Epi4Dogs

So our dog just was confirmed with EPI. The vet said they were the lowest numbers she has ever seen so she gave us a prescription for Pancreazyme Powder 8 Oz and said I could get it filled at any pharmacy. And we need to get started right away. Well it turns out we can't get it filled and nobody seems to carry it locally. Does anybody know a local store where you can buy some kind of powder to get treatment started? Thanks!

Hello and welcome to you and your pup. Many, many of our members get our enzymes from Enzyme Diane, who is a member here and has an excellent product (Pancreatin). You can go to her website and check it out. She also publishes her phone number so you can call her and ask her to rush you an order of enzymes. She'll help you with the ordering. Her prices are so much less than the commercial brands. We used her enzymes for Kolby for almost 11 years. I highly recommend her.

Barb

i too highly recommend EnzymeDiane. Get the 6x powder.
https://enzymediane.com/product-category/pancreatin-6x/
OUr vet started us on Pancrezyme too.... and after our first bottle (it was very expensive !) we switch cold turkey to EnzymeDiane's 6x and used that for almost 14 years, until my dog passed away last year at the age of 15.

With enzymediane, you pay approximately the same price but you get more than 3 times the amount of enzymes
And Diane will deal with you personally. Great customer service. Call her directly like Barb suggested and to discuss how quick you can get the enyzmes.

ENZYME DIANE!!! If you want to order from her, but also want to get started right away, she has some suggestions, with directions, for human grade enzymes to start on while you wait for hers to arrive.

https://enzymediane.com/emergency-enzymes/

Keep us posted, and let us help! Ask as many questions as you like, too. We've all been there, and we have all been helped by this group.

---Pam & Tucker

Thanks for the tips folks! I got my order with Diane in today for the 6x enzymes and we will use crushed up tablets from the Vitamin shop in the meantime. After steadily losing weight since her Myasthenia Gravis & Megaesophogus diagnosis last month she gained 1 lb since Saturday night which is fantastic! I'm sure we don't have the right ratio dialed in for the enzymes yet, but it looks like something is working since she gained some weight. Now I think I need to get all 4 pillars dialed in because we have some seriously runny poop. But I think that's ok because it means she means she must be at least digesting something. Prior to the crushed up tablets her poop pretty much just looked like her food. Heres where we are right now.

Food - prescription purina hydrolyzed protein with the following makeup: Crude Protein (Min) 5.0% /Crude Fat (Min)2.0% / Crude Fiber (Max) 3.5% / Moisture (Max)78.0% / Ash (Max) 3.0% / Calcium (Ca) (Min) 0.27% /Phosphorous (P) (Min)0.22%
It seems like with the fiber less than 4% we should be okay? And with the MegaE I'd love to stay with this food. Anybody have any thoughts on the food makeup?

Enzymes - currently crushing up 9 tablets for 1 can of wet food but will switch to 3/4 teaspoon per cup when Dianes 6x enzymes show up hopefully in the next few days.

B12 - just had our first B12 shot today and are scheduled for one per week for the next 4 or 6 weeks then less frequently.

SID - this one is a bit of a mystery to me and I don't think we are currently doing anything. It sounds like slippery elm is a good first step. Anybody have any thoughts?

Hi ... sounds like you have a good plan in place.... regarding SID ... i would start with SLippery ELm first... just add it to the current food you are feeding and give it up to 3 days to see if there is ANY improvement in the poo dept. Might want to read the SLippery ELm page
https://epi4dogs.com/slippery-elm/
for proper dosing instructions and often times less is better with SLippery ELm.... or at least it is a good place to start.

you can buy slippery elm powder (we recommend the powder over pills so that you can control the dosage.
https://www.wonderlabs.com/itemleft.php?itemnum=K97024
At wonderlabs you can use Epi4Dogs 15 coupon and get 20% off.

Runny poos are not good..... that usually means SID is out of control .....OR that the food you are feeding is not agreeing...... try the slippery elm first and let us know how things are going.... once we know how that goes.... then we can work from there............

Thanks for the tips! I just ordered some slippery elm from Wonderland and we shall add that into the rotation. I had been reading about that a bit on the MegaE page we are on, so it seems like there we may get some double usage out of it. It seems like if the runny poo is from either food not being right or SID being out of control I would wager on the SID. She's been on this food for about 6 weeks and we haven't had any signs of liquid until yesterday when we started adding enzymes. But as I'm typing this its making me wonder if its because she hasn't actually been digesting any of the food? So who knows, maybe it could be the food as well? It sounds like add the slipper elm into the rotation and see where that goes.

Is there any kind of test that can be done to evaluate the current state of the SID? At this point it would be great to narrow things down. But in the meantime, at least she gained a lb over the last few days instead of losing one so we are at least going in the right direction.

I just want to jump in here & say---Don't accept a prescription for metronidazole to control the SID, if it comes to that. Just putting out this warning early, because you seem to act very efficiently. There is some disturbing research about this drug & its longterm effects (learned this here on the forum), and yet some vets do seem to turn to it. One of my (non-EPI) dogs took it, and I will be forever supplementing her, to try and get her tummy flora straight. There are better options, if the slippery elm doesn't work. Take care, and you sure have a lucky dog!---Pam

Just curious if anyone has a theory on the dosing of slippery elm? I just bought a product called Herbsmith slippery elm and it says 1 teaspoon for a dog 31-80 lbs which is double what the epi4dogs page recommends. Seems like I should start with 1/2 teaspoon?

Yes.... we have a dosing regimen that we recommend to start with on this page... HOwever.... Just to explain things.... SLippery Elm has prebiotic properties and is a mucilage.... so because all prebiotics are certain types of "fiber".... the fiber is what is actually needed to fight SID... but this is a case where more is not always better. So start with a low dose.... and often times, even starting with less is better and then work your way up.

Here is the page that has dosing instructions on it:
https://epi4dogs.com/slippery-elm/