Gaining Weight Help!

[CharlotteRachael]

Hello All!

I recently adopted my GSD Abby, she is the love of my life and was diagnosed with EPI. We've had great success with Creon to normalise the stools, but after playing around with food and SO MUCH RESEARCH, I've discovered she's one of the unlucky ones that really can't have any fat. Keeping it to less that 5% and her stool is stable. The perfect combination I've found is egg white, creon, four slightly smaller (but overall more) meals a day, baked potato, boiled chicken and omega oil, hills dry and hills wet. She looks very healthy! Nice shiny coat, lots of energy, one problem.... she still looks like I'm starving her to death!

I'm exhausted, and I'm going broke trying to find something that will help her gain weight that doesn't trigger her EPI and cause her to suddenly lose it all again. Can anybody recommend what I do from here?

(She can't have rice)

Thank you

[Olesia711]

Hi Charlotte and thanks for writing in about Abby's weight situation.

I just shared on another thread that with some of these EPI dogs (and it sounds like Abby falls into this category) is that in order to gain and sustain a good weight..... you have to feed more.... sometimes a LOT more.

SO..... i am copying what i posted elsewhere and reposting here:

"Also... regarding maintaining the weight of an EPI dog.... with my Izzy, and obviously Jeremy's who posted above, and many others, although maybe not every single EPI dog, but many of them seem to need more food than what you'd expect for their size to maintain a good steady weight.

i had 3 Spanish Water Dogs... 2 (1 male and 1 female) of them weighed almost 60 lbs, Izzy, my 3rd dog (female) weighed 35lbs and ate more than double what the other 2 dogs ate! They were all 2 years apart and Izzy was the middle "child". She wasn't fat but she was solid like a tank on the double amount of food !"

Of course, now that Abby is stable, not sure if she can handle double the amount of food you are feeding her in just two meals.... sometimes with some dogs they just cannot handle a lot of food all at once..... so if you do double up on the meals.... and if you notice the stools going soft.... then try feeding all this food in 3 or 4 meals daily. I used to feed my dog's last meal 1 hr before bedtime when i was still doing multiple meals.

The other thing is... if you find food that works... and it sounds like you have done a great job... stick with it

I hope this helps, and please feel free to ask any other questions and we will help you as best we can.

[Patsy]

Baked sweet potato has higher calories than plain spuds, and are easier to digest. Are you feeding extra meals+ enzymes. To gain weight, three meals a day would be a minimum. 50% extra food a day,, as you probably know.
Otherwise there may be an expert here who can advise on a different enzyme regime. It’s great that she is otherwise stable. But an underweight dog needs to rebuild muscle with nutrition before any spare chubbiness shows. My dog went from 17kg to normal 24kg (16lb gain) in year or so.
Patience is needed , and care taken in making only one change at a time. You are doing well , , and while they eat and poop properly, they aren’t in danger. I hope you find weight gain soon.

[Olesia711]

Patsy....Great alternative suggestions about substituting sweet potato for white potato!

[Eddiespaghetti]

One small change you can do is bake or air fry the chicken. Boiling chicken has a chance to not let the fat drain. If you bake or air fry it, try to use a rack to let the fat fall away.
Now, for weight gain, you could try dog protein powder. I don't typically recommend it because it's not typically needed. You are in a rough spot and given your puppos restrictions I think it might help.
Bully Max Protein Powder for Dogs | Supports Muscle Building & Muscle Gain | #1-Rated Performance Brand Since 2009 | for Dogs of All Ages | 368 Grams https://a.co/d/3gKooJg
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The second one is higher in fat and I am unsure if you don't have a problem with meat fat or all fat.

I do caution that too much protein can also cause problems. Start low and work your way up. Also, I would recommend talking to your vet about protein powder.

[CharlotteRachael]

Hello All!

Thank you so much for the suggestions! I will go out and buy sweet potato tonight!

That's really relieving to know that if her poop is okay then she isn't in danger, I've been feeling like such a failure recently! SO thank you for all your encouragement! I managed to get about 3 kilos on her from when we adopted her early December, the constant comments to me about her weight have been stressing me out and if they only knew! I'm considering embroidering a bandana that says "I have EPI, my owners feed me ALOT" haha

She gets 4-5 Meals a day, one at 6am and all across the day until the final one around 10pm (ish) with Enzymes with every meal, Creon in Aus seems to do wonders but with her I've upped the dose ever so slightly which seems to be effective! In total she gets 1.5-2x her recommended food intake daily.

I'll have a look into the protein too thank you! She has another check up soon, they might even have some recommendations for me in regards to supplements.

I wanted to ask also, has anyone had any success with Pancreas Powder? Just straight Pork Pancreas?

[Patsy]

I bought a collar tag for Marti that said Do not Feed Me . I have Epi, call vet. The only times she sneaked away was to eat the neighbours outdoor cat food Then she got the runs!
I’d have never thought of protein powder for dogs. The only issue to me would be the ingredients which vary wildly; milk powder which is not lactose free, pea or soy protein etc. I prefer to know exactly what my dog is eating if it has digestive problems which could be aggravated by possible allergens . Personally I’d up the egg, chicken or some white fish from a supermarket freezer.

[Eddiespaghetti]

The protein powder is really a last ditch effort. I would give it unless I absolutely had to. You could also get human protein powder, like egg, and give that. Just have to be careful it doesn't contain anything dogs can't have (avocado, xylitol etc).
I discovered it when a friend on mine husky. Had the disease where they have to eat sitting up. I can not remember the name right now. They had to feed it as little as possible and they included the protein powder.
Edit: megaesophagus is the name of the disease

[Olesia711]

hmmm..... while i am thinking of it..... for dogs struggling with PLE...... they sometimes recommend
scrambled eggs and banana......

I know you mentioned that you give egg whites ... not the yolk.... but is it possible that your dog may be able to eat the whole egg?..... if so, this might be an option.... however.... if you do want to try this.... only scramble maybe 1/3 an egg and cut up 1/3 of a banana..... in other words not too much.... just try a little at a time and see how it goes..... this combo is loaded with protein.