Creon Dosing Experience

[Chance]

Sorry, kinda late to the party. Not really sure how much I can help, as I have no experience with cats and EPI.

I did very successfully switch my dog from powdered enzymes to Creon. It was a matter of finding the correct dose. Once I did, I did find Creon to be the most effective. First, I started off waay too low, which was not good. It took a few increases until I found the best dose. (He is almost 75 lbs yellow Lab).

The dosage he does the best on is 45,000 units per meal. (It's a higher dose than some, but it might be because he's fed raw food with a fairly high fat content).

I did try a few times going down to 40,000 units. Each time the poop got very large, and signs of SIBO within 2 days. After the 3rd failure and subsequent setback, I have not tried reducing again.

At one point, the vet thought it would be easier to just give 2 Creon 25,000, rather than 4.5 Creon 10,000. It was only a tiny increase, so I agreed it made sense. But by the next day, I knew that was not going to work. He ended up with terrible acid reflux. His poop was okay, but he was not. I had to call the vet to get the Creon 10's again.

There was one other time, during a SIBO setback that I did increase again. (I was treating without antibiotics, so it was a good few days). This time the extra little bit did help a lot. Once I noticed signs of him starting to feel better, I dropped the dose back again.

I have heard of others that found that the poop was too hard and dry while the enzyme dose was too high. Lowering the dose did help. So it's a case of every dog is different. I'm sure every cat is also different!

[Rowan's Mom]

Hi Andrea,

Thank you for sharing your experience. Though dogs and cats are different, hearing about Chance's experience with Creon is helpful as I try to figure out dosing on my end. Happy to hear you feel Creon is more effective than powdered enzymes.

I don't want to increase Rowan's dosage unnecessarily, but I do wonder if his voraciousness appetite would be curbed with more Creon. But since he still has prednisolone (an appetite stimulant in some) in his system but keeps slowly gaining weight, I am thinking I should stay where I am. However, I as soon as I see a drop or plateau, I know I'll need to bump him up a bit.

How could you tell Chance had acid reflux? I understand this can be a side effect of too large a dose.

Thanks!
Elissa

[Chance]

How could you tell Chance had acid reflux? I understand this can be a side effect of too large a dose.

At first it started with signs of nausea. Licking his lips, drooling. Then he got the "reverse sneezing" that happens when acid jumps into your throat.

The prednisone could certainly increase appetite. If it's related to steroids, increasing Creon won't help. If he's pooping well, and gaining weight, Creon dose might be good! If poop is softer, or too much poop, then a tiny little extra might help

[Rowan's Mom]

Hi Olesia,

Rowan has continuously been gaining weight. He was up to 12.44 lbs as of yesterday. I've been feeling like we don't have long until we reach a target weight of 12.5-13.0 lb when I will need to figure out lowering calories/reducing enzymes so he maintains weight vs gains. However, I noticed on my log that a handful of days ago, he started to go poop more often, sometimes 3x a day when he consistently was down to 2x daily except for an occasional 3rd time every 5th or 6th day. Then I started to think the color may have also been somewhat darker a week or so ago.

I am questioning why this decline started to happen suddenly, when he continued with good poops on Creon 3K and 4.5K/meal for over 2 weeks and I only increased the dose because he seemed to stop gaining weight. The only difference now is that he's been off prednisolone since Saturday. I would hate to think that was contributing to an improvement in stool, because I couldn't wait to get him off it since it was prescribed for IBD when he was improperly tested for EPI in January.

So yesterday I increased his dose up to 6K/meal. He pooped 3x yesterday and already 2x today. He also didn't gain weight today. I know I should be patient with the dose increase, but I am already freaking out, thinking he's stopped responding to the Creon. Sometimes do animals need an increase after a period of time out of the blue after doing well at certain dose? Is it possible to do worse on a higher dose?

Any insights you may have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Elissa