Pancreatic Insufficiency

[Trudy]

Anybody had a dog with this before?

 

This seems to be what Tavarish has been diagnosed with - he gets an enzyme powder on his food and seems to do fine.

The full history of him isn't fully known, but he was picked up in a remote village on Kodiak from a no longer good home situation. Somebody that was out that way saw him and told them to give him over to the shelter and let them figure out what was wrong with him and how to fix it. They almost put him down because he kept losing weight. Somebody happened to drop off some enzymes and told them to give it a try - what could it hurt at this point. It worked. He had bloodwork as well. When I'm not sure.

 

Best guess is that he probably wasn't getting the best food/care in his previous home. He was picked up as a result and they said they were feeding him deer meat and other food, but he was dropping weight.

 

I'm going to see if I can find a time the vet can talk to me about what testing was done, what his results were and when they were done. I'm wondering if it is a real diagnosis or due to timing, it could have been stress/food (or lack there of) related and now that he's at a stable weight and doing well, if the results would show different or not.

 

He's doing perfectly fine with the enzyme powder and if this is a true diagnosis, then he's on it for life.

But just curious if anybody else has dealt with it before and if the dogs condition at time of testing may play a role in the results?

[RobinM]

That was one of the many things Beau was tested before he had the surgery to figure out what was going on.

 

From what I understand EPI occurs when the part of the pancreas that produces digestive enzymes no longer functions properly. The dog can't digest its food.

 

There is a lot of good reading online about this. I read through a lot of things trying to diagnose Beau.

 

 

[MandysMom]

Anybody had a dog with this before?

 

This seems to be what Tavarish has been diagnosed with - he gets an enzyme powder on his food and seems to do fine.

The full history of him isn't fully known, but he was picked up in a remote village on Kodiak from a no longer good home situation. Somebody that was out that way saw him and told them to give him over to the shelter and let them figure out what was wrong with him and how to fix it. They almost put him down because he kept losing weight. Somebody happened to drop off some enzymes and told them to give it a try - what could it hurt at this point. It worked. He had bloodwork as well. When I'm not sure.

 

Best guess is that he probably wasn't getting the best food/care in his previous home. He was picked up as a result and they said they were feeding him deer meat and other food, but he was dropping weight.

 

I'm going to see if I can find a time the vet can talk to me about what testing was done, what his results were and when they were done. I'm wondering if it is a real diagnosis or due to timing, it could have been stress/food (or lack there of) related and now that he's at a stable weight and doing well, if the results would show different or not.

 

He's doing perfectly fine with the enzyme powder and if this is a true diagnosis, then he's on it for life.

But just curious if anybody else has dealt with it before and if the dogs condition at time of testing may play a role in the results?

 

 

My Bridge Angel Dalmatian, Meg had EPI. She was diagnosed by her prior family's vet after a long period of issues. I'll try and find the vet records--they're somewhere in my abyss of an extra room. EPI is most common in German Shepherd Dogs, so GSD experts tend to be much more familiar with it. There are a couple of brands of enzyme powders--Viokase is the most common, but PanaKare Plus is MUCH cheaper and usually works just as well. I will warn you, sometimes the strangest things can set off a round of diarrhea. When Neogen changed one of the "carrier" products in Panakare, it stopped working as well for Meg. The company was excellent in working with me--the primary chemist in charge of PanaKare worked with me, sending me samples of different lots, and helping me track down the issue. Meg had to eat Purina Canine EN prescription food--it was the ONLY one I could find that she could tolerate. I found Omaha Vaccine and Lambert Vet Supply had the best prices on the PanaKare and Viokase.

 

EPI is tough in that unless controlled (no cure exists), the dog basically starves. I had to battle to keep pounds on Meg. The dog will often become food-obsessed and develop pica and poop-eating fetishes--I could never let her in the yard unattended because she would eat anything with protein--bugs, poop, you name it. I can't tell you how many things I had to yank out of her throat. Treats without animal products are best, they tend to have less bad side effects. Meg would eat carrots and plain, unbuttered, hot-air-popped popcorn. One of the worst side effects of the dog getting into a food they shouldn't is the explosive oily diarrhea (lovely, right?)

 

Here are two sites with good information about EPI : (http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_exocrine_pancreatic_insufficie.html) (http://www.epi4dogs.com/)

 

Best of luck Trudy, it is manageable, but takes lots of effort. Please feel free to PM me if you want more info.

 

Beverly

[Guest mandm]

The yahoo group Epiglobal is a great resource. Last I checked, one of the members purchased the expensive digestive enzymes in bulk and sold & shipped them to members at dramatically discounted cost. Lots & lots of good info in their files and lots of support from their forum. Good luck.

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/k9-EPIGLOBAL/

[Trudy]

It hasn't been an issue since he's been here - regardless of what food or treats he gets. We changed his food since I'm not so fond of feeding 8 cups of Pedigree.

 

That's why I'm curious as to if this could have just been a result of not getting food at his previous home, the stress there and then the moving to a different place where he was kept outside until they got him to the shelter here (not like you can drive from all the villages on this island). But the shelter was also having issues getting weight onto him until they started adding the enzyme powder.

I did a bunch of reading today, but the main thing I'm curious about is if this is really what it is or not.

 

But again, I don't know what testing was done and what the results were. Hopefully I'll be able to talk to the vet here about what was done when and if there is a reason to repeat any of that testing now that he seems to be doing well.

[Guest mandm]

The test is not real expensive, maybe $100-$150, but everything costs more there I think. It's a simple blood test, sent off to Texas A&M. But the dog has to be fasted for at least 12 hours prior to testing, so it's best to schedule it for the morning.

http://www.cvm.tamu.edu/gilab/assays/TLI.shtml

[Guest CindiLuvsGreys]

My dog Angel (non Grey) was diagnosed with that when she was a puppy. She was on the powder her entire life and did great. She passed at 12 1/2 from kidney failure. They diagnosed with a stool sample. It took a few months for the powder to really get into her system and after that she was pretty much normal. She would get loose stool from time to time but no matter what I fed her as long as that powder was on it she was fine.

[Burpdog]

I've had 3. Jodie was diagnosed with a blood test. Shadow had it after his pancreatic attack and was on enzymes for 3 months and I was able to wean him off. Slick was on it for the however many months I had him. His poop was yellow and I didn't test him (vet was ok with that). With Slick I used the pills instead of the powder. Worked better for him because I never knew if he would eat or not.

 

Panacare is much cheaper than Viokase and works just as well (they have both powder and pills). I bought it from Omaha Vaccine.