1 Month with Phantom

[TaylorN]

Thank you all! I swear I'm not making this up - since I started adding the powder to his food, Phantom always makes sure to come by and lick my arm after he eats. I can be in another room..WHEREVER - He's there saying thank you. I know his original owner gave powder for part of his life and have a theory he remembered what made him feel good.

The weight gain has been great. I have been feeding 150% and will continue until his goal weight.

Unfortunately we went home for Christmas and due to some miscommunication, or lack thereof, Phantom stole an entire peanut butter sandwich off my dad's kitchen counter. This is the only human food/non-enzyme food he's had with me. He had it down in under 30 seconds (I was outside loading my car.) He looked SO guilty. I got some enzymes incubated on some kibble and fed him 20 minutes after. He was good for a day, and then the diarrhea started. It's straight liquid shooting out and worse than any pre-enzyme cow patty poop I saw before. GAH. Hoping it's done with by tomorrow.

We have an appointment to try and get a prescription for Tylan on the 6th of January. For those that follow his other thread, I ended up switching vets at the clinic. His appointment is now with the clinic owner. I have had great success with her in the past. Let's hope she listens!

[Olesia711]

WOW!!!! Great update ! And i firmly believe that they KNOW that we are trying to make them feel better .... and show their appreciation one way or another.

Naughty boy... a WHOLE peanut butter sandwich?!!! We have had many "naughty" stories.... one EPI dog ate an entire tub of margarine.... i am sure you can image the "output" of that!!!!

But my most favorite EPI escapade story was when a lady wrote in that her dog ate a box of Crayola Crayons...... and excreted rainbow colored poop for days afterwards

[Tuckaboo Pam]

Taylor, have you tried the slippery elm first? In the beginning, I tried adding it without success, but I did it all wrong, and the results were bad. Tucker is currently taking it, a little at a time, all the while weaning from Tylan to the lowest dose possible.

My vet prescribed Tylan as soon as he determined, through much trial & error, that T has EPI (note---we have not done the Texas test), and we have gone up & down with the tweaking for a year & a half. His cow pies have not returned, except for a couple of times, but some days are definitely better than others. His weight gain was great, too, in fact he was a chunky monkey, and I had to pull back on his food for awhile.

Tylan is great, and I will share a cheaper resource with you via private message, but I kind of wish I had known about slippery elm at the onset of treatment. You can find out more about SE administration under Managing EPI. It's at the bottom of the list.

How is that little sandwich thief doing today? Tucker got into something recently, probably plants in the yard, and he was bad for a day. Thank goodness I got him straightened out again. These dogs!!!

Happy New Year!---Pam & Tucker

[TaylorN]

Pam,

We had diarrhea for 2 days (liquid, no consistency at all) and now we are back to our score 4/5 poos. I did try SE and am currently giving it. First I tried 1/2 tsp 2x per day and the poop didn't improve. Now we're doing 1/4 tsp but honestly I don't see a difference. If anything, his poop is worse than when we started enzyme treatment and I believe it's due to SID. With how bad his poop got after the sandwich, I picked up some FortiFlora and am giving that 1x per day until we can see the vet on 1/6 about starting Tylan. He had his best poop the first week of his enzymes, and I realized he was on metro a few days before. It was a score 3 and wasn't nearly as voluminous as the poop he produces now.

Before enzymes, his tummy gurgling was constant. On his worst day, it lasted for 2+ hours and I took him to the vet to order the powder before the TLI results came back...it was that bad. Now, I hear quiet tummy gurgling every few days and he will get nauseous some days and not want to eat. This did not happen until a few weeks into treatment.

[Tuckaboo Pam]

Taylor, this is my second attempt at slippery elm, but Tucker has been on Tylan for a year & a half. We're doing ok, but as I have read on the forum, SE is not for everybody. I'd just rather do something herby, wherever we can, but we'll see. Some dogs need Tylan, a smidge, for life. Tucker will probably fall into that category. Fortiflora---try giving just a little & slowly building up to the full dose, because probiotics can definitely give a dog the runs, slippery elm being a prebiotic should help, but still work up to the full dose of FF. ---Pam ---Did you see my private message?

[Madelon]

Hi Taylor. When you get the Tylan from your vet because Phantom is close to the next higher dose for weight I would go ahead and use the higher dose of 1/4tsp twice a day (12hrs apart) - it can be bitter tasting so if Phantom turns his nose up at eating food with the Tylan powder on it you can try putting it in a dollop of cream cheese. It does not need to incubate with the enzymes. You'll need to give it for 45days and then slowly wean off.

Sometimes the food is just too tempting and they can't help themselves

[TaylorN]

Pam-

I did get your private message, thank you!

Madelon-

Will do, thank you! I am hoping to convince the vet to fill a prescription for Tylan so I can refer to Chewy. I have some on the way currently, expected 1/6, which is the day of his appointment - ha! For now I am thrilled and thankful he has gained ~16 lbs (haven't weighed him this week yet.) My next goal is to get solid poop!

[Jean]

Dont beat yourself up over the sandwich

Kara stole and ate a whole tub of cheese biscuits

the next morning the poop flew out of her, up the walls , all over the floor , carpet everywhere

Derek tod me to take her for a walk and he cleaned everything , including the carpet, best thing we ever bought was a carpet washer

she was fine the day after