I'm new and this is my first post. I have three dogs. An adult Lab, an adult white GSD and a puppy GSD. My white GSD has exocrine pancreatic insufficiency and has had it for the last 1 1/2 years. She is 3. She has been on a high quality kibble and has been thin however did maintain her weight with the help of enzyme med. Then I changed her diet to raw food. Both adult dogs now are eating raw food.The gsd has started loosing weight slowly. I feed her twice a day and feed her about 21/2 pounds in the morning and 1 1/2 in the evening. She always has gas which makes me think she isn't digesting all her food and half the time her stool is very runny and half the time its hard. When her stool is hard I try to feed the same thing the next meal but sometime her stool is still runny. I dont feed vegy because I'm afraid her stool will always be runny. She should weigh around 75 to 80 but now she is down to about 60 and all her ribs and back bone are showing. I'm going to take to the vet on friday. He knows she is on the raw diet and i think he is going to blame the addition weight lose on that. By the way iI feed the lab the same exact meal only half the amount and he doesn't have gas and his weight is constant. If any one has any ideals please let me know. Does anyone think I should go back to kibble to see if she will put weight back on? They have been on raw a little over a month.Thanks

 Quote: Mike OConnor

I'm new and this is my first post. I have three dogs. An adult Lab, an adult white GSD and a puppy GSD. My white GSD has exocrine pancreatic insufficiency and has had it for the last 1 1/2 years. She is 3. She has been on a high quality kibble and has been thin however did maintain her weight with the help of enzyme med. Then I changed her diet to raw food. Both adult dogs now are eating raw food.The gsd has started loosing weight slowly. I feed her twice a day and feed her about 21/2 pounds in the morning and 1 1/2 in the evening. She always has gas which makes me think she isn't digesting all her food and half the time her stool is very runny and half the time its hard. When her stool is hard I try to feed the same thing the next meal but sometime her stool is still runny. I dont feed vegy because I'm afraid her stool will always be runny. She should weigh around 75 to 80 but now she is down to about 60 and all her ribs and back bone are showing. I'm going to take to the vet on friday. He knows she is on the raw diet and i think he is going to blame the addition weight lose on that. By the way iI feed the lab the same exact meal only half the amount and he doesn't have gas and his weight is constant. If any one has any ideals please let me know. Does anyone think I should go back to kibble to see if she will put weight back on? They have been on raw a little over a month.Thanks

Dogs with e.p.i. have an overriding requirement that probably trumps most others: they need the food that they are best able to digest.

A person in our training club had an e.p.i dog who did best on The Honest Kitchen, no-grain. http://www.leerburg.com/honestkitchen.htm

I'm not saying that this means all e.p.i. dogs will be the same at all, but I do understand that the dehydrated raw, flaked and rehydrated, well-balanced, does present a picture of easily digested food.

OTOH, I understand that some dogs do better on low-fat, low-fiber high-protein diets such as ground turkey with prescribed calcium supplementation.

Have you checked out the boards for e.p.i. owners? These folks are in the trenches, and I'm willing to bet that cumulatively they have a lot of ideas and experience that most vets can't really have.

Here's the biggest one I know about:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/k9-EPIGLOBAL/

Here's a vet med site that has a couple of suggestions:
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_exocrine_pancreatic_insufficie.html

Have you considered asking about a referral to a canine nutritionist or a holistic vet with emphasis on diet?

BTW, I'm a very big raw food advocate. I too would be trying raw food with this dog, but I'm thinking that a little professional help with probiotics or maybe with experimentation with ground food, efficient protein sources, etc., might be good.

And I imagine others here have real experience and not just research to back them up. I'll bet that before the vet visit Friday you'll get ideas here and maybe from the e.p.i. board.

This is a link I found to be helpful and very interesting in my research regarding my GSD with kidney disease.

http://wsgenetics.org/

He's a blk/tan, but he has a whole line of white shepherds in his pedigree. (specifically hoofprint gang out of Canada--search Hoofprint Farms)

Perhaps this project and it's members will be able to further assist you. In fact, if your GSD is papered, I bet you can attain a wealth of information, as there is quite a movement in research and the white GSD. Check it out. Hope it helps.

Thanks Connie the links you gave me should help alot.


Thanks Michele. Jasmine is a purebred however I dont have papers on her and I dont think the breeder would care that she has e.p.d anyway. However thanks for the link it will be helpful.