[Samantha P]

My 1 ½ year old toy poodle/mi-pin (5 lbs) began vomiting 11 days ago on a Friday. The following day, Saturday, we took her to the vet. He thought she may have an upset stomach and dehydrated so he gave her sub-q fluids and sent her home on meds to ease her tummy troubles (Rantidine?) By Monday, she still wasn’t herself, and the vomiting continued. She wasn’t eating or drinking much at all, so I brought her back to the vet. The kept her all day Monday, continued with the fluids and then sent her back home with us Monday night. The vomiting stopped, but she still wasn’t improving in regards to eating/drinking. I brought her back to the vet Friday (a week after our first visit) and they did blood work. It turns out she has pancreatitis, unsure if she had it the entire time or if it was caused by the upset stomach issue. They began an IV for fluids on Friday – it is now Tuesday and she is still there. She got her appetite back on Sunday and ate the wet dog food (Hills ID) and she ate again yesterday morning. Since she was eating again, they removed the IV and by afternoon she was refusing food. She vomited 3 times overnight and now the vet as well as us are getting extremely concerned (as if I wasn’t already) I just need to hear that she will be okay… I can’t stop worrying, crying and I am absolutely sick over all of this. We have no idea what could have caused it, we feed her TOTW normally and she loved it, this all happened out of nowhere and going on 11 days of this, 5 being in the vets care, I am trying to continue to keep my hope but it’s slowly dwindling. I have no idea what I would do without her, she’s my baby and her brother (Morkie) misses her so much…. Our house just isn’t the same and we are ready to get her back home. Anyone have experiences? Stories that may help us get through this? Advice? I am all ears…

[anonymously]

I don’t have anything to offer, except to say I hope she stabilizes. Did the vet tell you if this was an acute episode versus chronic? Sometimes dogs get into things….

I imagine diet and prescribed meds would be the key to treating it. If your vet isn’t a specialist, consider taking her records and consulting an internal medicine specialist, unless you are confident in her current treatment.
Best of luck.

[Susan]

Hi Samantha, go shops, buy some chicken breast or lean turkey breast mince lightly cook till its just cooked cause the chicken breast can go tuff if over cooked then cut up, I also add a bit of boiled sweet potatoes not much take to the vets & ask can this be feed instead of the vet diet, cause she isn’t eating…. the Hills I/D Gastro is still high in fat at 14% if its the Hills I/D Gastro the pink label there’s the Hills I/d Low Fat GI Restore & the fat is lower 8.5% find out which one she is eating… if your on Face Book join this group “Canine Pancreatitis Support Group” these ladies will help you & your baby, what to ask vet, what are good low fat foods, no more kibble, as kibble is harder to digest she will need wet tin foods or cooked meals all low in fat also the fat on wet tin foods are higher then what the fat is on a bag of kibble, if the wet tin food says 5% fat on a tin, when converted to kibble fat that’s around 22% fat dry matter (Kibble)….
Hills Vet Diets convert all their Vet Diets they have already been done, but all the other vet diets aren’t convert or the pet shop foods…. so be careful & remember if you see 5% fat on a tin, its high you need 3%max fat & under in wet tin foods.. there’s the Royal Canine Low Fat Intestinal she may eat that one… the fat is only 7% fat …..also visit her & take her brother, it will boost her spirits ….Good Luck

[Samantha P]

Thanks anonymously – the research I have done suggests acute as this was her 1st experience with this but I am sure it won’t be her last. I will do everything in my power to help avoid another attack if we can just get her better this time. Her white blood cell count was a little high yesterday so they have now started her on antibiotics, she was put back on her fluid IV yesterday morning and they gave her some nutrical for energy and some meds to help reduce acid in her stomach. Waiting to hear from them this morning as we are getting close to another 24 hours on the IV – fingers crossed she hasn’t vomited anymore and that she is perking up a bit. It’s so hard to see her so weak and blah like she was yesterday.

Thanks for the help Susan – I just requested to join the group on Facebook, I need as much support as possible right now and that FB group seems like it would be so helpful! Thank you for that! We were feeding her boiled chicken breasts prior to Friday when we found out it was pancreatitis and she has been hospitalized since. She has always ate Taste of the Wild – the Lamb one and she loves it, she is a much bigger fan of dry dog food than wet so I thought it was possibly the issue and why she wouldn’t eat the Hills Monday night but since the vet said she chowed down the wet Hills ID the first time and her entire demeanor changed it was more than just her not liking the food 🙁

I am bringing her a diff blanket from home, one that smells like us and her brother who misses her like crazy. I truly hope she isn’t there until Saturday but if she is, we have planned to bring her brother in to help cheer her up. He has really began acting out at home so I know he is really missing her too. The vet closes around the same time I get off work, so it hasn’t given me much time to bring Rocco in but I do go see her on my lunch hour and then again right when I get off work until they close. We are also bringing her some of her normal food to see if she will start to take that down. The vet said they wouldn’t think we should switch from TOTW once she is better as the vet personally uses that for her dogs – but I am definitely open to all suggestions. I will see which Hills ID they are giving her now – I do know it doesn’t smell too great and looks pretty nasty. I was there Monday night and tried to see if she would eat while I was there with her but no interest at all. Thank you so much for your response – I am excited to get added to the group on FB, I need to hear some success stories to try and boost up my spirits so I can boost up hers!

[Jerri W]

I have a 10 y/o mini schnauzer who has had 2 episodes of pancreatitis. The vet put him on Royal Canin low fat gastrointestinal dry kibble a year ago. Is there another brand that may be better for him?

[anonymously]

Wysong has a prescription food that your vet may approve of: http://www.wysong.net/veterinarian/
http://www.wysong.net/testimonials/?article=45&cat=cat1

If the dog has been stable for a year, it may be best not to make a change, imo.

[Jerri W]

The first episode was when he was 1 y/o and then a very light case a year ago. I just didn’t think the royal canin had a great listing. I have a friend whose schnauzer is on Fromm’s low fat and I believe it is fish.

[Susan]

Hi, it’s best to stay away from kibble when they have had Pancreatitis the pancreas has to work harder digesting kibble, there’s 2 types of Pancreatitis acute pancreatitis comes on very sudden or chronic pancreatitis recurring or persistent form of pancreatic inflammation, both can be considered mild to serve….
The fat in the Taste Of The Wild kibbles is pretty high at 18% min so max fat would be around 20%max, the Smoked Salmon is the lowest at 15-17% fat. The fat is probably tooo high for Pancreatitis, its best to stay around 8-12% fat when feeding a kibble, so she doesn’t have another flare, have a look at The Honest Kitchen ZEAL most dogs love The Honest Kitchen food you just add water you can buy 2 x sample for $1…
http://www.thehonestkitchen.com/dog-food/zeal

another good kibble for dogs with Pancreatitis is “Canine Caviar” Special Needs….email & see if they will send out an sample to see if she will eat it… or Canine Caviar may have money back if she doesn’t eat the kibble..

Special Needs

[Author]

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