Izzy is a wire fox terrier and is 13 years old. Last October she had emergency gallbladder removal, and after that she had several episodes of liver infections and pancreatitis. I believe she had pancreatitis for the majority of the time since October. The last episode was at the end of May, and throughout June she was sick and ended up losing a lot of weight (from 15 pounds to 12) – but she had not been eating much at all. We ended up feeding her through an esophageal tube. When she got well at the end of June, she had a voracious appetite and we were feeding her a lot, but she was not gaining weight. She had very loose stools – formed but very soft and hard to pick up. They were lighter in color, had a weird texture, and smelled horribly. She also had a lot of really foul smelling gas and loud tummy sounds.
We started her on VisbiomeVet probiotics about 2 weeks ago and she has been on Tylan powder for well over a month. Over the years she has always responded well to Tylan when she had soft stools. She was also on Metronidazole for a while. In early July, we took her back to the doctor due to her gas, diarrhea, and not gaining weight. The doctor did bloodwork – her cPL was high (729, so pancreatitis – though she showed no signs of it & ultrasound looked ok), her vitamin B was normal, Folate was high (26, high normal is 20, so suspect SIBO), and her TLI was 6.1 (cut-off is 5.7 so not really positive for EPI). However, the doctor suggested we try the enzymes. We got Pancreatin 6x from Enzyme Diane.
She’s only been on the enzymes a week, and though she did not test positive for EPI, she has appeared a little better. She seems a little less crazed about eating, her gas decreased to almost none, and her stools don’t smell so bad. The amount of stool also decreased – before it seemed like everything she ate went immediately right through her. However – while her stools seemed to be getting almost normal, I started to see a lot of mucus. Sometimes her stools would be encased with mucus, and other times they’d start off looking normal but be followed by a big dump of bright yellow jelly-like mucus at the end. Sometimes orangey mucus. Dr. said it was colitis. But with colitis you give fiber, and with SIBO and EPI you do not. So I don’t know what to do.
Yesterday morning, speaking with the Vet tech, she suggested I try stopping the enzymes to see what happened to Izzy’s stools. So yesterday, Izzy had her mid-day meal and dinner without enzymes. And late in the day she started having smelly gas again, and her stools got a lot softer – formed, but extremely soft (though I did not see any mucus). She can be sleeping and stool will just ooze out of her. So I started her back on the enzymes this morning. So far, still soft stools and smelly gas, but hopefully it will get better again. One other thing – being on the enzymes, there is an awful odor around her. I don’t know if it is on her breath, her muzzle, or what. But it smells sort of like vomit. I clean her muzzle after every meal. So I’d like to ask:
- Has anyone put their dog on enzymes when their TLI was low normal?
- Has anyone experienced a lot of mucus in their dog’s stool? If so, what did you do?
- Has anyone else noticed an awful smell on their dog with the enzymes? Is it normal? Is it permanent?
- And do the enzymes work that quickly – so that not giving them to her for one or two meals would set her back immediately?
