Epi4Dogs

Hi everyone, I’m Tara and my dog recently diagnosed with EPI is Toby. He’s a cavalier King Charles spaniel, 10 years old (11 at the end of the month) and we live in the UK.
Toby’s currently having weekly injections of B12 - 4 left out of a course of 6 of which he’s hating as it’s apparently an injection into the muscle… of which he doesn’t have
He’s also on Lypex. Vet said 1 a day but since talking to the lovely oracle known as Jean we are now increasing it to 1 capsule per meal. He’s having four meals a day. He’s on Arden Grange sensitive white fish and potato wet food which has been a life saver as he was diagnosed with Inflammatory Bowel Disease back in November and this food set his poops back too normal. One thing I forget to mention to Jean is that Toby also has a heart murmur of which he’s on Vetmedin for.

Is anyone else’s pup on heart medication? It’s just dawned on me whether or not that’s being processed by his body properly?! I know it’s processed by the liver but I didn’t think about EPI and whether that would have an effect on the tablet.

The questions I had for the forum have been answered by Jean so I thought I’d just introduce ourselves and give you Toby’s history.

I think compared too many we’ve been fortunate with Toby. As we’d stabilised his poops before his EPI diagnosis we didn’t know and you wouldn’t know there was anything wrong with him. He’s fine in himself, loves his food, loves his walks (that’s he doesn’t have any more due to no meat on his bones ) He’s only experienced dramatic weight loss. He’s gone from >10kg to 8.7kg in 5 months.
I guess because of his IBD he doesn’t get any treats other than the foods he’d had since being diagnosed with IBD so at the moment nothing is giving him diarrhoea or upsetting him.

The reason we requested a blood test was to see why he was loosing weight even though we’d found a food that was working and that’s when the vet said he had EPI. We thought diabetes or thyroid problem…didn’t know about EPI.
So far we’re 18 days into the tablets and injections. No changes yet but that’s because we don’t think his enzymes dosage is correct but fingers crossed now we’re increasing it we might see a bit of change.

Sorry to go on Just to remind you of the one question I could do with help on is the heart medication and EPI.

Thanks for reading.
Tara & Toby xx

Hello from Sheffield. So glad your in good hands already. When my dog was stabilised on Lypex , I changed to Chemeyes, who also sell the B12 + IF capsules when you feel ready to go on after the injection course.
My dog was diagnosed with a grade one heart murmur when she was 8, but no treatment or change in activity was required. My brother in law had a cavalier whose heart was much worse, but I don’t know what she was on. I believe it is a problem with them .
I hope every thing goes smoothly now for Toby, it will become routine.

My Kiya did not have Epi but had heart issues. She was on Vetmedin(pimobenden). It worked miracles for her.

Jill

Hi Patsy,
I’ll definitely be getting the B12+iF from Chemeyes as Jean mentioned them too. His next appointment is Monday so I’ll let them know we’ll change to the powder once the capsules have stabilised him
Unfortunately heart murmurs and mitral valve disease if renowned in cavaliers, three out of four of my cavs have had it and been on tablets. We’re keeping our fingers crossed for Amber (Toby’s niece) that she doesn’t develop a murmur, she’s 8 now and so far so good.

As soon as the B12 injections are over and he’s on the supplements I think he be happier as currently he’s not enjoying the trip to the vets as the jab hurts His first ones wasn’t too bad but the second one upset him. Absolutely fine afterwards though thankfully.

Patsy wrote: ↑05 Aug 2022, 15:37 Hello from Sheffield. So glad your in good hands already. When my dog was stabilised on Lypex , I changed to Chemeyes, who also sell the B12 + IF capsules when you feel ready to go on after the injection course.
My dog was diagnosed with a grade one heart murmur when she was 8, but no treatment or change in activity was required. My brother in law had a cavalier whose heart was much worse, but I don’t know what she was on. I believe it is a problem with them .
I hope every thing goes smoothly now for Toby, it will become routine.

Hi Jill,
This is my third dog now on heart meds and it is a magical tablet. I keeping my fingers crossed that someone on here has a dog with both conditions and whether EPI affects the vetmedin or not. It’ll be a question I’ll be asking my vet on Monday but I’m not expecting them to have an answer straightaway.

jilbert57 wrote: ↑05 Aug 2022, 15:56 My Kiya did not have Epi but had heart issues. She was on Vetmedin(pimobenden). It worked miracles for her.

Jill

Good morning Tara and Toby from Liverpool

i am so jealous of you living on a narrow boat, we have some fab holidays on the canals with whichever dog we had with us

amyway thank you so much for your kind words, my mantra is

"its your dog your money"

I was very lucky to have Uncle Ian no relative as my vet

fabulous Irish giant of a man very tall and very talkative

he had dealt with EPI since the 80's and was the police dog vet

as Patsy knows I have had several conversations with Vet Plus about the doseage of Lypex and they will not move , so we live and learn from others

we gave up on it as Kara was on 3 per meal twice daily once she stabilised , prior to that is was 5 per meal 5 times a day

crazy

so yes 1 per meal no treats unless enzymed , I know its hard, trust me, we were training Kara at the time,and she was food orientated, so we moved to a squeak which fortunately worked for us

the one think Kara loved was scrambled egg and mashed potato enzymed, she would haunt me if she was forgotten, I have no experience of heart medication

but all of medication should work well as there is nothing in them that needs to be digested as such,

please feel free to print anything from this web site and share it with your vet

just a reminder get the results from them

Hi Jean,
Thanks for the chat yesterday. It’s a shame there aren’t more Ian’s around the country

Boating life is good until you need regular vet visits but so far so good as we have family in the area to give us lifts.

Thanks for the reminder for the results. I’ve just gotta hope my brain remembers come Monday.

I’ll update you if there’s anything new and I’ll post the blood work on here when I get it.

Jean wrote: ↑06 Aug 2022, 06:04 Good morning Tara and Toby from Liverpool

i am so jealous of you living on a narrow boat, we have some fab holidays on the canals with whichever dog we had with us

amyway thank you so much for your kind words, my mantra is

"its your dog your money"

I was very lucky to have Uncle Ian no relative as my vet

fabulous Irish giant of a man very tall and very talkative

he had dealt with EPI since the 80's and was the police dog vet

as Patsy knows I have had several conversations with Vet Plus about the doseage of Lypex and they will not move , so we live and learn from others

we gave up on it as Kara was on 3 per meal twice daily once she stabilised , prior to that is was 5 per meal 5 times a day

crazy

so yes 1 per meal no treats unless enzymed , I know its hard, trust me, we were training Kara at the time,and she was food orientated, so we moved to a squeak which fortunately worked for us

the one think Kara loved was scrambled egg and mashed potato enzymed, she would haunt me if she was forgotten, I have no experience of heart medication

but all of medication should work well as there is nothing in them that needs to be digested as such,

please feel free to print anything from this web site and share it with your vet

just a reminder get the results from them

Poor Toby Nikki has been getting weekly B12 injections for years and never IM.

Maybe you can ask your vet to start giving them subcutaneous since he hates it so much?

ul never picked up on that the b12 injections do hurt. and should be in the scuff of the ne ck having g made a tent shape with the skin

can 6ou check it's the generic b12 and not vita.in b12 it should be dark pink In colour

The B12 is dark pink in colour. I’ll ask about another injection site as she goes for the muscle area in his back. I can’t say exactly where as I held him the first time and the nurse did the second time. It did look like she pinched up his skin and she is using the smallest needle.
I thought it would have been in his rear leg muscle.

One of the nurses there is having b12 injections and she said they not nice as they sting a lot.