Epi4Dogs

Our 6.5 year-old border collie/formosa mix Porter was diagnosed with EPI and diabetes mellitus last month after being hospitalized with severe pancreatitis and IMHA. He's been home for a month and still has a feeding tube (e-tube). We're really trying to get him to take everything by mouth so we can have the tube removed. The problem is he is SUCH a picky eater. Even before getting sick, he was picky. And now, because of the pancreatitis he has to eat low-fat food which he doesn't enjoy and he has to eat a lot of it to gain back all the weight he lost. And he won't touch anything that has enzymes in it- we've tried PancrePlus and EnzymeDiane. Our vet said we can feed him his food without the enzymes, then give the enzymes through the feeding tube. It's been working fine (his poops are still formed, but softer than when he was getting food mixed with enzymes all through the tube), but he's starting to eat less of his food (Royal Canin gastrointestinal low fat). We've figured out it's because he doesn't like the food. He'll happily eat our other dog's regular kibble. We have an appointment with our vet next week, but they haven't been very helpful with coming up with ways to get him to eat or how to give him the enzymes without the feeding tube. I'm thinking about asking for a CREON prescription- will even picky dogs take the creon? What kinds of foods are safe for EPI/pancreatitis dogs to make his food more appealing? We've tried raw green tripe (and even that wasn't stinky enough to cover up the enzyme taste!). He just can't have anything with fat in it. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, I am so sorry that you are dealing with this multiple problem. My EPI gal, Izzy, who was the inspiration for this website, was diagnosed with EPI at 1+1/2 yrs old. and developed Diabetes and IMHA at 7 years old... and when we couldn't get the IMHA stable (her HGT kept flip flopping in the mid-20s... i had the vets also test her for low thyroid... which they discovered she also had....all this and we managed to get everything under good control and Izzy lived to 15 years old.

SO........based on my personal experience.... i hope our experience can be of some help to you.

YES!!!!!!!!!!! please ask your vet to let you try CREON.... and there is NO taste what so ever. ALl you do is open the CREON capsule, sprinkle on the food and serve immediately. No incubation needed.

Regarding food... with EPI + Diabetes + IMHA .... my dog's diabetes was best controlled by home-made food... Actually when i fed all homemade, her Diabetic blood sugar numbers were absolutely perfect. She got 80% low fat meat (white chicken breast or pork loin) and the rest was made up of: no fat cottage cheese, baked /skinned /mashed sweet potato. You can also add a "farm-fresh" egg... not store bought... store bought has too much cholesterol in it. And i also would add a few leaves of cooked kale. Anyway... this worked perfectly but then, my gal couldn't not maintain her weight and started losing weight, so i had to make the above BUT also include approx 1/3-1/2 cup of kibble... I initially started with low fat/grain free kibble (in the beginning i used Annamaet Lean & Grain Free) and years later i switched to Sport Elite grain free whitefish kibble. you can keep the fat content low (which you have to not only because of this secondary EPI from Pancreatitis.... BUT.... fatty meats, etc will sky-rocket the blood sugar and the diabetes will be wildly out of control) .. and add things like real meat that actually taste good to a dog.

I used Fat Secret https://www.fatsecret.com/ website to calculate fat, carbs, protein, and calories in each food source i used when making home-made food and then ALWAYS, ALWAYS,ALWAYS added bone meal (you can use crushed egg shells) for calcium and a good quality doggie vitamin to make sure your dog is still getting all the required nutrients even when you make the food in your own kitchen.

Hi and welcome to our EPI family. I'm so sorry you're dealing with so many things at once but your pup sure is lucky to have you! You're in good hands with Olesia so I won't muddy the waters. I just want to emphasize keeping a detailed journal of everything you give and the results as it will help you figure out what works and what doesn't.

You really did the best you could. Your dog is lucky to have you phoodle

That's impressive what you've done...your dog is extremely lucky

The one thing that works for Montgomery is nutritional yeast. He can't tolerate high fat, either. It smells and tastes like cheese. He seems to prefer Bob's Red Mill. Maybe it will work for your pup.