Food questions

[Chel]

Hi all,
I am a foster carer for dogs in shelters in Melbourne Victoria (Australia). I feed my own dogs either raw food (beef, chicken, fish) or dry quality kibble and with each meal. I also give them a dollop pf either mashed pumpkin or mashed sweet potato or lactose free yogurt. I have found this to be a good diet, healthy and hits the spot with the doggos.
My latest foster has been diagnosed with EPI and apart from a bottle of Creon he came with no instructions and to be fair, the shelter staff are overwhelmed so they just do not have the time to dedicate to learning all about this.
I have been feeding Bluey (11 month old male Australian Cattle Dog) four small meals a day and on each I open the capsule and sprinkle the contents over the food for a minimum of ten mins before feeding him. I feed him pumpkin with every meal as a base and add either poached chicken breast or special kibble for the liver plus a lactose free yogurt dollop.
He is now gaining weight, poops within five mins of eating and its medium soft but solid in shape and of course orange in colour.
He is now a happy chappie, now playing and has the energy to walk with the other dogs.
My question is relating to his diet - what do you think of it? Should I be doing something else? Have I missed anything else that he should be getting?
Many Thanks in advance for your help

[jilbert57]

Thank you for fostering! Have you read any of the information from our site? Lots of good things. Here is a link for Quick start guide in Australia:
Scroll down for links for Australia:

https://epi4dogs.com/epi-quick-guides-outside-usa

Do you know if B12 was checked? EPi level needs to be upper high range.

Is the kibble you are feeding grain free?

Thanks

Jill

[Olesia711]

It sounds like you are doing a wonderful job with your foster EPI dog... and thank you SOOOOOOooooooooooo much for fostering this dog.

Your diet sounds wonderful.... but as Jill has asked.... the kibble that you feed , if you look at the fiber content.... until you get a good understanding of this dog's individual EPI preferences, we recommend when using a kibble to go with a low fiber content kibble (just look at the grain free kibble labels) and check for foods that do not include grain in the ingredient or too many pea ingredients AND try to keep the fiber content under 4%. Actually 3.5 % or less seems to work even better.

Raw food usually works out well for for most EPI dogs.

I personally fed a combination of homemade food (but i low heat cooked the meat) and added a low fiber kibble.... and my dog did very well.

That orange poo you are seeing means that the transit time is happening too fast. SO.... if could be that the kibble has too much fiber content in it... or.... does this only happen when you feed real sweet potato? cause feeding real sweet potato sure turned my dog's poo orange.... (inside the poo)... but the poo was firm and well formed.- -so if this is the cause it is nothing to worry about. BUT... if this happens when you are also feeding the kibble then something is not optimal in the diet. Overall sounds like something not optimal in the diet ...and it often is either the carb content or the fiber content in a commercial kibble that is the trigger (too much of either or too much of a certain ingredient)... And i would definitely check the B12 levels. Upper mid range B12 level is what you want. IF the B12 is not optimal, then you could be doing EVERYTHING correctly and the dog will not flourish.

To get a good understanding on what to feed.... and unfortunately it really depends on the individual EPI dog, although we give starting guideline.... what you might want to read are these specific pages:
https://epi4dogs.com/epi-diets-are-tricky/
https://epi4dogs.com/diet-raw-home-prepared-recipes/
https://epi4dogs.com/fiber-in-the-diet/


Hope this helps and please keep us posted1
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