Stable for couple of years, now relapsing

[sapresley]

Maddie is my pomapoo, about 12 years old now. Was diagnosed with EPI a few years ago. We've been fighting fleas, but nothing else has changed in her diet. I finally got the fleas drops to put on her and the fleas have slowed down considerably. We are in process of buying a house and moving out of state, 2200 miles away, so some anxiety may be felt.
She's been having softer and softer poops for two weeks and now they have turned back to the pasty gray going on yellow and we are on week 3. Her stomach has been noisy.
I began feeding her a completely raw diet since Feb. 2019. She has done well on it, has regained healthy fur and increased energy. I feed her 2.5 oz. of raw food 3 times a day, Darwin's which is balanced and approved by my wholistic vet. I add a B12 capsule with Intrinsic value every other day and always add 1/2 tsp of enzymes from Diane and 1 tsp or more of Kefir. I put it in the microwave and leave the light on for 30 minutes. That lets the warmth from the light under the microwave warm up the food and help activate the enzymes. I do not turn on the microwave just for the record.
She was having very smelling gas discharges this spring which would scare her and send her running and enough to drive us out of the house. I read some articles and started giving her some Kefir made from raw cow's milk and that calmed down the gas very well.
She's been losing hair on her backside and down her hind legs to her knee. She's been biting her skin so much from the fleas, she's got little blood blisters everywhere that once healed they scab up and fall off. I comb her everyday usually more than once to look for fleas and keep her fine hair from knotting. I thought maybe the hair loss on her backside was from licking and biting herself, but now I'm starting to notice her hair thinning out again further along her back.
When we visited the vet to get Maddie a pedicure last week and the assistant noticed something in her heart beat. The vet verified that she now has a heart murmur, which has me worried.
Any advise or opinions would be welcome because I am completely perplexed. I thought about trying some Slippery Elm as it is a prebiotic and known to calm and sooth the intestinal tract.
Thank you in advance.
Maddie's MOM

[Jean]

hi there

poor you

ok the hair loss on her backside and legs thinning, is she passing any oily matter ?

the noisyness from her belly sounds like SIBO small intestinal bacteial overgrowth, for this we recommend Tylan, which is weight dosed

I am looking at the blisters you mention, has she been tested for Cushings Disease, my friend's dog was treated for fleas, and it was CD

is she not ablke to have flea treatments ? they are horrible things , So have things gone downhill since you went totally raw feeding ?

let us know


Jean

[sapresley]

Hi Jean, Thanks for the reply. I can't tell for sure if she is passing oily stools or not as they have been so loose. They didn't look oily to me, but doesn't mean they weren't.

I haven't had her blood tested yet. Vet is seeing her tomorrow, then we may know more.

I didn't know that about blood blisters and CD. My other dog, which I lost in March had been tested for CD, and it wasn't positive, but she did have an enlarged liver and ultimately died from that. I still believe the land we live on while renting here for the past 3 years has lead to our dog's illnesses. The owner had heavily sprayed ground with RoundUp before we moved here.

I had run out of the flea med and just bought some more and applied it last week or week before. She's doing much better with fewer fleas now.

I know that my specialty vet for EPI doesn't approve of feeding raw at all due to an article possibly linking it to a cardiac condition, which my other vet in town read and disagreed with.

Thanks for the suggestions and ideas. Gives me something more to ask vet about.
Sherry

[sapresley]

Jean I didn't answer your question about going downhill since feeding raw.

She has done very well eating raw until now. Her hair grew in thicker, her energy picked up. Feeding raw depending on myself to mix it and get it right I can't do without a lot of trepidation, which is why I buy it from a local company. There are a lot of raw dog foods coming on the market, and we don't know if what they say is in the food is really there or not. This company is local and invites people to tour the plant. All food is organic with no hormones, chemical fertilizers, etc. Maddie is allergic to a lot of things which show up as dandruff, the raw has helped in that area as well.

Maddie only weighs about 8lbs and is small enough that the cost of the food isn't too bad. When eating raw, they eat much, much less than they eat with kibble.

Sherry

[Jean]

Please let us know what the vet says

[Barb]

Hello and welcome. I am so sorry you and your pup are going through so many things at once. And moving, on top of it all.

At first, I was going to say it sounded like classic SID/SIBO, and it still could be that. But you are right to get information and blood work from your vet before you proceed because maybe it is a combination of a few issues. Can I ask what kind of flea treatment you are using and how often you apply it?Sometimes combination flea treatments or those that are long acting can cause issues.

Let us know what information your vet gives you. Hang in there. It is never easy to see our pups in distress.

Barb

[Tuckaboo Pam]

I am struck by the fleas and the hair loss. I once had a pup that was allergic to fleas, and he lost hair in the places you have described. Have you ever tried the Seresto collar? I used it on my Tucker, but my current vet doesn't like it, so he is now on something called Simparica for fleas and ticks; it works great, but is more expensive than the collar, which can be purchased on Amazon. Dermatitis can be a sign of so many allergies, even grass. I could be way off base, but I thought I'd share. I'm sorry about your boy....grief can do a lot of damage to us, can't it? Take care---Pam

[Tuckaboo Pam]

Earlier I posted some suggestions for flea control, because it seems to me that eliminating them could be an easy fix, and you said your pup still has a few...BUT I forgot to remind you that when you switch from one chemical to another you have to be very careful. When some medications overlap they can be very dangerous, so if you try something new be sure and read directions, ask your vet, or call the company for advice. I'd hate to be the cause of a tragedy. Best of luck----Pam

[sapresley]

Hello All,
I'm just now able to reply to posts in reply to my post. Maddie and I have now moved to Louisiana, close to the Texas border - Fort Polk area in a little town called DeRidder.
I did use a liquid flea treatment on Maddie and it was miraculous. Even though by wholistic views it is a poison, I felt I needed to take the risk because maddie was being eaten alive by the fleas. We lived in a rural area visited by cats, deer, possums, etc. Now, we are in a rural type suburb and she has picked up fleas here too.

One vet that checked her in Washington said she had no heart murmur, the other said she did. I listened to her heart myself and heard her heart beat and what I thought sounded like a swish, but vet said there was no swish. I will have her checked by a vet here that I dealt with years ago concerning an injured rescue I picked up along side the road.

Now, being in the South, I have to now deal with the threat of heart worms, and the treatment for the prevention of them. They are carried by mosquitoes. Giving anything orally to an EPI dog without enzymes does them no favors and I'm wondering if the heart worm pills will have to be enzymes first to be effective:)

Maddie still has the thinning hair on the back of her back legs, but her hair everywhere else is thick. Her newest concern is eating her poop, something she's never done, but with moving 2500 miles to a different climate zone, meeting a lot of new friends, two legged and four legged and a new house and yard to guard and investigate, it's no wonder she's showing some signs of stress, if that is what it is. Many years ago we moved and had no idea our dog was stressed by the move and suddenly while we had her out for a walk, she attacked another dog. She wasn't aggressive in any way before, but with the move, and a knowing vet, we saw things differently and changed the way we treated our animals after before and after a move.

EPI4dogs and this community have been a life saver for Maddie and I am eternally grateful for the genuine concern, for the search for more knowledge and the sharing of the knowledge. It helps me help my dog's vets and update them on this site and the new knowledge and research. I now have some new vets to inform and update. I will when I find and get my printer unpacked, run off some fliers and business cards to pass out at the vet's offices. I just did find this computer, still have another computer, scanner & printer to find. If are any EPI dog owners near me, please contact me. I have yet to meet another EPI dog mommy personally.
Thank you again,
Maddie's mom, Sherry

[jilbert57]

Hi Sherry, when I had Mickey with his chronic pancreatitis I used Heartguard Plus for heartworms.
The 2 I have now are non EPI and are on Interceptor Plus for heartworm.
If you are worried give the heartworm chew after an enzymed meal.

Jill