Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

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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Bri S
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Posts: 65
Country: United States
State: Washington
Pet name: Opal

Re: Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

Post by Bri S » 11 Apr 2019, 17:25

YIKES!

I will certainly check that out for the recall. Thank you very much!!!!
My name is Bri and I have a Corgi named Opal who was born on 09/05/17. We live in Washington State and Opal was diagnosed with EPI in September of 2018 shortly after she turned 1 year old. Opal currently takes the following daily: Pancreapowder Plus 1/16 TSP 3x day - Proviable DC Capsule Probiotic 1x day - WonderLabs Slippery Elm Prebiotic 1/16 TSP 1x day - WonderLabs B12 w/Intrinsict Factor 1x day - Tylan antibiotic 1/16 TSP 2x day - Eats Hills Prescription Diet Dog Food / Dry Kibble / Low Fat i/d 3 x day 3/4 cup

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jilbert57
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Re: Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

Post by jilbert57 » 11 Apr 2019, 17:37

Yes. In the article is also the previous link for an earlier recall. Not sure if maybe dry was on the earlier recall or not.
Ps on first glance it appears to be canned on both recalls.
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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Bri S
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Posts: 65
Country: United States
State: Washington
Pet name: Opal

Re: Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

Post by Bri S » 15 Apr 2019, 10:56

Good Morning!

I checked and thankfully Opal's wet and dry foods were not on the recall list. Phew! Thank you for sharing that with me.

*A question for all of your seasoned EPI dog parents*:

This is Opal's first "relapse" if you will, back to where we started at her EPI diagnosis. She has bloody, mucus, diarrhea stool I'd say about 1/2 the time right now and I have placed a call to her vet this morning. My question is has your pup's tummy and system evened out with time and got back to normal on the regimen of meds and food that had previously worked for them? Maybe I just need to be more patient? Opal has done well before and gained a ton of weight along with having normal stools for quite awhile until we tried to change her food as of late. That being said what we were doing did work for months - so have you all been able to get back to that?

OR - should we be looking into tweaking things here and there? Meds or food? It has been just over a week now since Opal has been having troubles and so far all we've done is diagel 3 times which is a temporary fix along with Cerenia which she has now finished. I wouldn't necessarily say we're doing any better today than on last Sunday when this all started up. It's frustrating because I know she doesn't feel well.

I just don't know if the answer is to wait (or will she get worse / stay the same) or should we look into changing things up to get better results at this point, you know?

Thanks,
Bri & Opal
My name is Bri and I have a Corgi named Opal who was born on 09/05/17. We live in Washington State and Opal was diagnosed with EPI in September of 2018 shortly after she turned 1 year old. Opal currently takes the following daily: Pancreapowder Plus 1/16 TSP 3x day - Proviable DC Capsule Probiotic 1x day - WonderLabs Slippery Elm Prebiotic 1/16 TSP 1x day - WonderLabs B12 w/Intrinsict Factor 1x day - Tylan antibiotic 1/16 TSP 2x day - Eats Hills Prescription Diet Dog Food / Dry Kibble / Low Fat i/d 3 x day 3/4 cup

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jilbert57
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Re: Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

Post by jilbert57 » 15 Apr 2019, 11:42

Maybe if you end up going to the vet you could take a poop sample in if you haven't done so recently.
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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Bri S
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Posts: 65
Country: United States
State: Washington
Pet name: Opal

Re: Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

Post by Bri S » 15 Apr 2019, 11:45

Hello,

We did bring in a poo sample when this started last week. It came back negative for any worms/parasites. So we know that isn't the issue. It's balancing out her EPI again.
My name is Bri and I have a Corgi named Opal who was born on 09/05/17. We live in Washington State and Opal was diagnosed with EPI in September of 2018 shortly after she turned 1 year old. Opal currently takes the following daily: Pancreapowder Plus 1/16 TSP 3x day - Proviable DC Capsule Probiotic 1x day - WonderLabs Slippery Elm Prebiotic 1/16 TSP 1x day - WonderLabs B12 w/Intrinsict Factor 1x day - Tylan antibiotic 1/16 TSP 2x day - Eats Hills Prescription Diet Dog Food / Dry Kibble / Low Fat i/d 3 x day 3/4 cup

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jilbert57
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State: Washington

Re: Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

Post by jilbert57 » 15 Apr 2019, 12:17

Thanks for the reminder. If you do start tweaking food, enzymes or tylan make sure to do one at a time and give it 3 or 4 days. Let us know what the vet says.
The only other thing I might recommend is going to a food with no grain.
Did the B12 level ever come up?
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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Bri S
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Posts: 65
Country: United States
State: Washington
Pet name: Opal

Re: Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

Post by Bri S » 15 Apr 2019, 12:32

I just talked to Opal's vet and she recommended that we give her Prednisone for 7-10 days. She thinks that the blood continuing to be in her stools is because she has swollen and enlarged bowels right now that are clearly irritated. Hopefully Prednisone will mellow that irritation out, and help to work as an anti-inflammatory for her intestines and bowels.

Since Opal was doing so well the vet never pushed for us to re-do her blood-work to see where levels were at. However after she starts doing better from this little incident I think we'll have that done again so we know.

This all occurred I would have to think - due to us attempting to switch her to a grain free food. After 2 weeks we were at a 50/50 ratio and doing pretty well until she randomly started having blood in her stools. We certainly want to switch her to another food but she's done well before on Hill's so I think until she's doing well we will keep her on it if we can. Don't want her losing weight on us again!
My name is Bri and I have a Corgi named Opal who was born on 09/05/17. We live in Washington State and Opal was diagnosed with EPI in September of 2018 shortly after she turned 1 year old. Opal currently takes the following daily: Pancreapowder Plus 1/16 TSP 3x day - Proviable DC Capsule Probiotic 1x day - WonderLabs Slippery Elm Prebiotic 1/16 TSP 1x day - WonderLabs B12 w/Intrinsict Factor 1x day - Tylan antibiotic 1/16 TSP 2x day - Eats Hills Prescription Diet Dog Food / Dry Kibble / Low Fat i/d 3 x day 3/4 cup

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jilbert57
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Posts: 2092
Country: United States
State: Washington

Re: Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

Post by jilbert57 » 15 Apr 2019, 17:19

Sounds like a plan. Thanks for the update.
I thought she had been on the i/d now for a couple weeks after the trial food switch. Good luck.
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.

Judith
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Posts: 24
Country: United States
State: Delaware

Re: Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

Post by Judith » 17 Apr 2019, 06:18

Hi

Hope Opal is feeling better. I would get a full blood panel done (cbc and chemistry) and possibly a resting cortisol if you have not started the prednisone (it makes the resting cortisol inaccurate). My EPI and Addisonian corgi presented with similar symptoms as Opal. First he was diagnosed with EPI and then about 6 months later Addison's disease. It is definitely something to talk to your vet about especially if she get more lethargic and continues not to want to eat along with all the GI symptoms. Please keep us posted
Nate and Raymi's mom
Nate 4 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi
EPI, typical Addison's disease and epilepsy
TLI 2.0 June 2016
Chemeyes enzyme capsules
Hydroxocobalamin injections weekly
0.5mg prednisolone daily for Addison's
Percorten-V/Zycortal injection every 28 days for Addison's
Zonisamide 2x for epilepsy

Raymi 6 year old Pembroke Welsh Corgi
Allergic to chicken and turkey

Eats Canine Caviar Venison kibble 3x

Nate and Raymi happily live in Bogotá, Colombia and Dover, Delaware.

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Madelon
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Pet name: Doc

Re: Newly Diagnosed Corgi w/EPI - Suggestions?

Post by Madelon » 17 Apr 2019, 21:25

Good point Judith - thank you so much for chiming in.
Madelon, owned by DOC. DOC dx EPI 5/2015 = TLI < .4, B12 406; Folate >24. DOC taught me so much and together we battled and overcame EPI, food sensitivies, environmental allergies but we lost the cancer battle. DOC was dx with hemangiosarcoma 5/2022 and crossed the rainbow bridge July 24, 2022. He is and always will be the love of my life, my soulmate, my heart dog.

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