Your dog’s pancreas is a small gland located near your dog’s stomach and the upper-small intestine. One of the pancreas’ roles is to produce enzymes used to help your dog digest food. If your dog suffers from exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), it means that the pancreas is not producing a sufficient quantity of these digestive enzymes. As a result, your dog will not be able to properly digest food or absorb nutrients from the food.

Exocrine pancreatic insufficiency can impact any breed or mix, but it is seen most frequently in German Shepherds.

Symptoms include weight loss accompanied by a normal or even increased appetite, flatulence and diarrhea that will often be grey and oily.

Most often, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency results from a decrease in the number of pancreatic cells responsible for producing the digestive enzymes. This condition is called pancreatic acinar atrophy. In other cases, especially in geriatric dogs, exocrine pancreatic insufficiency is caused by chronic pancreatitis.

Your vet will perform bloodwork to check your dog’s levels of a specific pancreatic enzyme, called trypsin, as dogs with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency generally have very low concentrations of trypsin. Your vet will also analyze a stool sample from your dog to look for evidence of poor digestion or nutrient absorption, perform a urinalysis, and use diagnostic imaging techniques such as X-rays to examine your dog’s abdominal organs.

Successful treatment is generally obtained by putting your dog on pancreatic enzyme supplements. These are usually just added to your dog’s food. Your dog may also be put on a diet designed to be easily digestible.

Because it is not known why pancreatic acinar atrophy develops in some dogs, this cause of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency cannot be prevented. To help safeguard your dog against exocrine pancreatic insufficiency caused by pancreatitis, you should make sure that your dog’s diet does not contain an overly-high fat content.

No, you cannot get exocrine pancreatic insufficiency from your dog.