German Shepherd With Epi

[sunnyy]

Hi,

I am seeking some help or suggestions from other dog owners who have pets diagnosed with EPI. As the title suggests, my 22 month old male GSD was recently diagnosed with EPI after having the blood test showing his TLI as 1 (Normal rates are 5.4 I believe).

The vet recommended I move him onto Eukanuba Low Residue (Highly digestible, low fibre) biscuits. These biscuits can only be obtained from a vet once EPI has been diagnosed. They are more advanced than other brands as they allow the dog to put back on the weight they've lost.

He is currently having 5 cups of biscuits a day, split into 2 meals. On top of the biscuits, the vet has prescribed Creon Forte (25,000 Unit). These are extracted from a pigs' pancrease and are a enzyme supplement.

Originally the dose of Creon started at 8 tablets per day. Because the 'number 2' situation was not improved I have slowly been increasing it. On Monday I increase it again to 12 tablets. The vet said that I should see a change within 24 hours. Unfortunately no change has been seen, so today I have increased the dose to 16. My vet mentioned that he has a border collie who has 10 a day, and considering my boy weights 40kg it would be significantly higher.

He is also on antiobiotics in the event that he has SIBO (Bacterical overgrowth). He is having 3 tablets a day and has been on them for 1 week tomorrow.

I've been doing a bit of research myself, and have found that Creon come in a higher dose of 40,000. I am waiting for the vet to call me back this evening or tomorrow, to discuss changing over to the higher dose, as well as other possible explanations as to why there has been no real improvement (Although his stool output has decreased back to once a day - which is good). My main concern is the consistency of the stool is not all that improved, as it isn't firm.

My questions are..

Has anyone used Creon as a supplement when dealing with canine EPI?

If so, what dose did you find met your pets requirements? (If you can list your pets weight so I can compare that would be great).

I understand that all dogs are different, I'm just looking for some advise from other people who may have found themselves in this situation and want to know how it was treated.

Thanks