Anyone have experience with canine pancreatitis? UPDATE post #34

[TheHorseProblem]

Our beloved dog (the star of the hip displaysia thread) is suffering from pancreatitis. Since last Friday she has been presenting with symptoms of acute abdominal pain. Because of the hip pain distraction, the vet on Saturday did not run a blood panel, but when I took her to the emergency vet on Monday, her AMYL and LIPA values had skyrocketed.

She is on Tramadol for pain and a low fat bland diet. She never did have vomiting or diarrhea, just pain, depression and anorexia.

Has anyone ever dealt with this long term? So far she is eating and getting around better, but if this is the new normal, I am thinking it’s no life for a dog.

[SquishTheBunny]

Most pancreatitis cases do resolve. Its nothing to euthanize over unless finances are a concern (or its an extremely bad case). Typically its just inflammation that will decrease with time.

Signs that pancreatitis is taking a turn for the worse is anorexia, vomiting, drooling, jaundice (pancrease can obstruct CBD). Severe cases are at risk for DIC/thrombus.

Although I dont have any hard facts, I’d say 95% of cases are managable with minor medical treatment and time.

Pain management (tramadol), and small frequent meals of a bland diet are generally the best ways to treat real pancreatitis. An abdominal ultrasound is often used to determine if the pancrease looks “normallty inflammed” or neoplastic. Pancreatitis will reslolve, neoplasia will not.

Good luck!!!

[TheHorseProblem]

Thank you, Squish! I can always count on you. We’ll give it some time. :sadsmile:

[lcw579]

I’ve dealt with it before. Ours was vomiting too. It was a pretty severe case - brought on the vet thought by his gorging on the cat food. We did have an ultrasound.

It was a few years ago now but he went on the bland diet and was treated with meds and back to himself in no time.

[dressagetraks]

My brother and SIL unfortunately had experience. Sounds like theirs was the exception case; hope yours is more routine. Their Poodle was fine on Friday morning, started symptoms that day - she is a groomer and worked in a vet’s office, so they were not ignorant owners or ignoring prior symptoms. Dog was 100% himself the previous days, active, playful, interacting absolutely as usual with all other critters and them. Sudden presentation over Friday, vomiting, anorexia, obvious sudden pain. To the vet by Friday evening. In the emergency clinic all weekend getting everything possible. He died on Monday. They were both stunned at the rapidity of first symptom to gone.

I really hope your experience is much different. It already sounds different.

[halo]

I have a 13 year old sheltie who is prone to it. I give my other dogs a lot of raw chicken carcasses and beef rib bones, but he can have none of that (much to his dismay). Sometimes I will cook a chicken for the crew to put over their food (I feed Taste of the Wild, which the old guy does great on), but I have to be very careful to only give him a little bit of the chicken stock, and just a very few pieces of white meat chicken. He had an original attack that was pretty unnerving, and painful for him, but since Ive been careful to keep fat out of his diet, he’s doing well.

[JanM]

My dog had a few bouts of this, and in her case it turns out that berries that fell off of the neighbor’s Virginia Creeper plant were the culprit. I think the trigger is too much rich food at once, and if that is limited it should help most dogs avoid a recurrence.

[TheHorseProblem]

So, what kind of dog food are you feeding?

I was going to try Wellness CORE reduced fat. I believe it is grain-free. Or Wellness Super5Mix Healthy Weight.

Any suggestions?

[witherbee]

We’ve had it a couple of times here due to the dogs getting into garbage. My Chessie has had it twice in the 11 years we’ve had her, and my Chihuahua had it last year - very severe and was at the vets for 2 weeks with residual vomiting for another 2 weeks (infrequent). We have our garbage on lock down, but there have been a couple of instances over the years where they were able to get to it.

Both dogs are perfectly fine.

[SuckerForHorses]

Our Golden had it when he was a youngster, 2 years old maybe. I can’t remember. The landlord fed him a bunch of human food one day, and that was the result.

He was a severe case, was vomiting the nastiest stuff I have ever seen. He was getting an IV of (something, I can’t remember!) every day mutliple times per dya. A friend is a vet tech so we saved money by having her do IV stuff instead of admitting him to the hospital to have them do it. He’s 8 yeras old now, hasn’t had a bout of it since, and is living a normal life eating Cal Natural Grain Free (he has ear issues on foods with grains) Salmon and peas.

[vacation1]

I’ve known a couple dogs who went through it and are just fine. They would both agree strongly that the withholding of rich, delicious people food is utter torture and indeed no life for a dog but other than that, they’re back to their normal selves.

[cute_lil_fancy_pants]

Yep, seeing a lot of pancreatitis now with people trying to feed their animals raw food diets and grain free diets high in fat. Dogs can do well after pancreatitis if they are hospitalized and given supportive care. I’m surprised the vet diagnosed it off of amylase and lipase- that is very old school. Current work shows that cPLI is a better indicator. I really like Royal Canin Low Fat for post panc dogs!

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/150203.htm

[TheHorseProblem]

Wow, Fancy Pants. (if I may call you that). Our Big dogs have been on grain free for a few months. I thought that might be the culprit.

It has been over a week now and she’s still feeling like crap. How long before she bounces back? She’s eating small rice and lean meat meals, but still seems to be in pain despite the Tramadol.

[SMF11]

You might want to ask your vet.

I’ve had two dogs with it. One would get a mild case every so often for no apparent reason, stay at the vet’s overnight and then be fine. My other dog developed it after chewing on a deer leg (though the vets couldn’t agree if that was the cause, deer legs are low fat). He had a severe case, and after battling it two weeks, didn’t make it. I now take pacreatitis very very seriously.

[Milocalwinnings]

Yes, we just went through this last summer. Our 9 year old dog came down with Pancreatitis and Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis.

Symptoms were no appatite, runny stool (starting with just a little loose to shooting out liquid) with blood mixed in, to just defecating straight blood, and vomiting mass amounts of fluids (she was unable to keep water down). It was confirmed with multiple blood and lab tests.

She stayed at the vets until they were sure she was out of the woods. It was touch and go for awhile. They put her on a very low fat diet and we were instructed to keep her on a strict diet of just that- no treats, people food, regular dog food, etc. She would not eat the medication so we had to bring her to the vet 2x a day for them to administer it.

She is fine now and with the vet’s permission we moved her back to her normal dog food, but we are still very careful with what else she eats.

Good luck with your dog. It might be worth a call into the vet to discuss with them how long they expect it to take for him to feel better before you should start to worry.

[MMorgan]

My senior boy had a very serious case of pancreatitis, which required several days in the ICU, but he was fine after about a week of secluded rest. Initially I fed him a bland diet of cooked, pureed veggies (sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, carrots) with lean protein (chicken breast, low fat ground beef, fat drained, and salmon), but he went back to his Blue Buffalo salmon and sweet potato a few weeks later. After his episode, he never again received an unhealthy table scrap and I stopped my habit of giving him raw beef bones with marrow.

I will say that he became a bit spoiled by the home cooked food, so even after he went back to the dry food, I would mix in flaked salmon or canned tuna to encourage him to eat. I also supplemented his meals with Berte’s Digestion blend, which had been suggested to me by a friend, rather than the Science Diet Sensitive Stomach my vet had recommended.

Good luck with your dog, it can be very scary and in some cases, it is life threatening.

[TheHorseProblem]

Baby girl seems to be recovering. This morning she trotted around the house with a toy in her mouth, and then tried to get in on the game between our two little dogs. It was heartening! When she steals my husband’s Birkenstocks as he watches TV, we’ll know she’s well again.

I have a question for you: what percentage of fat in dry food is considered low fat?

[PiaffePlease]

Glad to hear she is feeling better.

My dog had a very severe case. She was at the vet for 10 days and was very close to death. We asked that she come home to see if she would start fighting while in a comfortable place (she had never been boarded so wasnt used to being in a kennel environment). She started to pull through and she lived 4 more years.

[MMorgan]

So glad your girl is feeling more herself! That’s good news.

Here’s a link to an article on low fat diets that specifically mentions chronic pancreatitis.

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/11_12/features/Healthy-Low-Fat-Dog-Foods_16088-1.html

Did your vet recommend having your dog eat low fat from now on? I know in my old boy’s case last year, the vet had concerns because he was too thin, so I think the most important thing was eliminating people foods that were either too rich or potentially upsetting (I admit it–I used to share my spaghetti or a small bite of pizza).

[TheHorseProblem]

Thanks! Good article.