I feel your pain.
Earlier this year one of our dogs was (finally) diagnosed with EPI. Finding out that was what it was was a huge relief, and we've been able to start medicating him.
For such a horrible disease, it's actually relatively easy to treat. Adding enzymes to the dog's food isn't difficult, it just takes a little pre-planning and some fiddling with the dosage. With a little time, our boy is back to a healthy weight and living a completely normal life
The meds ARE a bit expensive, but there are a few loopholes. I've found a few websites that offer programs to folks with EPI dogs (if you send in records of your diagnosis) to put you on a bulk order list to help manage the cost. There's also a tutorial out there somewhere for blending and freezing ice cubes of raw pig pancreas to add to your dogs food. I've yet to actually try this (pancreas is a little hard to source) but we're waiting on a generous friend of a friend to slaughter and then we're going to give it a shot.
In the mean time, while you are waiting for the diagnosis, one thing that we found helpful was to add some green tripe (has to be green, with enzymes still intact, a company called Tripett has it in cans) mixed with a little water to the dog's food. After letting it sit for a few hours, the enzymes partially pre-digest it for you.
It made a big difference for our boy. It wasn't a replacement for the Pancrease, but his stools did firm up a bit and he wasn't free-falling weight anymore.
Earlier this year one of our dogs was (finally) diagnosed with EPI. Finding out that was what it was was a huge relief, and we've been able to start medicating him.
For such a horrible disease, it's actually relatively easy to treat. Adding enzymes to the dog's food isn't difficult, it just takes a little pre-planning and some fiddling with the dosage. With a little time, our boy is back to a healthy weight and living a completely normal life
The meds ARE a bit expensive, but there are a few loopholes. I've found a few websites that offer programs to folks with EPI dogs (if you send in records of your diagnosis) to put you on a bulk order list to help manage the cost. There's also a tutorial out there somewhere for blending and freezing ice cubes of raw pig pancreas to add to your dogs food. I've yet to actually try this (pancreas is a little hard to source) but we're waiting on a generous friend of a friend to slaughter and then we're going to give it a shot.
In the mean time, while you are waiting for the diagnosis, one thing that we found helpful was to add some green tripe (has to be green, with enzymes still intact, a company called Tripett has it in cans) mixed with a little water to the dog's food. After letting it sit for a few hours, the enzymes partially pre-digest it for you.
It made a big difference for our boy. It wasn't a replacement for the Pancrease, but his stools did firm up a bit and he wasn't free-falling weight anymore.
