Daisy the German Shepherd, rescued but not safe - Page 1

Daisy is literally starving to death. She was pulled from the humane society on May 8th. We think she may have Exocrine Pancreatic Insuffiency. This has been going on for so long, that she weighs only 34 pounds and is extremely malnourished and dehydrated. The wonderful staff at http://www.affordablevetservices.org/ is currently treating her with IV fluids and medication.

We think she was born in the Dakotas, sold through the Hunte Corporation to Petland. Her uninformed and unsuspecting owners thought they were buying a healthy German Shepherd. They took her home, paid for special training classes. But Daisy started to lose weight. Her owners tooks her to the vet several times and could not find out what was wrong with her. They gave up, and turned her in to the local humane society.

She sat at the humane society for two weeks. She lost more weight, became more despondent. Finally the humane society called a local German Shepherd lover who came within hours to pick her up. Shocked by Daisy's condition, the very next morning she was at the vet.

If you would consider donating to her care, her foster family would be so very grateful. Donations can be made directly to the vet clinic at (706) 221-7600.  Her foster family can be reached at gagsd4(at)yahoo dot com.
Please feel free to cross post and forward, thank you.

Bloodwork was done today. TLI has to be sent off, but she has been started on pancreazyme as EPI is most likely.

Sigh............

Maybe you already know this, but, let the enzymes soak in to her food for about 20 minutes.
That is how they work the best for absorption.
The enzymes can also cause discomfort in her mouth and throat if you don't let them soak in to the food first.
Best of luck with Daisy!!!
She will come around!!!

OK.... well not as significant a change as I had hoped (yet). Stools are still pretty soon after eating, and loose with a little shape. Up several times during the night because she had to go potty.

Feeding salmon and boiled, mashed, sweet potato right now. Warmed to body temp, add water, mix 3/4 tsp of the powder in each meal.... which is 5 times a day today. 

I am sure all of the diet changes are not helpful, but just in case this is severe food allergy I thought I would go this route. So if you have some extra cans of salmon around, feel free to send them my way:)
Still ravenous! 

Back to the vet again in the morning.

I am frustred that it seems no one really DID anything. I do not know the whole story, but I was told her last two weeks had been spent at the humane society. They have a veterinarian on staff. Not sure why anyone would think some dewormer and I/D food were enough, when they told me point blank she had lost more weight while there. The dog is just breathtakingly skinny.

Heartbreaking...  Will call in a donation tomorrow for this poor girl.

Starrchar, that would be SO appreciated. We will be there around 9am EST so hopefully there will be better news on her bloodwork.

A little shape to the stools is good, if there was no shape before. I have seen an EPI dog look just like this poor girl, and she was drawing on her last reserves to stay alive. Even the flesh around her face and eyes was being utilised by her body for sustenance, and I can see the same in this little girl's face.

She will be ravenous for some time, her body is in panic mode, and is sending out frantic signals for her to eat, because it isn't recognising that she actually IS eating. She is desperate. Once the enzymes start to work and she digests the food and gets the weight on, the body will relax, but she has a way to go, bless her.

The EPI dog that I helped someone work with did very well on green tripe, it is a perfectly balanced food (calcium:phosphorous) and is good for putting weight on too, if they adapt well to it with the enzymes. What will suit the EPI dog is trial and error, and sometimes tney need slightly more enzyme than is first recommended. The only thing I would say with the diet that you have her on for now is that it could be a little light in some nutrients and also she could be very slow to gain weight on it once the enzymes kick in, if it turns out not to be a severe food allergy.  I appreciate you don't want to keep chopping and changing her diet, but I would be maybe looking to go with something with a bit more substance to it. Perhaps you could have a look at some EPI support sites for some ideas about diets for EPI dogs. A good one I remember is www.dogaware.com. It used to be thought that a low fat diet was best for EPI dogs, but it is now thought that medium fat diets are better, and are generally tolerated OK. Hopefully the vet will give you a firm diagnosis tomorrow.

Don't lose heart, and thank you for fostering her, she certainly needs someone on her side. For those of us not in the USA does the vet have a paypal account or similar for donations?