My weight gain

When I was diagnosed with EPI in August I was weighed in around 41 or 42 pounds down from 58 lbs. My vet had told me before all of this that I needed to be at 53 so I didn't have a steep hill to climb. Well a couple of weeks ago, I went in to be weighed and I'm now at 49 lbs! Just a few more to my goal of 53 lbs! Yippeee!

With my condition, my Mom and Dad have to feed me three small meals a day with pancreatic enzyme supplements and watch my poop. :0) My Dad calls it the poop patrol.

My sister Cinder

This is a message send to the GSD World Dogster group on August 30th, 2008

The vet came over to my house yesterday and put my sister Cinder to sleep. She has been sick for a few days and the vets told my parents that she had a tumor pushing on her intestines. She hasn't been herself the last couple of weeks and my parents didn't notice until this past week because they have been focused on me and my poop, I was just diagnosed with EPI (Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency). I see my parents cry a lot. They say to each other how it's strange to not see her any more and how the routine has changed. I kind of think I know what's going on but when they came home from the vet this morning with my cat brother, I thought maybe they would bring Cinder home with them. My parents are in so much pain right now. I try to cheer them up with toys. My parents know they have done the right thing for her but they still miss her terribly. She would have been 15 in October. I think I will miss her because I have known her all my life. Thanks for listening.

Charley and Charley's Mom (Julie)

I have not been feeling well lately

My mommy and daddy found out I have EPI today. EPI is exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. It basically means I don't create enough enzymes to digest my food. I started losing a lot of weight (15 pounds in total) over a span of a few months, had really bad diarrhea and my appetite for food was so great that I was stealing food off of my parents' plates -- right in front of their faces.

My parents are so relieved that they know what I have now, they have been so worried about my weight loss and my stomach problems. I have to have three small meals a day and take enzyme supplements with every meal for the rest of my life.

I'm also having to get shots because my vitamin B12 level is low. I also have SIBO which is Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth which happens when undigested food gets into my small intestines. I will have to take medicine for a little while for this.

I love all of the attention I'm getting and I'm feeling a little bit better now because my food is being digested correctly now and I'm having to "go" as many times a day as before.

Funny...

My mommy thinks I'm funny. Last night every time my mommy said something to my daddy, I would bark at him to let him know that I agreed with her. I was just letting him know how I usually agree with.

Larry Merrill

My mommy was so proud. I was featured on dogeachday.com. It was very exciting. She can't wait to get the original and frame it. She says it reminds her so much of when I was a puppy and would keep her up all hours of the night.