The road to recovery

A few weeks ago we finally found out what's wrong with Lola. Turns out she is none of the following:

1. Perfectly fine and very fit

2. Suffering from Avian Tuberculosis 

3. Afflicted with Addison's Disease

4. Battling Intestinal Cancer

5. Allergic to her food

6. Emitting gasses due to Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Thankfully none of those things caused her stunning 7 pound weight loss or chronic diarrhea. We found out she has Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency. Basically her Pancreas has stopped working. It isn't producing the enzymes necessary to digest food. Therefore, everything she ate was just passing through her. She was literally starving to death. So it made sense that she was trying to eat anything she could find, including cigarette butts, apple cores and (sorry) her own shit. 

The solution is simple, we just add a powdered enzyme to her food every day. Unfortunately this stuff smells like baby vomit, sour milk and provolone cheese ground in a pile of shit, eaten by a beaver, shat out and rotting in the woods for 3 weeks. Imagine my excitement to own the world's cuddliest dog. 

We are really glad to be able to easily treat her condition and we'd much rather deal with the smell than the disease's ugly symptoms. She's gained about a pound and a half and you can't see the outline of her ribs or her gaunt face (complete with recessed eye sockets). 

All is well in Lola land and we are so relieved.  Now if we could only train her to stop hogging the bed...