Lukka

This email came today from the owners of Lukka who will be four years old this month. 

"We recently found out that Lukka has exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, EPI. (Which means that her pancreas is not making enough enzymes for digesting food, probably especially fats.) The good news is that she'll be fine as long as we supplement her diet with pancreatic enzymes.

"Our vet told us that there may be a genetic component to her condition so we wanted to make sure you knew about it.

"Other than that, Lukka is doing well and now has a little sister (named Maddie) that we rescued from Georgia in August. Lukka is loving the company and is a natural big sister. I'm attaching (photos) of the girls for you.

                                             (Maddie is on the left, Lukka on the right)

"Lukka has always had a sensitive tummy but about a month ago she got loose stools and it didn't resolve even after a chicken and rice with fortiflora diet.  She was eating normally and was always still very hungry but was losing weight at rate that was concerning us (about a pound a week). The vet started her on antibiotics but that didn't help at all so she had an ultrasound which came back clean.
 

"After some more blood work we found out about the EPI.

                                                       (Maddie - top, Lukka bottom)

"The one other thing I should mention that tipped off the vet was that other than being loose, the food was essentially undigested coming out the other end.  That and the dramatic weight loss got the vet going down the right path.

"As it turns out, once a dog is symptomatic, they have already lost about 90% pancreatic function and the loss is permanent; we're told that we need to supplement her with enzymes at every meal for the rest of her life.  Luckily it's just a powder to sprinkle on and now that we know, the vet says to expect a normal life and normal life span.

"Lukka had in the past done some "compulsive" licking when she has an upset stomach and/or hiccups or reflux.  That actually happened just before all of this started but I'm not sure they are necessarily related.

"Needless to say, Lukka was a trooper through all of this and was always in high spirits. We were far more concerned than she was :) "

============================== 

FYI - Korpur and Kria are Lukka's parents. Please let me know if any other cases of EPI, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, show up in your dogs - especially if they are from Korpur and/or Kria. 

Korpur and Kria are both nine years old. 

Korpur occasionally has an upset tummy and asks for peppermint flavored Tums (not the sugar-free kind). (Well, he doesn't actually "ask" but he lets me know he doesn't feel well by licking the carpet or my pant leg or the side of my chair like Lukka's owners described above. (Some dogs eat grass or leaves from the garden when they don't feel well.) He will not eat the Tums unless he has an upset tummy. The first time I gave him one, he wasn't sure about it. I crushed it. Now he likes them.)