. of ground turkey (or a full can of dog food); that is the total for the day.  Our pups each weigh about 80 lbs.

I understand the initiial cost and routine can be a bit overwhelming.  We stress using the correct enzymes because though other options may look less expensive at first I have two concerns:  (1) not getting proper treatment and nutrition; (2) complications/problems that can arise from using Accent of plant based enzymes and you end up with a sicker pup with more medical costs.

I also think once you have the proper enzymes and see the full improvement that so many of these pups experience you will really see the benefit of staying with the powdered porcine enzymes.

Hang in there.  Let us know if there is any weight gain tomorrow. 

Cindy:

I've sent you a private post with my phone number.  I live just a couple of hours south of you and would be happy to call and help in any way I can.  You've been given some great information...thank you Terry, Jean and Lisa for jumping in.  You guys are always wonderful.

Hi cindy~

PLant Enzymes never work as effectively as porcine enzymes...

Regarding expense.... another thing to consider is that many EPI dogs (although not all) once stabilized can manage with less enzymes per cup of food than what they initially started with.

For example... on the food.... prior to diagnosis....my Izzy was getting 5 cups of food twice a day..... after she started getting the proper treatment and became stable i was able to reduce the food and she now only gets 1 cup in the morning and 1 cup at night.

Also.... when we first started, i was using 1 teaspoon of powdered enzymes (6x from Diane) per 1 cup of food. Once she became stable, i was able to reduce the amount of enzymes to only 1/2 teaspoon per cup of food... that also greatly reduced the cost.

Hi

I remember well when we started a bottle of 60 Lypex was lasting about 3 days i.e. a ot of money £32.00-- $48.00 but the original jump start on the higher doseage can be tweaked later on as everyone has said 

that regime lasted only a few weeks and we were almost on beans on toast LoL

Things became much more manageable when we changed to grain free and she went from 5 meals a day to  two, and now one plus a snack  at night still not cheap but ............................

you miight want to think about smaller meals if you can fit it into your schedule say 1 cup 4 times a day, it helps the gut  to sort itself out and recover and reduce as you go along

you can bulk this out with mashed potato or sweet potato or pumpkin

It is hard to start with but you will get there, its ever harder as you realise its not going to go away so you do your best and TWEAK is the name of the game

It would be interesting to see what Michelle spends on her two sheps on enzymes and what was just on Jackie as these ars BIG dogs

Jxxx

I took Kaysee in and weighed her on Wednesday and she has put on 4.5 pounds in 10 days!!  I took her into the vet this morning to get the EPI and the B12 test.  Results should be back by Tuesday or Wednesday next week.  Even though she seems to be gaining some weight, her tummy is sure rumbling.  I have her with me at work today and she is laying next to me just rumbling.  It takes me about 30 minutes to get to work so by the time we left the house, spend 45 minutes at the vet and got to work, she was VERY anxious to get out and go to the bathroom.

Hello Cindy -

Yippee on Kaysee's weight gain!   That is also good news that you have had the tests done to confirm what you dealing with.  If she is gaining weight without enzymes it could be that she does not have EPI... all paws crossed for you here that that is what the test results show!   

Wow!  That is good news about Kaysee's weight gain.  I agree with Becky--getting the test results will tell you what you are dealing with....maybe not EPI at all....We will be anxious to hear what those results are!

Barb