Epi4Dogs

Something really odd has happened with my corgi Opal, who you all have helped us with issues in the past. The last 3 weeks she's been a stinker about eating her food. We've had to stand right by her repeating to her how good of a girl she is and to continue eating her food, even push her bowl towards our other dog and tell her that if she doesn't eat it he will. She has obliged but hasn't been excited to eat her food as previously. Now yesterday and this morning she is completely protesting. She is cowering behind one of us in the kitchen, shakes, or runs out of the room when we ask her to eat. She can't have a ton of special treats considering her diagnosis so we are careful about that. She used to eat her dry food with a tiny bit of fish oil on it. She won't do that now so we added a little string cheese, which she refused, added peanut butter, still nothing, then little pieces of ham lunch meat and she still refuses!

I have a call into her vet to see what to do, but I am unsure if she is just being stubborn or if there is a larger issue at hand. She isn't vomiting, has energy, and is being her normal self really. Drinking plenty of water just REFUSED to eat dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Since the issues started the vet recommended getting gas-x and adding that to her food. Hard to say if that worked, or if she even had indigestion. She was a bit better about eating but still took about 20 mins for her to appease us in eating her food. Help?

*** My name is Bri and I have a Corgi named Opal who was born on 09/05/17. We live in Washington State and Opal was diagnosed with EPI in September of 2018 shortly after she turned 1 year old. Opal currently takes the following daily: Pancreapowder Plus 1/16 TSP 3x day - Proviable DC Capsule Probiotic 1x day - WonderLabs Slippery Elm Prebiotic 1/16 TSP 1x day - WonderLabs B12 w/Intrinsict Factor 1x day - Tylan antibiotic 1/16 TSP 2x day - Eats Hills Prescription Diet Dog Food / Dry Kibble / Low Fat i/d 3 x day 3/4 cup ***

Hello. I am sorry Bri is not feeling well. Is she on B12 supplements? If the B12 slips, it will affect appetite.

On the other hand, it could be something totally unrelated to EPI and based on her behavior, it sounds like something is definitely bothering her, This is when we so wish they could talk so they could point us in the right direction. I think I would have her checked out by your vet. to make sure there is nothing being overlooked. It is interesting that your vet suggested Gas-X. We used to give that to Kolby after he bloated to prevent gas build up.

Please let us know what you find out.

Barb

When Mickeys thyroid got low he was very fearful. And also when his B12 was low he was fearful.

Jill

Hello,

Thank you all for the suggestions! We will make sure to keep up on her B12, she takes Wonderlabs B12 (one per day) with intrinsic factor that you all recommended. We did do gas-x per our vet's recommendation but it didn't seem to help her. That was our first effort. Bloodwork should be back today and I will let you all know! I forget the name of the panel we did, but it is to see if she has Pancreatitis.

Again THANK YOU ALL!

It could be that whatever is going on (maybe even SID that has gotten a wee bit out of control) so consequently when she eats, it hurts and hence why she is hiding,... or it could be that the B12 is slipping, or something else other than EPI related is going on........So glad you had blood work done on her. Please let us know what the results are!

Blood work results came in! They were overall pretty good, and Opal's vet was pleased. No chronic pancreatitis.... thankfully! Her SDMA levels were higher than we'd expect so the vet is curious about her kidneys. She'd expect her # to be around 6 for her age, but it was 15. Wants to have us take a urine sample in to test and be sure she doesn't have a bladder infection but I can't imagine she does though. Not going more frequently etc. Any ideas on why that could be high???

So I suppose the good news is that she doesn't have any major red flags from the blood work and she's been MUCH more willing to eat with the appetite stimulant that the vet gave us. Which has made everyone's life easier. She still isn't running to me when I tell her food is ready, but will eat once I bring her to the bowl. So odd. I don't know why she's doing that. SID is a possibility too. I think b12 might have been slipping and I've been VERY careful to ensure she's getting a pill each day. Adding wet food to hers is enticing her to eat a bit more too. We definitely aren't back to normal, but it's nice that she is eating and no issues from the blood work.

Thanks all

Thanks Bri for the nice report! It is an awful feeling when they won't eat.
Let us know if you find out more on kidneys.

Jill

Glad to hear it's not pancreatitis and that Opal is eating more. Did they test the BUN or creatine also? It sounds like your vet is on top of things and trying to rule out kidney disease, which a complete urinalysis will help with. Please keep us posted on how she's doing.

We had a lot of success with adding wet food to Kolby's diet. We had to say goodbye to him in January and I am so glad he had 5 months of really enjoying his food. I'm glad Opal is enjoying hers more. It sounds like you are getting some answers from the blood work. Let us know when you get the next results. It is so stressful when they won't eat.

Hang in there.

Barb

Oh, it's always hard for me to read that the dogs have some troubles with health. I'm an owner of two dogs, and when they feel not ok, it worries me so much. Have you faced the same situation in the past, or it's a new thing? A few months ago, I had a similar situation with my Tess (she is a Border Collie), and it was kind of stressful for me because she gave up on food. Of course, we went to the vet, and she was diagnosed with something, but it wasn't to serious. The doctor recommended starting a vegan diet for some time because he said that it would improve her health and digestion system. You can follow this link to find an informative article and find more info about the dog going vegan. I don't recommend making Opal a vegan, but it helped my dog, and maybe, that info will be useful for someone else.