EPI/SID Greyhound Questions

[Tuckaboo Pam]

Bryan, it's all about the poo. Sounds like your plan is working.

Maybe later on you can soak some of the herding dogs & sneak it in with the fresh pet, so it's not wasted. My maltipoo has IBS, and she is thriving on fresh pet, with tylan only a couple of times a week, and the occasional dose of pepto bismol.

My Maltese had 8 teeth removed a few months ago, and she can pretty much eat anything now. --- Pam

[Supe]

Thanks, Pam. Good to hear of another long-term success story with Freshpet. That may be the simplest path forward if it keeps working.

Ursala has two BIG 4 year old greyhound brothers (both over 80 lbs, with one right around 90), so none of the kibble varieties sitting in the house will go to waste!

[Olesia711]

Just catching up now and am THRILLED to hear how well she is doing now.... my guess is, per usual, the final piece of the puzzle was changing the food. And Fresh Pet is excellent. SO many of these dogs really do much better on wholesome real food vs. kibble... but too many of us just don't have the time or the funds to do this.

I used to do 80% home-made food and 20% kibble and that produced the best poos ever and kept the weight on... and it was something that i could afford.
My son has a non-epi moyen poodle and he uses FreshPet and the dog is doing fantastic since switching over to FreshPet..

Sounds like you found the perfect ration of enzymes to food so that is good. even though not canned,... for wet food we recommend the same ratio of enzymes for home-made or raw food, etc.

And HUGE congrats on the 1 lb weight gain..... it all takes time, sometimes a LOT of time, but you have been doing an exceptional job helping Ursala heal!!!!!

[Supe]

Hi everyone, just wanted to follow up.

Ursala is doing great after both dental extractions. Sure enough, about a week ahead of schedule for her second set of extractions, she developed an abscess over one of the bad teeth, so they got her in a little early. She had a much tougher time recovering after the second surgery in terms of pain and bleeding the day of, but did great the following morning. They also discovered that a small fistula had formed, which got stitched up with the gums.

I have decided to keep her on the FreshPet long term. She cleans her bowl and has no difficulties eating it. She was starting to develop very goopy eye boogers that have all but been eliminated since the food switch and dental. Gas has been virtually nonexistent except for the few times we've suspected she nibbled on something in the yard. Even then, that would just result in about 2-3 hours of mid-day stomach gurgles, and would subside with no flatulence or diarrhea. Her poops have been GREAT. Light brown, and formed so well they look like they were pressed out of one of those Play Doh presses, with no excess moisture, wet bits, or green coloration. Even those spurts of poops she used to have during walks which would be almost pure liquid are gone. She is also VERY regular now, and tends to poop like clockwork.

She looks as though she's lost a bit of weight, so I need to bring her in to get a more recent weight. At her dental, she was down a little under 2 lbs, which is still a very healthy weight for her age considering the muscle loss due to the neurological issues, but I don't want her to lose any more. She has a pretty good metabolism and we started at the low end of the suggested portion size for her weight. I went up to a full pound of FreshPet at dinner, but may need to do so at breakfast as well, or introduce another mid-day meal, though I'd like to avoid that for logistics reasons if possible.

Are there any higher calorie mix-ins that may work well for EPI dogs that won't add much more volume to the meal? Thanks in advance.

[jilbert57]

Nice update. You can try a teaspoon of virgin coconut oil a day and see if she likes/tolerates it . It is a great weight gainer. If she is good with it you can up the amount.

Jill

[Jean]

well done for perseverance and a good update

[Olesia711]

Excellent update and i too was going to suggest Coconut oil.... the good kind... look for cold pressed or extra virgin coconut oil... it should be kind of a soft white paste texture, should have a very pleasant smell and comes in a dark/or colored container ... ( it is not well packaged if light can pass thru the container)

I personally like Jarrow Extra virgin coconut oil https://www.amazon.com/Jarrow-Formulas- ... U884I?th=1

Start with 1 tsp for a few days and check the poop... make sure it doesn't go soft... if well tolerated you can slowly increase up to a tablespoon or two per meal.... but most people just do 1 tsp or 1 tblsp per meal....

[Supe]

Thanks, all. I will try the coconut oil - I keep it on hand since that's what I use in our popcorn machine!

[Olesia711]

oh..... another high calorie food (in kibble form) that many EPI dogs appear to tolerate well is SPORT dog food... although it IS very expensive.. and it is kibble.... so i am not sure if this is something you want to re-introduce to her since she started doing SOOooooo much better on FreshPet real food vs. commercial kibble.
But if you are interested, here is one at 460 cal/per: https://www.sportdogfood.com/products/h ... ngredients.

Personally, i would try coconut oil first.......

[Supe]

That was the last dry food I tried, but unfortunately, she turned her nose up at it. Given that we think there is some secondary ingredient common among these kibbles that she has a sensitivity to (including the HA kibble), we're just going to stick with the FreshPet. Thanks!