Bad poops are back - Kira’s story

[Bpcooper14]

This sure escalated quickly!

[Olesia711]

Doc is quite the unique pup with his propensity for flies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Barb]

We love to laugh here.......remember the song from Mary Poppins.......oh, my age is showing.......

Barb

[Stacie & Dizzy]

Welcome to the group and Kira is gorgeous. Dizzy has the occasional throw up. I just keep a close eye on her that day, and she's usually just fine. Dizzy is a yard scavenger, so I never know what she eats when I'm not looking.

[pinglukol]

Hi Kristina..... OMG Kira is GORGEOUS!!!!!!!! wow!!

Okay.... what i suspect you are seeing is SID (formerly called SIBO).... the latest is that all dogs with EPI have SID and so far, even when we think all is fin cuz poops are normal.... the SID is still there in an EPI dog, just well controlled.

My experience has been that when you see the poos start becoming larger... very often it is usually that the food is not 100% optimal. ......BUT....sometimes that food, although not 100% optimal, is actually the best that you have found up to this point. So sometimes it is worth changing, sometimes it is not.....

The other thing is that you stopped the Tylan and Probiotics.... some EPI dogs need multiple courses of Tylan ..... and then some even need to stay on Tylan (just a small maintenance dose) for the rest of the lives.

Also.... what they have recently discovered is that EPI dogs do NOT (1) have enough bacteria in the gut (2) nor do they ahve a big variety of bacteria (some strains are actually missing) .... so if you give a probiotic, be sure that there are prebiotics in the product also and if not, give prebiotics. Prebiotics is food for bacteria.
Here is a picture that explains Probitoics and Prebiotics:


So....there are various ways to address this,

One option is put Kira back on another course of Tylan. If you do this, I would also put her back on the probitoics jsut be sure there are prebiotics with it Then when you get towards the end... slowly reduce the amount like you did before ..... and then when completed, again...watch to see if the poos start to get a little larger again... if so.... this might be your clue that Kira would be best to be kept on a maintenance dose of Tylan.... you can go with as low as 5mg/kg if she appears to be a lifer with Tylan.

Or.........do your research into different foods... Usually TOTW-Pacific STream works very well with "most" of our dogs" as it's fiber content is nice and low at 3% (if i remember correctly) but every so often there is one that it just doesn't agree with it...

If you decided to try changing the food.... you can do trial and error with different brands of commercial food and different composition... but.... althou it sounds like a little more work, in the end it is actually a short cut.... if you do want to change foods... make your own, but start with limited ingredients, like baked, skinned and defatted chicken breast (maybe 75-80%) and mashed sweet potato (maybe 25-20%)... watch her poo... and then add 1 ingredient at a time (after a few days... and this will help you identify what works with her system and what triggers it. If you decide to stay with home-prepared, you cannot just give food ... after 3 weeks or so, you will need to start adding a quality doggie vitamin and some sort of bone supplement. My gal did best on higher protein and lower carb foods... however, once my gal became a diabetic and i had to increase the sweet potato... to compensate, i had to increase the enzymes by a pinch.

SO.... that is yet another option.... you can not change anything you are doing now and just increase the enzymes by 1/8 of a tsp..and if it helps but not 100% then increase by another 1/8 tsp..... and continue until you get the desired results.... but in this case, i would consider still adding the probiotics with a prebiotic to help things along. ...

OR........... another thing you can try is not change a thing but introduce slippery elm to encourage bacterial growth and get that SID under better management. Check out the SLippery Elm page.... for dosing guide... but jsut know that this prebioitc has a lot of SCFAs in it and too much can also give loose stools so sometimes with Slippery Elm less is even better. Always get powdered Slippery Elm...not capsules, cause you need to be able to control the dose.

SO many choices... eh??!!!! See which one you think would be best to try first, and KEEP NOTES!!!!! that will help you see what helps or hinder Kira.

Hope this helps a little!

thank you olesia for this valuable suggestion .......

[pinglukol]

Kristina, a warm welcome. Yes, Kira is beautiful

I was reading the comments over here and all the advises are very much useful. One think I can tell you that we have to keep patience and it is very important to fight against epi and sibo. I am cheering up all members for their fighting against epi and thanks to all again for sharing their valuable experiences.

Samir

[Judy]

Hi and welcome to our EPI Family! First of all.....Kira is absolutely gorgeous!

My Piper was a Tylan lifer as her poops would start to go off the rails as soon as I'd stop it so I finally just keep giving her about 1/8 tsp per meal and it was good.

My non-EPI dog, Koda, throws up bile now and then in the morning and it's usually always if he's gone too long without eating but I used to panic because being an EPI parent makes us worry warts when we weren't before . Koda takes Pepcid for his belly when it gets upset.

You have joined an amazing family right here and this website/forum is responsible for saving the lives of countless dogs. My Piper would not have had a chance if I had not found this site back in January of 2014. I will be forever grateful.

I hope Kira is doing well