EPI * Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency

Just trying to do my best to take care of my boy ...

About me? My background is psychology/biology/natural health. I worked as a teacher last year, and am now a freelance writer (there are NO jobs here). I live in east Texas, close enough to be within driving distance of Dallas. I have a small farm with dairy goats, rabbits, geese, ducks, muscovy, chickens, and a llama (and I probably forgot someone) along with my dog Ryker and two 4-year old feral rescue kitties, one of whom is the sweetest cat in the world and has asthma, so I get to do a lot managing animal health, LOL.

About my Ryker? He was born December 2009, and I brought him home March 2010. He of course is a wonderful, smart dog (aren't all of ours?). He has been on the thin side since he was about 9 months old, but I had attributed it to his fast growth (father and grandfather weigh 140-150 pounds). During the summer of 2011 I noticed his coat was a bit brittle and dry, not shiny. He's always had tummy rumbles (responded to enzymes) and was very prone to eating weird things as well as his poop. Stools have been getting yellow, larger, and softer, I'm not positive of exact onset, probably by early summer 2011. In November 2011 started losing weight rapidly, in spite of being fed more, started having HUGE foul-smelling yellow soft cow-plops within minutes after eating. I started him first on Super Digestaway (it's what I had and it was a holiday weekend) on November 23, 2011 and a few days later on Twinlabs Pancreatin quadruple strength. On the 5th day, stools improved. Started gaining weight around December 20, 2011. I can't get exact weight, that's my next thing to sort out. Found this forum on 12-31-2011. And started adjusting 1-1-2012.

Was doing well after a few adjustments. Ran out of dog food and can't get to the city for more (my car is messing up) so trying raw sooner than I'd intended ... so I'm pasting what WAS working from my old sig on 3/29/12 :

I measure out 5 cups of kibble (just switched to Nature's Domain grain free) and grind it to a powder. Then I add hot and cold water as needed to mix it to the consistency of wetted canned food at a temp of about 110F. Next I add 1/4 teaspoon of 8x Pancreatin, dissolved in warm water. I stir some more, let this sit for 20 minutes, and feed half of it to Ryker. He gets the other half a couple of hours later. I do this twice a day, so he gets 4 meals total per day.  This is twice the enzymes previously used, and food divided into 4 meals per day instead of 2. And we just changed to 8x Pancreatin from Twinlabs quadruple strength. He also gets 1 cap of B-12 every other day, which made a big difference.