Dr. Conor Brady and colleagues explain that human digestive enzymes work in dogs because mammalian enzymes are largely similar across species. A quick diagnostic test: add enzymes to food and watch for stool improvement within one bowel movement. Better stools suggest exocrine pancreatic insufficiency.
Is there a difference between human digestive enzymes and canine digestive enzymes that you buy over the counter to pop into your dog's food should they have a pancreas issue?
Honestly, you know, the minimal differences you've got to remember, these are mammalian enzymes. I think you've got to understand that those enzymes are very, very similar.
So like the enzyme thing. So there's a part, there's a type of pancreatic issue we haven't really given much scope to, which is EPI, which we must come to. We said we were going to do a show on this. So exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, and this is a classic sign would be really, really sloppy poos where your dog's just not digesting his food properly. And the quick test of this to see if your dog is EPI, you cannot remedy these dogs' poos, you just, no matter what you do, changing from diet from Billy to Jack, nothing helps. The very quick simple test is changing nothing else in the couple of days beforehand, add some digestive enzymes to his food. And so if you will get an answer immediately, like within one poo, you will see, oh my God, that almost looks like a normal poo. And so if all you've changed was digestive enzymes, it suggests that was the issue, which leads you to this EPI. I asked Bren, Nick, is there any difference between canine and human digestive enzymes when it comes to adding something to the dog's food if they need it?
I don't think so. I use human vegetarian digestive enzymes simply because many of the dogs that I see have a lot of protein sensitivities. So I go for the vegetarian because a lot of the enzymes the digestive enzymes come from porcine sources, and if the dog does have EPI, i.e., a sluggish pancreas, but also has a bit of pork sensitivity, then you put the enzyme in, it does loads of great work. Yeah, 10 steps forward, but if they've got a pork sensitivity, then it's 10 steps back.
