Thank you Malka.. I did read about it though and aparently some of the thin biscuits made of arrowroot are a possible ( tiny ) treat.. would not know where to get them here anyway and still only suitable for some dogs..

If and when I get any more advice about EPI from the Epi list [two totally different nasties] I will send them straight on to you.

(((hugs))) xx

Hi jacquie, will check that out straight away.. the powder which we are getting are enzymes though.. also we could give him pigs pancreas but will have to ask our butcher if he can get that for us.. all so new at the moment.. hut certainly will check the arrowroot too.. thank you x

If you have an abattoir near you , you will be able to get it from there....

Hi again Mastines, now that you mention the pancreases, I do remember chatting to an actual breeder of gsd's many moons ago when I was with the dog who had the EPI, and she told me that she specifically would feed pig's pancreases to all of her puppies, from the abbatoire near to her home purely as a precaution, and if she ever did have a gsd with the problem, then she most certainly would be feeding the pancreas rather than the powder.

Yes, I will ask our local butcher on Monday and see if he can get pics pancreas for me and see how we get on with that.. just need to find the right way and amount to give it to him..

Yes, I too heard that Arrowroot biscuits which you can only get in Tesco (or so I found) are definitely allowed, there's something beneficial in the arrowroot but can't for the life of me remember why or what?

will read up more about that as I hate not to give him any treats as the others get them as well...

When my current gsd had the bouts of the yellow diarrhea I did have my doubts again especially as she was also like a hat rack, skinny, couldn't keep the weight on her at all, she was even losing weight, went down from 38kgs to 35 kgs at one point That all coincided though with this new vet's treatment of this one a day Metronidazole, and along with keeping everything nice and normal, her weighed has now rocketed, quite alarmingly so She is fed a handful of actual food every day, probably 1/4 of what she should be having and yet she gains 1 kg everytime I pop her down to weigh her in, and is now 41kgs When I spoke to the vet about this, he said the reason was, she was unable to digest the food before, but now that she can digest the food, she is gaining weight.

We ourselves here, are going to wean her off these tablets in a month's time, and if it starts all over again, then having read this thread, I'm now erring on the side of getting her tested as my next step rather than listen to his theory about the irritable bowel. Afterall, it can only go two ways, either it IS or it ISN'T and if it isn't, then my own vet is probably right with his IBS theory.

I know, it all is so difficult to detect and it took over 3 months to find out he had EPI.. but luckily enough he seems to be ok and except for weightloss and diarrhea he is ( or seems ) to be a happy boy..
hope you'll get to the bottom of it with your GSD too

Yes, I see your boy has all those classic symptoms, the yellow diarrhea, the copious amounts of faeces on occassions, and is it usually a grey/putty colour and slimey? We left my dog far too long being undiagnosed which resulted in watery diarrhea which was almost neat blood You really are lucky that you decided to have this test done when you did so that you can get started on his treatment.

no they were just huge "cowpads" almost yellow/orange coloured and sometimes runny..

I will follow this thread with great interest, and you've certainly made me want to go for the special EPI test when we finish our tablets next month and things recur with my own dog.


It did scare me at first and still quiteunsure of what to do but I will read up as much as possible about it and go from there.. also very greatfull for all the replies , help and suggestions.. hope your babe will be ok too..

All the best with him Mastines, I'm sure you can control this. By the way, if you look on Hyperdrug or Bestpet Pharmacy, please look up that Royal Canin Digestive Low Fat and read all what they say about it being specifically designed for EPI dogs won't you. You can't have too much information when you're in the position you are in now.