Pancreatitis

[Casster17]

Hi all,

On the 11/11/10 my 4yr 10mth old staffie x heeler, Cassie, was admitted to Vet Hospital following a night a vomitting and the bloody diaherria.

At 6pm on 10/11 i noticed she was throwing up but only the once, I didn't take much notice as this occasionaly happens, at 10pm she refused her dinner and then began throwing up every 20 mins. Her stomache muscles were very tight. At Midnight I did a mercy dash to 24hr vet clinic, I was told gastro bug. they gave her some meds and sent me home with antibiotics and said if she is not better by midday bring her back. I stayed up with her for about an hour in which see seems fine so I went to bed. 4 hrs later my OH got up to find she had thrown up all over the house. I got up and she looked shocking. Unfortunately I had to go to work to facilitate a hugh forum I could not get out of. I asked my sister to come over and monitor her. I left at 815am. At 845am my sister messages me with pics of blood in her diaherria. I told her to call vet and explain. They said bring her in at 11.45. Cassie went down hill very quickly. 1145am admitted and rushed through to treatment room. She had lost 2.5kgs overnight. Fluids, strong pain killers and anti nausea administered. Blood tests followed to identify Pancreatitis. (Silly dog had eaten 1 whole tub of marg 2 weeks prior). The Antibiotics administered. 4 days later she returned home on 2 types of antibiotics and special gastro intestinal diet. return visit 3 days later all good and vet very happy with her improval. 1 week after follow up, I had Cassie back at vet with pale almost white gums. More Blood test and an rectum examination they could find nothing wrong. Put Vet put her on Gastro Intestinal Protectant for 5 days. She is slowly regaining weight.

How ever she still doesn't seem right. Very lethargic, very clingy and just not the Happy go lucky dog she was before.

She is now allowed low fat meat and rice 3 x time daily and have been told in about 1 week I can try to move her back onto her normal diet... minus the stealing for margarine off the bench.

Can anyone tell me how long it take for a dog to recover from this???? I miss my happy go lucky dog..

[Chezy]

Gizzi was diagnosed with this about 2 months ago, she is ok now, but i have been told to keep her on the low fat diet of chicken, rice and veg , she had a skinless chck leg last week and was ok . I am vert strict with her diet now and make sure every1 knows not to give her anything unless they check with me 1st

edit to add that vet said Gizzi had a mild case, did not require hosp stay

Edited November 29, 2010 by Chezy & Chopper

[Casster17]

Vets think she will be fine on her normal diet... As we know what caused the issue.

[Chezy]

yeah a tub of butter would def off the menu

Gizzi was set off by a small peice of lamb flap

[sllebasi]

i wouldnt have thought the margarine would have set it off like that and for it to be 2 weeks prior, i think you need to look at something a little bit more closer to the date.

its definitely fat related and with my dog it is all red meat products - lamb, beef, pork, kangaroo, so you might need to do a bit of playing around with meals for a while yet. i would stick to the chicken and rice for at least another week if not two as the dog had it so bad, and is still dehydrated.

[yellowgirl]

Poor Cassie

One of my dogs has pancreatitis. It's not a matter of going back on a normal diet for her, she's on low fat forever. You need to be very careful after a pancreatitis attack. I find the Tucker Time roll works really well for my dog. Also no pig ears or other fatty treats.

Casster is the chicken mince pet grade or human grade? Pet grade is the whole carcass minced up and is very high in fat.

If she's still 'not right' (I know exactly what you mean ) she's nowhere near ready for regular food. She's had a very bad attack and it may be that she'll need to continue to stay on a low fat diet. You need to be very careful and vigilant.

Hugs to you and Cassie

[Casster17]

sllebasi - vets say it can be up to 4 weeks before the attack of pancreatitis as it takes time for the enzymes to begin attacking or somthing like that if I understand what the vets said. That was the only fatty stuff she had...

yellowgirl - Human grade Mince chicken. I know about pet grade and have always fed her human grade where possible. She is also reacts to Perservatives do I try where possible to to get preservative free human grade food. She has Coprice normally as her dry food as she has had no reaction to it. Both of our dogs are fed the same. The only difference was the margarine.

Vets believe given how she is doing with food and no throwing up and the weight gain, she will be right to move onto her normal diet. However I am now wondering if there is something else an under lying problem. Vets said the Pancreatitis explains most of her syptoms but not the blood in the diaherria. But so far have not found anything else wrong

[Stitch]

From what I have seen and heard there are a LOT of dogs out there that have problems with pancreatitis, colitis, IBS or IBD.

I have one myself and she was on Hills I/D for quite a while however I have been able to switch her on to Hills Sensitive Stomach.

I don't particularly like feeding dry dogfood - most of mine get BARF however you have to feed them what they can tolerate and do well on.

My girl had an attack a few days ago, didn't want dinner last night - I could hear her stomach growling because it was so upset.

I have found Lectade to be absolutely marvellous for settling the dog down after an attack - plus I give an Inner Health Plus capsule.

If my lot are off their food for any reason I mix up the Lectade - I have found that once they are feeling better they don't want the Lectade!!!

I have gotten used to dealing with the problem - before it was diagnosed I never knew what I was going to find at the back door (thats where she would go to if she wanted to toilet but couldn't get out) poor girl!!!

It might be that your girl will be OK on a normal diet but if I were you I would be very careful about the fats in her diet in future - she may have a predisposition to pancreatitis (or it could just be the tub of margarine!!!)! Only time will tell that one!!!

[CaseyKay]

My girl KC (8 years border collie) has this two weeks ago (16/11) for the first time in her life. Lucky was caught early as she crashed badly. The vet said didn't look good but threw anything he could think of at her. 3 days on a drip and looking half dead she pulled through. She was very quiet and extremely clingy for the first week home. This is a pretty active dog, usually does 2 x at least an hours offlead running a day. When she came home she was still on 6 different drugs. Her diet had not changed at all I am VERY careful about it as she is epileptic and on two different meds for that. Well turns out one of the meds, Potassium Bromide may be linked to pancreatitis but she has to stay on it because it stopped her life threatening cluster-seizing 2 years back. She just started back on semi-normal walk today of about half a hour, which I decided she was ready for due to her general hyper-activity around the house which has come on the last couple days. But yeah it has taken her 2 weeks to get mostly back to normal instead of just laying around looking depressed and whining unless I was right with her!

She has been on the same commerical raw diet for the past 5 years. The vet has her now on Royal Canin I/D dry which is very low fat and he says she should stay on it for another month at least before we look at going back to her old diet or a different one. She isn't very keen on the dry food, poor girl. The vet has said she may now be more prone to developing pancreatitis again so we must be very careful with the amount of fat she eats. The dry food fat % is 7%. The dry matter % fat of her raw diet is arund 33%. She is a good weight, on the thin side which he said is also helpful.

[*Avanti*]

Vets believe given how she is doing with food and no throwing up and the weight gain, she will be right to move onto her normal diet. However I am now wondering if there is something else an under lying problem. Vets said the Pancreatitis explains most of her syptoms but not the blood in the diaherria. But so far have not found anything else wrong

I'd get a second opinion if I was you. I don't think she will be able to go back to her old diet regardless of the margarine possibly being the catalyst. My Ladrador girl had pancreatitis last year and very nearly died from it. She was in so much pain and so depressed that she was going out in the freezing cold of winter to lay in the garden as if she just wanted to die. The vet agreed that's what she was doing. She was admitted to the Lort Smith Animal Hospital and put on a drip for about 5 days. I was told she has to stay off any fatty foods for life now. Once they have pancreatitis all you can do is manage it to prevent a relapse.

Edited November 30, 2010 by LabTested

[Casster17]

ok so what other tests do i ask them to do???

Edit to say: My Vet has alway been trustworthy, they have been straight up with me from the moment she went into hospital. I forgot to mention they suspected as there was evidence that she has/had huge worm bundle despite my worming her regularly. Having said that the last time i went to the vet clinic she didn't see our usual vet.

And she seems to be ok tonight...

Edited November 30, 2010 by Casster17

[*Avanti*]

ok so what other tests do i ask them to do???

Edit to say: My Vet has alway been trustworthy, they have been straight up with me from the moment she went into hospital. I forgot to mention they suspected as there was evidence that she has/had huge worm bundle despite my worming her regularly. Having said that the last time i went to the vet clinic she didn't see our usual vet.

And she seems to be ok tonight...

I wouldn't know what tests Casster17; I’d leave that to the vet. I just thought it sounded like your vet was not very experienced with pancreatitis if they were saying your dog could return to her old diet. I think my dog, Heidi, had some blood in her diaherria with the pancreatitis but can't remember to be sure. Good to hear your dog is getting better, I hope it continues.

A tip for bones: I give Heidi the very occasional marrow bone now but get them cut open and take the marrow part out and cut off any fat.

[cavNrott]

My Cav girl has recently recovered from a bout of acute pancreatitis. Vet couldn't figure out what was wrong until we did a CBC. Then we knew what the problem was because her lipase level was high. Apart from me givng her more sardines in spring water than she usually has she didn't eat anything unusual. Could the sardines have brought it on? Are they an oily fish?

I took her to the vet because she looked miserable, very quiet and she threw up her breakfast. Dana never throws up and is usually hyperactive. Vet gave her a shot for nausea and Cephalexin tablets for 5 days. She looked ok the next day but the following day she looked just as miserable so back to the vet for bloods and all was revealed. There was only the one vomit and no diarrhoea so we didn't have much to go on. I asked for xrays to make sure the state of the pancreas was ok. It looked healthy.

She's fed raw but the vet said to feed her only Hills I/D for a month. This week I'm reintroducing raw mixed with cooked chicken breast and rice in the hope we can get her back on a raw diet. So far, so good.

[Casster17]

Thanks all...

Cassie seems much brighter today.

I'm getting the Royal Canin Gastro Intestinal Dry food tonight to mix in and bulk up her bland meat and rice diet. and then use that to faze in her normal diet... I am monitoring her closely and so far so good.

she finished the Gastro intestinal protectant last night and seems more herself.

I have heard that the Inner Health Plus Tablets for humans is good for dogs can anyone confirm???

[persephone]

Casster- Glad your girl seems happier

I presume ,tho you wrote just the normal name of that royal canin ...,you are buying the low fat one ... as the normal one is NOT suitable for dogs with pancreatitis ...

I am also of the opinion that maybe a second opinion should be sought.... just to make sure ..and get the blood tests etc done again..

oh- and with teh inner health capsules.. someone earlier suggested PROTEXIN .. which is specially formulated for animal use

Edited November 30, 2010 by persephone

[*Avanti*]

Casster- Glad your girl seems happier :D

I presume ,tho you wrote just the normal name of that royal canin ...,you are buying the low fat one ... as the normal one is NOT suitable for dogs with pancreatitis ...

I agree with persephone.

After Heidi got pancreatitis I also researched here and everyone with a dog who had survived it was on a very low/no fat diet. All the advice as well as from my vet's seemed to be that. I was grateful for their advice to know there was hope for her if I managed it this way.

It is a very serious condition which can be fatal.

It is not something they 'get' and it goes away, it has to be managed for the rest of their life.

Edited November 30, 2010 by LabTested

[Casster17]

Yes she is on the perscription one...

the blood tests were re done when i took her back last week. did i forget to mention that???? The enzymes had returned to the normal level.

i am aware that i have to be careful otherwise she can have another bout of pancreatitis. Hence why if she is off colour i worry... $1200 for hospitalisation is alot of money, I do not wish to fork out again.

[Stitch]

Just so that you all know ..... Bone Marrow = FAT

That is one of the reasons dogs with these kind of problems should be NOT be on BARF as ALL whole bones have marrow, even the smaller ones!!!

Edited December 1, 2010 by STITCH

[Casster17]

Thanks Stitch, i dont feed barf and will not be feeding many bones in the near future... But thank you

[sllebasi]

Have a horrible feeling my dog is having another attack. Gave her a turkey bone two weeks ago (i know now i shouldnt have), and i tried her with new heart tablets this week (she seems to be sensitive to a few brands) last night she was sick once so only gave her 1 piece of chicken for lunch and that has been it for the day.

she has been sick again tonight - first time at midnight and has just been sick again so off to the vets first thing in the morning i think