Lucy - Another Newbie
Posted: 04 Feb 2023, 10:42
My poor Lucy (Lucy Bella, as I call her).... A wonderful loving, gentle, and energetic dog - we always said that she would have made a great mom if we hadn't opted to spay her. She is an F1 Goldendoodle of a Golden mom and a Standard Poodle dad, and we thought she was just the runt, as she was in the smaller side. With her recent EPI dx, I'm thinking she just wasn't absorbing all the nutrients and it stunted her growth.
At first we thought she hurt her back because she had sudden hind end weakness and noticed really soft stools. Vet we could get in with took an xray of back, didn't see a problem, gave her pain meds and ordered rest. A month later, she was still weak, and poop was getting worse, and our other dog started eating her poop. We took her in as soon as we could be seen and after I had been doing a bunch of investigation and found this site. I mentioned the possibility of EPI, and vet #2 blew me off, ordered 2 more xrays, saw no issues with hips or back, saw "busy bowels", tried to order PT and accupuncture, etc, while I kept bringing up weight loss (She had dropped 5 pounds in the month.) and digestive disorders. Finally, vet #2 offered 5 days of metoclopramide with gabapetin and meloxicam. The entire time, I'm texting with my hubby and he's texting our friend and regular vet at the practice. We asked him to look at all the films. He immediately said to bring her in at his earliest appt a week later. She had dropped another pound, and ordered full blood panel to be sent down to TA&M. He texted us the images of the results and said to get the Pancreatic Enzymes....
So, from recommendations here, I adjusted her diet, switched them from grazers, who shared a bowl, to 2 meals per day (big adjustment for them). She got 1/2 c of her kibble mixed with 2 c of a raw diet, enzymes on hers (essentially 150% of the amount of food she should get). I started with 1 tsp of enzymes/meal. She pretty quickly improved in her energy, she quickly started gaining some weight, and her poop index went to a 2!! All within 2 weeks! I was ecstatic!
However, she started burping and small amounts of bile-like liquid. I thought maybe I could back off on the enzymes a bit, and dropped to 3/4 tsp for 3 days with no improvement in the vurps or smell, and then dropped to 1/2 tsp. But then she started with the weakness again and poop index declining and seems be be losing the weight she had gained.
I just ordered some slippery elm bark powder to add, and am going back up to 3/4 tsp of the enzymes. However, the raw diet costs are killing me! We're spending almost $400/month on dog food now between the raw and the higher quality kibble, not counting the enzyme costs.
I'm trying to feed my two dogs similar diets since you can't explain to one why they have to eat something different. It's tough enough with keeping their quantities separate right now and keeping Lucy from trying to gobble the rest of Linus's non-enzymed food because he still grazes a bit.
Does anyone have any suggestions on food and managing a multi-dog household?
Thanks in advance and grateful to have found this awesome resource (which I shared with our vet friend).
-Lucy's Mom, Renee
At first we thought she hurt her back because she had sudden hind end weakness and noticed really soft stools. Vet we could get in with took an xray of back, didn't see a problem, gave her pain meds and ordered rest. A month later, she was still weak, and poop was getting worse, and our other dog started eating her poop. We took her in as soon as we could be seen and after I had been doing a bunch of investigation and found this site. I mentioned the possibility of EPI, and vet #2 blew me off, ordered 2 more xrays, saw no issues with hips or back, saw "busy bowels", tried to order PT and accupuncture, etc, while I kept bringing up weight loss (She had dropped 5 pounds in the month.) and digestive disorders. Finally, vet #2 offered 5 days of metoclopramide with gabapetin and meloxicam. The entire time, I'm texting with my hubby and he's texting our friend and regular vet at the practice. We asked him to look at all the films. He immediately said to bring her in at his earliest appt a week later. She had dropped another pound, and ordered full blood panel to be sent down to TA&M. He texted us the images of the results and said to get the Pancreatic Enzymes....
So, from recommendations here, I adjusted her diet, switched them from grazers, who shared a bowl, to 2 meals per day (big adjustment for them). She got 1/2 c of her kibble mixed with 2 c of a raw diet, enzymes on hers (essentially 150% of the amount of food she should get). I started with 1 tsp of enzymes/meal. She pretty quickly improved in her energy, she quickly started gaining some weight, and her poop index went to a 2!! All within 2 weeks! I was ecstatic!
However, she started burping and small amounts of bile-like liquid. I thought maybe I could back off on the enzymes a bit, and dropped to 3/4 tsp for 3 days with no improvement in the vurps or smell, and then dropped to 1/2 tsp. But then she started with the weakness again and poop index declining and seems be be losing the weight she had gained.
I just ordered some slippery elm bark powder to add, and am going back up to 3/4 tsp of the enzymes. However, the raw diet costs are killing me! We're spending almost $400/month on dog food now between the raw and the higher quality kibble, not counting the enzyme costs.
I'm trying to feed my two dogs similar diets since you can't explain to one why they have to eat something different. It's tough enough with keeping their quantities separate right now and keeping Lucy from trying to gobble the rest of Linus's non-enzymed food because he still grazes a bit.
Does anyone have any suggestions on food and managing a multi-dog household?
Thanks in advance and grateful to have found this awesome resource (which I shared with our vet friend).
-Lucy's Mom, Renee