EPI or endocrine pancreatic insufficency

Luigi just turned one on May 7th. He just also got diagnosed with EPI. He can not breakdown or absorb the food he eats. If it is not taken care of the dog can actually starve to death. He will be on enzyme replacement therapy for the rest of his life, but will live a normal life. I have not seen many corgis with this disease so I was wondering if anyone else's corgi is going through the same thing?

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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on May 8, 2014 at 10:11pm

I had a cat with that condition, or something like it. The cat's liver was not producing the digestive enzymes needed to sustain life. He lived to a ripe old age, but to accomplish that the humans had to stuff pills down him every single day. In those days, said pills could only be obtained from a human pharmacy. The pharmacist where we bought them was one of my husband's legal clients. He thought it was so ridiculous to be buying expensive human pharmaceuticals for a cat that he would laugh out loud when I came in to get the current Rx.

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Permalink Reply by Ashley Vicari on May 14, 2014 at 8:41am

I don't have to use pills for him. He has enzymes that are powder form that you mix in to their meals. I only have to give him OTC pepcid that is a pill to help increase the digestion of the enzymes.

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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on May 15, 2014 at 1:13am

That sure sounds better than trying to shove a pill down a dog's throat every day. Ugh...what a chore.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on May 9, 2014 at 12:34pm

Vet though Franklin had it for a while when he was young because he would NEVER gain weight. Eventually his metabolism slowed down a bit and he was able to put on the 10 pounds he needed to not look like a starving dog. I have not seen this in other corgis but have seen it in many many German Shepherds. They can live a fairly normal and happy life with this disease with the enzyme replacement. It just makes giving treats and snacks a bit harder. We use sweet potatoes as treats for our EPI German Shepherds because they contain enzymes that help them break down the food and don't cause the horrible diarrhea.

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Permalink Reply by Ashley Vicari on May 14, 2014 at 8:39am

When I read about it I saw that it is in a lot of german shepherds. I have my corgi on enzymes so he is starting to get better.

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Permalink Reply by Vicky Hay on May 15, 2014 at 1:10am

Wait, what? An ailment that German shepherds are prone to that mine DIDN'T get? A miracle!

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Permalink Reply by Susan Marie Kovalinsky on May 11, 2014 at 6:32pm

It seems that they can in fact live a normal life with the proper medication.

I hope he is doing OK :-)

What caused the vet to suspect this condition in the first place?

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Permalink Reply by Ashley Vicari on May 14, 2014 at 8:38am

He started to change in his personality. He was sluggish and lethargic, sleeping all day and night. Never initated play like he did before or run around. He also started to have diarrhea that was soft and yellow. He used to eat but never over eat or food motivated. Then all of a sudden he was always wanting food. He also lost weight to where you can feel the rib cage and spine. No matter what medicine we tried the diarrhea never stopped. Finally the vet checked the liver but it was fine. Then she ran the test for EPI which is a blood test and the results were very low making him positive for EPI.