timberviewfarm Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 I have a youngish dog, 2.5 yrs old, that potentially has Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency. He is being managed well at this point and it is thought to be a very mild case but it seems that it is mostly found in GSD and rough collies. He will be tested for it soon but just wondered if anyone else had seen this in border collies? Or has any experience with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adesouza89 Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 My first Border Collie had EPI! When we got him, he didn't seem right. He was scrawny, underweight and "different"! But I knew I couldn't leave him at his "breeders"! The day after getting him I took him to the vet, the vet agreed he was underweight and suggested that we increase his food. We started feeding him 2 cups in the morning and 2 cups at night and he was still skin and bones. We would take him to the vet regularly for weigh ins and nothing! We increased his food to 6 cups a day.. For a tiny little 6 month old puppy it was a lot. He ate it all though! The vet then suggested hamburger, rice and eggs.. Did that and nothing! We also tried every dog food you could think of. Nothing helped put weight on him. We did a complete blood panel and they said everything was normal. He just had a fast metabolism.. 6 months later Bailey got really sick. I took him back to the vet and they said he had an enlarged prostate! They also did a complete blood sample and that showed NOTHING!! Well at this point I was fed up! So my mom suggested that we go to her vet. We took him there a day later, the vet looked him over.. Prostate was fine. We had our old vet fax over the blood work that they had done and it wasn't normal. His pancreatic enzyme levels weren't normal either times they checked.. The new vet did a blood sample of his own and it showed the same thing.. It also showed that he was anemic. So we started Bailey on Pancreatic Enzyme medicine and vitamins.. About 2 weeks later we took Bailey bad to the vet, he gained about 5 pounds. Now for a dog who was eating like a horse before i was amazed.. His blood work looked more normal that it had before. The only downfall was he would have the hiccups. The vet said he never grew properly because he was always so sick, so now that his body was feeling better it was all confused.. So he continue on the medicine and he was looking good and healthy. 5 months later he started to have seizures.. Back to the vet, more blood work and more medicine.. Bailey started to act different. He would act scared, he would hide in our cabinets and didn't act like his usual self. A month before we decide to set him free his eyesight and hearing started to go. He would bump into things that had been there since he was a puppy! I couldn't watch him live like that anymore. We checked his blood again before he passed away and it showed that his liver and kidney's weren't functioning they way that they should have. On July 29, 2010 Bailey went to rainbow bridge at 20 months old ! Now from what my vet tells me it was genetics. But a part of me blames the medicine. He couldn't handle the amount of phenobarbital he was on. We had to keep lowering it frequently, to the point that he was barely getting any! I think if he didn't have all of these other issues, we would have been able to handle the Pancreatic Enzyme disorder.. I hope your able to get it under control and your boy is able to live a happy, healthy life that he deserves. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mum24dog Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 We had a borrowed collie mix with EPI. Don't know what the mix was but looked like a BC x Sheltie - not GSD anyway. She was 7 when we started to borrow her and had been diagnosed several years before. She competed successfully in Agility until the age of 12 and died aged 16. She was always thin but she was lightly built. Not so thin as to be unhealthy. She had an obsession with food but her weight and condition was well managed with just pancreatic powder added to her food. The major problem was the stink of the powder that made her breath stink too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timberviewfarm Posted January 5, 2012 Author Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 This dog has always been a poor doer with a voracious appetite, to the point where I think people thought I didn't feed him even though he eats 6-8 cups a day of food. His case is very mild, he was never to the point where he wasn't able to function or look totally emaciated but he was always thin and ribby. His bloodwork always comes back normal and finally I have a vet that had an explination for the large quantities I am feeding him. He has started on medication and looks almost like a normal dog! Just wanted to see if anyone else had dealt with this before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnLloydJones Posted January 5, 2012 Report Share Posted January 5, 2012 I have a youngish dog, 2.5 yrs old, that potentially has Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency. He is being managed well at this point and it is thought to be a very mild case but it seems that it is mostly found in GSD and rough collies. He will be tested for it soon but just wondered if anyone else had seen this in border collies? Or has any experience with it. I know someone who has a border collie with EPI. The poor thing was loosing weight and the owner feared for his life until he was tested and found to have EPI. Once on treatment (I think it is called Panacare) he became normal and you would never guess he had any health issues. It was pure luck that the vet happened to read up about GSDs and thought to test for EPI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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