Newly diagnosed EPI dog

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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jleach04
Member
Posts: 6
Country: United States
State: New York
Pet name: Bruce Wayne
My name: Jen

Newly diagnosed EPI dog

Post by jleach04 » 27 Jul 2022, 16:04

Bruce Wayne is a malinois/german shepherd. He has always been lean and active. One month into the pandemic lock down our lives changed dramatically. Not just because we were working/schooling from home but our dog who is the family member that keeps us together and moving forward got sick. He had what the ER vets called IMHA where his immune system was killing his red blood cells. We were lucky to catch it quickly and he made what we thought was a full recovery. He has never had a relapse of IMHA. Well fast forward to last thanksgiving and he starting having a ton of digestive issues. Excessive drooling was the first sign. Then diarrhea. He seemed to have an upset stomach all the time. We tried everything from homemade diets to probiotics to metronitozol (which we now know never to give him again). We spent thousands testing him for everything from cancer to addisons. At one point our vet told us he had insulinoma (that turned out to be wrong thankfully). Now 8 months later after trips to a specialist 90 mins away we have a diagnosis. EPI with SID. He is taking his enzymes like a champ and already showing improvement in just 1 week. I came across this site when ordering the enzymes and am so grateful to have found this support. He is currently on RC HP diet which the specialist started him on prior to his EPI dx. I have read some conflicting information on what food is best for epi dogs. We may at some point change that but the specialist wants to wait on diet changes until we see how he responds to the enzymes (one change at a time). He also gets one spoon of pumpkin per day with his IMHA med which also seems to help his digestive system.
Jen
Upstate NY, Bruce Wayne, Belgian Malinois/German Shepherd, 6 yrs, EPI/SID and IMHA.

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jilbert57
Staff
Posts: 2090
Country: United States
State: Washington

Re: Newly diagnosed EPI dog

Post by jilbert57 » 27 Jul 2022, 21:47

Hi Jen, welcome to you and your pup. He has been through a lot.
Glad you finally got a diagnosis and can make some progress!
It helps if you can keep a daily journal also:

https://epi4dogs.com/epi-log/

Let us know how the enzymes work.

Jill
My name is Jill and we live on the Hood Canal in Washington State. We currently have 2 Jack russells, TJ is 8 and Sadie is 2.

Mickey and his pancreatitis brought me to Epi4dogs.com site in 2012 to help manage it.
He lived from 6/99 - 8/2014

Mickey, Jack Russell. Chronic Pancreatitis. Dianes enzymes, 1/8t 3x/day with meals.

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