Ekko Canyon

Embrace Your Dog's Individuality

Ekko, December 2005, before treated for his EPI.

About Ekko

E-mail: tula4gsds@comcast.net

Ekko is now a 3.5 year old German Shepherd.  He comes from West German Showlines and is a traditional black and tan saddleback.   Ekko’s story is a bit long, so I will try to make it short. Since he was a pup, he seemed to have a lot of issues including times where he was fairly lethargic, vomiting and had terrible stools.

We figured the icky stool and vomiting was normal for a dog.  The lethargic phases caused us to take him to the vet quite often.  He went through many rounds of antibiotic just as a puppy.  Ekko also didn't like to eat much, and we figured that he was just a picky eater.  We didn’t  get the fact that he didn't feel well and his tummy wasn't working right.  As an older pup, he also started itching really bad.  He consistently had lots of gunk in his ears, and was losing his hair all the time. We ended up buying a Dyson just to take care of all that hair in the house!

Finally, we learned more about dog health.  For a long time we took Ekko back and forth to different vets where we were given rounds and rounds of antibiotics.  There was little to no improvement.

In the meantime, Ekko’s  hunger was growing.  He was hungry all the time! Everything he ate he just pooped right out! At one point, he had shooting diarrhea, too.  He was losing lots of weight very rapidly to the tune of 12 lbs. That's a lot for a dog! One vet suggested he was in kidney failure and then brushed us off with no direction. 

With the recommendation of a neighbor, I took Ekko to a new vet not too far from home. He was really nice and you could tell he liked large dogs and knew what he was doing.  In one visit, he had Ekko diagnosed with EPI, requiring us to put enzymes on his food so he can break it down and digest it properly.  Unfortunately, it turned out that Ekko was allergic to the enzymes.  His paws itched so bad that he chewed them till they were bloody!

I figured out this wasn't going to work and spent a lot of time on the computer. I finally found something that worked with the help of research articles and questions to researchers at different universities. Ekko ha now gained back ALL his weight and his energy is back, too. Wow, what a ride that was and it took 3 years to figure it all out!

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Ekko, August 2006, after 8 months on a plant-based digestive enzyme.

Ekko, Spring 2007