EPI at 12 years?

Epi4Dogs Foundation Inc.’s mission is the advancement of science and education relating to EPI (Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency), yielding useful insights and positive outcomes in better managing EPI in dogs and cats. Our goals are to support and/or collaborate with veterinary EPI research and researchers, and to promote EPI awareness by educating the general public, pet owners, pet organizations, rescue and shelter organizations, veterinary schools and veterinarians.
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McGee
Member
Posts: 4
Location: Wisconsin
Country: United States
State: Wisconsin

EPI at 12 years?

Post by McGee » 10 Feb 2019, 21:00

Hello,
Our dachshund McGee is 12 now. Last June he was diagnosed with chronic dry eye and put on cyclosporine drops, artificial tears and both oral and topical antibiotics. After a few weeks he began having bloody diarrhea; a noted adverse reaction in 3% of dogs on cyclosporine. We stopped the drugs for about six weeks then slowly resumed in the autumn. He had a couple of eye infections and received more oral antibiotic but no more blood in his stool. McGee has always been a fussy eater, always ate grass any chance he got and, unlike his brother, needed encouragement to eat.
About 2 months ago, while on another round of antibiotics, McGee began to have larger stools. Somewhat lighter, definitely 'inflated'. We didn't worry..yet. There were good poos in between. A few weeks ago they became more yellow and wet. Not quite diarrhea but soft cow pies. I considered the antibiotics(Clavamox) but he'd been off for over a month so I slipped some yogurt in his food. No improvement, of course. Now our fussy eater was hungry all the time. One night I took him out and he voraciously ate his brother's frozen poo like it was a Snickers bar. Suddenly I realized his yellow poos were actually clear signs of malabsorption. A search led us to canine EPI. McGee had every sign listed. We called our vet but she didn't know what EPI was. We asked for the blood test but she thought we should do a series of other tests first..a price of $500 before considering the definitive Tli test. We lost confidence and resumed our research. That was 10 days ago. McGee is raw fed; ground chuck, raw and cooked vegetables,cooked eggs and fish. We sought a source for raw pancreas. We bought frozen veal pancreas as a last resort but will pick up our first order of fresh lamb pancreas tomorrow. The veal pancreas was added to McGee's food starting a week ago. We cut out all treats and Veg to start. We added 20g to each meal 3x a day. After the second day we rejoiced over the first perfect poo..but his morning poos were still leaning in the wrong direction. Not quite yellow, but large and soft. We had good results then today it's returned to multiple splats of poo, a little blood with the last. He won't eat the pancreas now. We're lost. Our vet won't do the EPI test unless we do the other tests first. We will pick up the lamb pancreas tomorrow anyway and I ordered Slippery Elm and B12 from Wonderlabs. Does anyone know a vet familiar with EPI in southeast Wisconsin? We're willing to go to Madison,too. Thanks for your time and patience.
Antoinette in Wisconsin USA owned by a feisty pair of smooth red haired dachshunds; Jeter & McGee. The boys are age 12 (littermates). Fed raw with a large variety of vegetables & fruit. McGee now fed with fresh lamb pancreas, Wonderlabs Slippery Elm, kefir and Wonderlabs B12.

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