Blood, bile and gore. Seems straight out of a slasher movie doesn't it? Well it's a dog's life. Really.

Charley, our pet, was rescued from a gutter in Bangalore, India at 45 days old. A result of a breeding experiment gone wrong, this little fireball came into our life in early 2013 and very soon began to exhibit severe symptoms of colitis and malabsorption. Bleeding from the rectum and retching bile from her mouth, she'd almost be shocked at her own double incontinence. Rushing her to the vet became our everyday story - there she'd have IV drips and B12 doses over and over again, sometimes repeated over several days. Tests on her blood and urine turned inconclusive except for a flag on her B12 levels.

Over the next year my wife painstakingly researched Charley's symptoms online whilst we were treating her symptoms on an almost weekly basis. In 2014, Charley fell terribly ill, and we thought we'd lose her. The result of all her tests - radiograms, ECG's, kidney and liver functions, etc., only confirmed the worst - pancreatic insufficiency, a well known condition in the USA and the UK but relatively unknown in India. Thankfully, we received excellent guidance and help from the founder of www.epi4dogs.com based in the USA and then started a regular chain of communication to aid Charley's recovery along with our vet who understood the condition well and responded to the knowledge of survivor parents. Slowly but surely, Charley was on the path to recovery aided by medicines and food bought specially for the purpose.

The initial recovery from this episode took well over a year, where Charley was prone to mood swings, drastic and sudden weight loss and bouts of colitis and other bacterial infections.

In late 2015, we moved base to the United Kingdom, and Charley did well to adjust to conditions there in a seemingly miraculous recovery until she broke down again in the summer of 2016. Unfortunately, we had to return to India with the onset of winter on personal grounds and Charley started losing ground in early 2017, with a severe onset of EPI and associated illnesses that lasted over 6 months, which further delayed our return to the UK.

Charley has now been back in the UK since the middle of the 2017 summer and is recovering now with a balanced diet and treatment. However, the fact remains that like many humans, she has a disease that must be treated for a lifetime with no known cure and this has set us on a path of spreading knowledge and awareness of this rare condition. No other dog or its owner must feel the utter desperation and pain we felt for lack of information.

Not only did my wife and I sacrifice our daily routine but also our larger social and family life - and we don't regret a moment of it. Our intention is to raise awareness of this very real disease and the fact that with the right intervention, it can be treated successfully if the signs are read right.

How you can help:

I pledge to donate the equivalent of any donation denomination made to me toward entry fees in a running or cycling event to EPI4Dogs and this is my pledge page Sweat4charley where I'll keep you all updated of my event progress. I'll also endeavour to keep the information on EPI in dogs doing the rounds at events I enter.

[Warning: graphic and upsetting content]: Some pictures of what an EPI affected dog's waste and behaviour is like - bile/blood in vomit, red areas show bacterial/yeast infections, pets like a dark and cold place when affected, blood in stool.

[Warning: graphic and upsetting content]: Some pictures of what an EPI affected dog's body can be like - thin and bony with malabsorption even though they seem active.

Some pictures of what an EPI affected dog's good days can be like!

Go on Charley you beauty!