Epi4Dogs

Hello, everyone. I am new to this forum. My dog Kohle a rescued GSD as a puppy from a shelter here in SC. He is just 4 and is confirmed epi.
He is on his 5th B12 injection, Tylan daily, with Slippery elm thrown in, and eats RC Gastro diet. I use Bio-case enzymes with b12, and it also has trypsin. Kohle is gaining weight, but his stools are not right. Does anyone think that maybe b12 isn't holding? Or maybe it's the food? I am about to transition him to Blackwood Salmon as the ingredients look pretty good and I want to switch his protein.
Anyone have any ideas? Any advice is appreciated. This disease is spook frustrating!!
I tried to upload a photo, I guess I need re-size it
Kellie

Hello and welcome from the UK

Kohle is beautiful

Ok

You say Tylan is given daily, how many times ? It is meant to be given 12 hours apart twice daily, and dosed as per weight of dog , so how heavy is Kohle ?

Personally, Royal Canin never agreed with my Kara neither did anything with chicken, or any if its derivitives e.g. poultry fat etc, and rice and grains were a no no

Looking at the food you mention I would need to know exactly which recipe you are loooking at, the b12 , is it the generic type dark pink in colour

The four cornerstones of EPI managment food, b12, antibiotics and enzymes have to be in the correct ratio to work, what dose of Bio case are you giving , are you giving ANYTHING without enzymes

Let us know

J

Hi Jean, Thank you for response.
I have the 1000mg b12 injectable prescribed by vet. I also have the wonderlabs b12 but was rild not to start it until b12 inj. Course is over of which he had had 5 out of 6 given once weekly, then will go to every other week for 6 wks. Tylan is 1/4 tsp bid. Breakfast and dinner. I do feed him about 3 times a day, sometimes more for a a total of 6cups daily.
I hate the Rc food to be honest, I really think it's garbage, but that is what my vet (who may be wrong) put Kohle on. Kohle was finally dx on 1/3/20 only at my insistance. Before i was always told ge has IBD OR IBS. I kept saying to this vet it's gor to be something more, and unfortunately it is. For the food, I researched food, and decided on the Blackwood Salmon dry for sensitive skin/stomach due to protein, fiber ratios. I wanted to feed a better than average food, that I can still afford, as I am the only $$ maker..Kohle needs a job! Oh, forgot to put he was 67lbs at dx, and is now 73lbs

Hi!
You are probably right in that this particular food is just not agreeing with your pup...
Otherwise, it does sound like you are doing all the right things, but the balance of something is off..... and the first suspect is the food. HOWEVER..... what you can try while still on this food.... try increasing the enzymes by 1/4 of a tsp and see if that makes a difference.

If it does make a difference..... that usually indicates that this particular food is not that agreeable with your pup.

Hope this helps and please keep us posted!

If this recipe is the one with brown rice I personally would look elsewhere, they dont do well with rice in the main, Kara was given RC and it went straight through her the vets are often sponsored by the big animal foods compa ies, which does not help

The other ingredient to avoid if possible are peas, the companies use them to bulk out instead of grains and they often are less than helpful

We started off in 2010, and it took a while to get it anywhere near right, its all tweaking and keeping copious records

Kara was stable to the end in May 2019, so keep the faith, can you confirm you dont give anything without enzymes

Thank you Oleisa. I will try that increase of enzymes and see. I also plan on buying my enzymes from Diane when I am out of this Bio-case. It smells horrific. But I cannot afford to just chuck it out and since he is gaining.... Good lord - my dog has more meds and supplements than I don't know what! The things we go thru for our babies. I have to hide to eat myself since he gets nothing else anymore. Anyway, Thank you for all that you guys do what a wonderful group you all are. It makes dealing with this epi more bareable.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Kellie and Kohle

Hi Jean. No kohle gets nothing at all but enzymed dog food which sets for about 30 min to incubate ....poor guy-he use to get little bits of goodies...not anymore
Anyway. I wanted him on grain free and the vet says no-way due to the dcm going around and the link to grain free food. It so confusing what to do... I guess I should be happy that he is at least gaining, and work on the stool issue as I go on along. The odor of the stool and color tell me that the sid is raging or might be ? don't know what changed to make it go south again. Oh well, I'll just keep trying. Thanks so very much for your time and the great help and advice.
I will let y'all know what changes come.
Kellie and Kohle

Here is some information on the DCM and grain free diets:

https://epi4dogs.com/taurine-grainfree-diets/

https://epi4dogs.com/dog-food-options/

Jill

Thank you Jill. I'm going to show that peice of info to the vet. It's so confusing to have someone that you are supposed to trust for your dogs health tell you no and then you see something of worth to dispute it. And then again, I did have to insist that this vet write a script for Tylan, (he wanted to continue with metro after 15 days with zero results)and I also had to encourage the epi confirmation test. Because not just him but previous vet had told me that Kohle just has IBD or IBS. And that he needed either RC gastro or Hydrolized.
And they may be right, but originally he still had continued weight loss in my mind that warranted further investigation.. so there in lies more confusion. All after I paid so much $$$ before getting to that stage. I'm sure I'm not alone. At any rate thank you to everyone for there input, it is very appreciated!

Kellie, I, too, have to scrimp and save to keep Tucker on his routine. Please look for a private message from me, and I'll tell you how I manage, with information that I've learned on this incredible forum. Don't worry, I'm not gonna try & sell you anything!!! Hang in there!---Pam