Pancreatitis Help

[laser692]

Just found this forum today after I was seaching for some information on pancreatitis. My dog has it and has been on
IV's for about 3 days now. Has not eaten in about 4 days.
The one problem is that he keeps vomiting and the vet
can not figure out why. Did all the tests and found nothing
in him at all. He said that if he keeps vomiting, he will have to
refer him to a specialist because there is nothing more he can
do.

I read all the previous posts that I could find on this subject. It is very depressing to say the least. My boxer Bailey is 2 years old
and this just came out of thin air. It blows me away. Perfectly
normal health and then this starts.

Can anyone share any of their pancreatitis experieneces and the details so maybe I could find some hope in my situation. This stuff is wicked. I would not wish that anyone's dog get this.

Thanks
Dean:(

 

[susan fulcher]

Mona was diagnoised with pancreatitis 3 1\2 yrs ago. She was hospiltalized for 9 days no food:( I decided and the conventional vet I went to agreed I should find a holistic vet. She has been on a raw food diet and homeoptic treatment since. No special diet or drugs. I just recently drove down to San Diego for her to see a holistic vet that works with different modalities. After homeopathy whichsaved her life my homeoptic vet and i decided it was time to try more supplementation which this vet does. Mona was fine but she spit up alittle food once in a while. She is doing much better with the supps she is on now. This is the way I chose to go since I'm am not a big drug user for me or my animal.

 

[Chewy's Mom]

Sorry, this is long...

My boy, Chewy, will be 2 later this month. He first got pancreatitis back in May when he broke open a huge bone from Petsmart and dug into the marrow. Marrow has a high concentration of fat which can cause acute pancreatitis. So, like your boy, Chewy couldn't stop vomitting. We took him to the emergency vet and they ran all possible tests and came up with pancreatitis. He went back and forth between that vet and our regular vet for a few days getting IV's, etc. Not fun. Oh, and we spent about $1000 for those first few days of initial treatment.

Well, it turns out that pancreatitis is one of those things that you'll always have to be careful with. Once a dog gets it, he will most likely be prone to getting it for the remainder of his life. Nice, eh? And if it goes untreated, it will cause diabetes. You lovin my info yet? So, the main thing you have to watch is the amount of fat in his diet. Get a low fat food (7%-8% would be good) and low fat treats (3%-6% is good), and don't give him table scraps that have lots of fat.

So after the initial episode in May, we treated him and he seemed to get better. Nobody told us that we'll have to watch his diet and so on. He started vomitting and getting sick again around August. It wasn't as bad as the first time, though. He would just vomit a few times a week - usually in the middle of the night. Our regular vet had no idea what could be wrong with him. He literally threw up his hands and said "I have no idea."
:rolleyes: Lovely. So we tried a couple of different vets, and then finally a holistic vet who gave us some answers. This holistic vet found that Chewy still had pancreatitis, and has put him on a prescription diet and played with a few different medicines to try to get the vomitting under control. Next week we're also going to look into testing him for allergies to different protein sources. Then, he'll help us choose an appropriate food for long term. It's a lot of work to get this nasty illness under control. The most important thing is to find a very knowledgable vet that is patient and takes time to educate you about this, and who is also knowledgeable about food and nutrition issues. I'd recommend that you either go to a specialist or a holistic vet. I doubt there's too many regular vets out there who can handle this problem correctly.

Good luck to you and Bailey, and feel free to ask me any other questions about this.

Monique

 

[Leslie Shibo]

SABIAN WILL BE 3 IN JANUARY AND HE FIRST GO DIAGNOSED WITH PANCREATITIS WHEN HE WAS ABOUT 6 MONTHS OLD. HE WENT THROUGH SPOUTS JUST LIKE YOURS DID, VOMITING AND DIARRHEA. WHEN WE CHECKED HIS BLOOD HIS AMYLASE AND LYPASE WERE THROUGH THE ROOF. GOING BACK AND FORTH WITH DIFFERENT MEDICINES AND RECHECKING HIS BLOOD EVERY 2-3 WEEKS, HE WAS STILL EXTREMELY ELEVATED. WE THINK IT FIRST CAME ABOUT WHEN HE WAS GIVEN A PIG EAR BY A FRIEND OF OURS:( HE HAS ALWAYS HAD A BAD STOMACH THOUGH, BUT NEVER DID WE THINK THIS BAD.

WE EVENTUALLY HAD A COLONOSCOPY DONE ON HIM, BECAUSE MAYBE WE THOUGHT HIS COLON WAS OUT OF WACK. THE BIOPSY OF HIS COLON CAME BACK PRETTY NORMAL ALTHOUGH IT DID SHOW A BACTERIAL INFECTION. SO WE STARTED HIM ON AMPICILLAN 250MG, I TABLET TWO TIMES DAILY. AND WE STILL HAVE HIM ON IT AND PROBABLY ALWAYS WILL. HE ALSO EATS HILLS RX DIET I/D. IT WORKS WONDERS. AND KNOCK ON WOOD HE HAS NOT HAD AN EPISODE IN OVER A YEAR. TREAT ARE VERY MINIMUM. THERE IS ONLY A SELECT FEW THAT HE CAN HAVE WITHOUT CAUSING DIARRHEA. IF YOU'D LIKE SOME, LET ME KNOW, CAUSE I'M NOT SURE WHERE YOU'RE FROM AND IF YOU CAN GET THEM.

HOPEFULLY SOME OF THIS IS HELPFUL. MAYBE HAVE A CULTURE DONE ON HIS STOOL, AND IF NOT GET HIM STARTED ON STRONG ANTIOBIOTICS. GOOD LUCK AND KEEP ME POSTED

 

[laser692]

Bailey

Thanks for the replies. I see a lot of posts that say be patient but at the rate I am paying and the pain he is probably going through, not sure how patient I can be. Up to $1,200 after about just a few days though this includes a bunch of tests. He also does not look like he is very happy.

How long did anyone else's dog experience the vomiting? That seems to be the problem with all this. This will not seem to stop and they can not figure out why.

It just seems like there is no end to this stuff. I am going to try and locate a specialist and get some answers. I certainly never expected to have to deal with something like this. It is very painful to say the least.

Thanks for your help.
Dean

 

[laser692]

Bailey Update

An update to my situation with Bailey. Saturday we pulled him from the regular vet and took him to a specialist. The regular vet basically had done all he could do and was out of answers.

He was basically hooked up to IV's this past Sat. and Sunday. They called Sunday to say that he had not thrown up yet and were going to not perform the Ultrasound. That they were going to try and feed him that afternoon. I called that night and they had fed him and he had not gotten sick. They told me he could come home on Monday, which is today. They still had virtually no idea of what was going on.

I think I may have an idea. They used different medications within the IV's. They used on commonly known as Pepcid that controls the acid within the stomach. I really think that this is what stopped the vomiting. My best guess is that Bailey had mild pancreatitis and this was treated by the 1st vet by withholding food and putting on IV's. But I think that he did not use Pepcid to control the stomach acids and they were causing the vomiting. I may be wrong but I think after all I have seen and heard, that this may be the case. I am going to check with my 1st vet to see if he used anything to control the stomach acids. If not, my guess is good as any.

Bailey is home today and seems alright. Still touch and go, but if no vomiting occurs we may be home free for now. Diet will be crucial going forward.

I must say that this was an emotional rollar coaster. One day he looks like he may be on the way out and the next day he can come home. Although I appreciate all the help and work that the vets performed, I was not very impressed with what I heard. None of them were very good communicators and really never offered any possible causes or solutions verbally.

The specialist charged me $1,000 for 2 days of care. Basically Bailey was on IV fluids the whole time and they did perform another X-Ray and a couple of blood tests. Thank God he was there only 2 days. For some reason I feel like I have a better idea of what happened than they do. Not sure if this is a common feeling among others who have had similar experiences or whether I am being too harsh. For example, I had just spent $400 on X-rays the previous day with my 1st vet. The specialist wanted to take his own, even though they were the exact same type of X-ray, and he got the same result.

Anyway, I apprecaite others who posted on this and helped me out. Thanks Dean

PS - No treats for now.

 

[Chewy's Mom]

Wow. I'm glad Bailey is doing better, but I think I would be upset too. Especially that the specialist wanted to do his own x-rays. I'd say fine - if he wants to pay for them. That's frustrating. I know what you mean about being dissatisfied with vets. I've been through a lot of that myself. Thank God I finally found one I really trust. Not easy to do.

Chewy also recently started taking pepcid. You can just buy it at any store in the tablet form. Buy the Pepcid AC. My new vet has indicated that stomach acids can cause vomitting, so you may very well be right about that. Good luck, I hope Bailey continues to get better.

Monique