The inability of the pancreas to secrete the proper amount of enzymes needed for normal digestion it’s basically what happens inside our pets when they suffer from exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (or IPEX for short). A disease that, from the outside, manifests itself mainly in constant diarrhea, which goes from being something exceptional to becoming the daily bread. In addition to a very pronounced, unstoppable and apparently inexplicable weight loss of our furry ones. This is my experience.
Low weight, chronic diarrhea and ravenous hunger
Male water dogs usually weigh between 40 and 50 pounds, however when I adopted Bite he was under forty pounds. That, in addition, in three months they were only ten. He was all hair and bones and, in fact, you could feel these perfectly under the skin when you stroked him.. Despite, even, his leafy coat.
Mordisco came into my life without being medicated or diagnosed for a disease that his former owners ignored (or hid to be able to give him up for adoption without complications). However, he was not the low weight the only sign that something was wrong.
His stools were copious, soft, and foul-smelling as a general rule and episodes of diarrhea were weekly. Day in and day out I got up to find their droppings in the hallway. It’s not that he didn’t know he should wait to go outside to relieve himself, it’s that he hadn’t been able to hold it. We have all been sick to our guts at some point and we know that, in those moments, whatever wants to come out, will come out, whether or not there is a toilet involved.
They completed the picture a ravenous and insatiable hunger that led him constantly to steal food (even if it was from the garbage or there was a plastic in between) and that made the walks a real nightmare. Always pulling and following the scent trail of something he wasn’t supposed to eat. Included in that list are wood and the droppings of other animals. Otherwise, he led the life of a normal dog, although he was sensitive to cold due to his lack of body fat.
All this is what, in scientific terms, the professionals at Urano Vet describe as: “frequent deposition (3-8 times a day) of soft stools, sometimes diarrheic, voluminous and foul-smelling, with steatorrhea and amylorrhea, often associated with Coprophagia Affected animals are usually active and have a marked weight loss despite having a ravenous appetite (polyphagia).”
The diagnosis
Despite having a manual IPEX box, the diagnosis took several months to arrive, in which the situation only worsened. However, being a dog whose history neither the vet nor I knew, we were going blind. It could be that he was in a process of adapting to the changes, who has any allergy or intolerancewho had some disease more serious than exocrine pancreatic insufficiency…
Thus, through trial and error, we tried from changing it to a hypoallergenic feed to simply waiting to see how it evolved with care and attention. Finally, an analytical and an ultrasound confirmed the clinical picture. Mordisco had IPEX, a chronic disease for which he has to take a supplement with meals for life (not cheap, by the way).
rapid improvement
Although after four months of cleaning up diarrhea and urgent visits to the vet, it seemed that the situation would never improve, once she started taking Lypex, soft poop was again something exceptional in the lives of both.
Is about a dietary supplement which comes to replace the deficit in pancreatic enzymes in the dog’s body caused by the progressive destruction of pancreatic acinar cells.
It is important to bear in mind that they are not administered as they come in the blister, but rather the content is sprinkled on top of the food at each intake. Distributing throughout each day the content of between one and two capsules, depending on the weight of the animal. Although all this is something that a veterinarian should always prescribe and guide.
VetPlus Lypex Blister with 60 Tablets
This medication, which can be found at its cheapest price on the internet for 56 euros but can reach 80 euros, made Mordisco begin to digest the food he ate and absorb the nutrients. So began to gain weight for days until regaining a healthy weight in three or four months.
In addition, I feed him a diet low in fat and fiber, since it has been shown that a diet low in both can be beneficial in dogs with this condition. From time to time, he still has bad poop days because of something he ate on the street. And it is that they are dogs with a delicate stomach and it is important not to remove them from their controlled diet, but most days their stools are manageable. Because yes, if your dog is diagnosed with IPEX, you will leave the experience with a master’s degree in poop.
Photos | @miayuste