EPI question - Page 3

A friend just told me that Eagle Pack makes a food without the enzymes, Prism.

Hodie, Prozyme is a nutritional supplement and can be bought anywhere for about $20...I was talking about the prescrition enzymes for EPI dogs such as Viokase

Viokase is essentially the same thing as the other enzymes available on the market. In my long experience with many, many dogs with malabsorption problems, I have never had to give a dog VIOKASE which is a rip off. If a given dog really does not do well on Prozyme or some of the other options, viokase might work, but again, there are even cheaper RXs. Enzymes are enzymes. Calling them a prescription does not justify their exhorbitant cost.

Thanks for all the info, guys. I will get the test done. It is my understanding that the stool sample has to be very "fresh", if you can use that term in relation to a stool sample. Does that mean minutes or hours? And, thank you for your offer, Hodie. I'll get a picture and send it. She'll be two in April, in answer to the age questions.

Just one more question, you said I shouldn't run her every day. Why is that? I do the biking on pavement but the jogging on dirt trails, if that makes a difference in the answer.

Thanks,

Dawg

Hi Dawg, I have an EPI bitch and yours does not sound like she has this. My bitch became very seriously ill at a young age and her TLI test was less than 1 - she is now 5 years old and extremely well on Panzym 1 teaspoon per day. She is fed Lamb Lite with Vegetables and sometimes when she is a little unwell and regresses she gets a course of Probiotic tablets and this gets her back on track. When she was ill sh was like a skeleton, her stools were like custard and she ate her own stools as she was starving to death and ate anything and everything she could get her jaws round. She is spayed and a happy 5 year old acting like a puppy. Her coat is shiny and she is not thin as long as she gets her meds, her only problem is a cracked nose which I treat with Vaseline. Your dog sounds like she is healthy, but needs more food to compensate for her amount of exercise. Good luck with her. Aileen

The stool sample should be within an hour or two old, and even keeping it refrigerated is good if it is going to be that long. You do realize that the stool test is for parasites, and the TLI is the fasting blood test, right? Theresa

hodie, I do have to dispute the statement that 'enzymes are enzymes' when it comes to treating exocrine pancreatic disorder. In a nutshell, treatment of EPI in dogs consists of adding to the patient's feed the enzymes which are not being produced in adequate amounts by the patient, and allowing those enzymes to begin 'pre-digesting' the food while it's still in the bowl, before the dog has even begun to eat. The directions for best results when administering enzyme replacement treatment indicate that the product should be mixed with the food, along with some amount of warm water to activate the process, and the treated food should be permitted to sit for 15-20 minutes before being given to the dog. Prozyme, while useful when dealing with a dog that is unthrifty for one of many varied reasons, does not contain sufficient levels of lipase, protease and amylase that are necessary to compensate for a lack of pancreatic secretion in the EPI patient. Having worked with a number of EPI dogs, I know from experience that nothing save for enzymes of animal origin (typically derived from swine pancreas) will address that particular condition. Dogs which have a malabsorption issue may get sufficient help from plant-based products such as Prozyme, or from the minor amount of pancreatin contained in Enzyme-Pro, but these products will not turn an EPI patient's condition around. WRT AATD's query on how 'fresh' the stool sample needs to be--one test that can be used in diagnosing malabsorption and/or pancreatic insufficiency used fresh feces and a strip of unexposed x-ray film to measure the fecal trypsin levels; that test is no longer considered to be the best of the diagnostic tools available for identifying these disorders, however. If your vet indicates that they were considering using the fecal trypsin-activity assay method, you'd probably be better off requesting they run the TLI blood test instead. It's most likely a bit more costly, but the results will better serve getting your dog's problem addressed ASAP.