Pancreatitis, researched the board, but still need help.

[junobet]

I don't know if this is related, but here is some back story:

Juno, our otherwise perfectly healthy 3 year old male started getting seizures this past few months so our vet started him on phenobarbital. I don't know for sure if this medication is causing the chronic pancreatitis that we are now experiencing.

On to the pancreatitis issue:

The first bout was treated with tramadol, a stomach soothing medication and antibiotics. I did not change his food from the Wellness Core Turkey he's been on since we got him as a puppy.

The second bout occurred a week later, we caught it early so no tramadol was necessary. But the vet did recommend changing his diet to a prescription lower fat food: Royal Canine. I really like Wellness so I chose the Wellness 'Simple' Turkey which has less ingredients, less fat, supposed to be easy on sensitive stomachs.

After ordering it, I saw that a lot of people here use Wellness Reduced Fat so I planned on going to that after my two bags of Simple were gone. Let me back up, while waiting for the new food to arrive, I gave him 1 cup boiled chicken, rice and carrots to help ease his stomach plus 1 TSP 4x a day. After a 5 days, I started mixing in the new food. After a week of straight boiled chicken, a week of the mix, I put him on the just the new 'Wellness Simple', still grain free, fewer ingredients (supposed to be easier on sensitive stomachs) food only. All of these methods were done on a 4x a day feeding of 1 cup each.

It's been about two days on the new kibble only and he's acting off again. For both previous times, he needed to be touching me, had a hard time getting comfortable, was eating grass and on the first bout (the worst) he lost interest in food. He's now exhibiting a light version of those first three symptoms.

I kept some leftover medication from the vet (antibiotics and one that soothes an upset stomach) in case we ran into this problem again.

What do I do? If he continues with these symptoms, I may medicate him with what I have on hand. But what's the solution, do I keep searching for a food? Will Wellness Reduced fat be successful? Do I just keep him on a 1/2 kibble, 1/2 homemade diet?

The chicken/rice/carrot only diet seemed to work. The mix seemed to work, straight kibble does not look like its working.

I look forward to your advice, I love this pup, I don't want him to hurt.

 

[johann]

I would go back to chicken/rice and let his stomach rest for a few days. Then start introducing the wellness low fat, but at a very, very slow rate (like 1/8 cup of kibble each meal for a few days, then 2/8 cup, and so on). It will take a few weeks to transition, but hopefully he will eventually be ok on just kibble.

We had great luck with the lowfat Core, but I know that is too high in fat for some users' boxers.

Good luck!

 

[junobet]

Thanks Kate.
I'm going with your plan. I went a week with just the chicken/rice diet, now I'm adding in 1/4c of Wellness Reduced-fat per day this week. I think you're right, I went too fast last time. Hopefully this will work for us!

 

[johann]

I hope you have good luck. We really, really struggled the 1st bout of pancreatitis that Johann had. It seemed like it took forever to get him back on just kibble.

Another tip is to split the food into 3 feedings. Johann eats breakfast at 7 am, dinner at 5 pm, and 2nd dinner around 9 pm. Getting a small amount of food before bed seems to help him get thru the night with no upset stomach/foamy vomit/eating grass.

 

[silly24boxer]

Pancreatitis is very painful. This is how we cope with a 6 year old boxer that has cronic pancreatitis and stage 2 kidney. Feed them more often divide the amount of food in 4. 6am 2pm 8pm 10pm. Always keep food in the stomach.

Due to both kidney issues and pancreatitis we are feeding royal canin vegan. I have tried everything raw home cooked etc and this works for us. No more stomach aches, vomiitting and loose stool. We still have the rare drooling for hours but that can be controlled with pepcid ac.

We give pepcid ac 10mg with the am meal and the last meal before bed.
The meds with use for when he was sick were tramadol, sulcrate to coat the stomach and metronidzole to control loose stool.

After alot of different vets, a stomach tack for bloat etc we have finally figured out a year ago Gauge had had pancreatitis since a puppy.

Things I have learnt the hard way, you have to figure out what works for your dog. (Rice, didnt work for gauge made the stool worse) the only treats he can eat is pumpkin cookies and any changes from that diet can set him off into a pancreatitis attack.

Do not be scared of the food the vet tries to give you for him. I was scared to death. Its rated as a shitty food, I cannot be good for gauge. He going to lose muscle because there is low protien in the vegan food. All these thoughts ran through my head but Guage was in pain and suffering, very unwilling and trying to keep an open mind I tried it and it works. Its been a year now and he is doing great.

 

[Gatorblu]

As others have said more frequent smaller meals is the way to go. You don't want to overwork the pancreas with a bigger meal. Honestly I start with 5-6 meals depending on how my dog is doing. Then each week eliminate a meal. You may never go back to two meals, and many people can manage three. We do four, but Thor is older and has other health issues as well. Plus he has been battling pancreatitis for over 3 years. (He was misdiagnosed at the beginning for over a month and the damage was done.)

Skip the Simple Turkey. I just went on line to check and the fat content is "not less than 12%" That means it can be much higher. With pancreatitis you need a lower fat diet. So the Wellness Core Reduced Fat is a much better option. It has a guaranteed fat of 10-12%. Another good option which I use for my other dog is Petcurean Now Senior. My dog just seems to like it better, but it does cost more. Pancreatitis can take forever to recover from. It just seems to set every thing out of whack. I also take about two weeks to switch from chicken and rice to kibble. I also add a little water to the kibble to soften it and make it easier to digest. Once everything is settling down I cut back on the water.

Good luck. I know the frustration of dealing with pancreatitis all to well. We seem to have found what works for us and the last flair was very minor and only set us back a few days.

 

[RockyCody]

With Dharma's episodes - we have tramadol on hand at all times and if she starts acting nauseated/weird we give it to her to calm her down.

I went through 4 different kibble brands/types before I found one that she likes. She does well on the FROMM whitefish and potato. She can also have american natural premium sensitive care formula (this is chicken based but probably not available everywhere. It's a step down from FROMM and since FROMM is manufactured local a lot of our pet stores have it but I don't think it is sold everywhere).

We have to do three meals a day. 7am, 5pm, 9pm (ON THE DOT - she will let me know when it's 'third meal' time as we call it).

She gets pepcid 20mg with her evening meal (5pm) and this has helped her from puking.

Fingers crossed we have been 'puke free' for nearly 3 months now with this routine.

It is a lot of trial and error - but make sure to be patient and take your time when introducing new food, etc.

 

[RockyCody]

OH! And make sure that your TREATS (if you give any) are all low fat. I try to keep treats around 5% fat for Dharma and her food is not more than 10-11% fat.