Pancreatitis, IBS, Colitis?

[mike t]

Hi

Our beloved Suzy had a liver shunt all her life which she coped with very well , unfortunately she got pancreatitis during the last 3 years of her life and we went through ups and downs but found that the following really helped.

Boiled fresh turkey breast and cut up into small pieces. very low fat.
Green tripe which we bought frozen and then defrosted and gently heated up. It seemed to help a lot , but does smell.........but who cares as long as she is happy
Low fat GC intestinal tinned food. She did not really like this , but did not mind if it had tripe or boiled turkey on it.

She did not get on with any type of kibble. In our opinion , if you intend to try any other brand of tinned food, inc lilly kitchen, put it in the fridge all day and then when you put it on the plate , in most cases you will see hard small lumps of congealed fat . Either dont use the tin or simply spend 5 mins removing the lumps which is easy when cold. Then just 20 sec in mircowave to take the chill of the remaining food . Lilly kitchen beef seems to be prone to a lot of small fat lumps when cold. These small lumps of fat dont normally show up when the tin is normal temperature for obvious reasons.

Lastly, as soon as you realise she is going to have a bad attack of pancreatitis, take her to the vets and ask them to put her on a fluid drip. Sometimes this can be all day and sometimes all night but in our experience, this really helped relive the pain and also protects the body and liver by keeping it correctly hydratated during the attack. She always came back a very happy bouncy doggy

( God we still miss her greatly xx )

Hope this helps

[Agent]

I'm so sorry to hear about Evie's problems, but glad to read that she's a little better.

There are so many mini's with pancreatitis according to our internal medicine specialist at Cambridge University. Mine has had it since she was 2. She's now 8. She also has liver problems, colitis, and a gallbladder mucocele. I've nearly lost her to pancreatitis a few times, especially in the earlier days. For the past few years she's been on Lypex though, which I don't see mentioned often as not many vets know about it yet. It's replacement pancreatic enzymes (from pigs I think), and it's made the difference between Teasel being able to digest food and not. She can only tolerate fish protein....not even trace oils of poultry, so she is restricted to Burns fish and brown rice kibble which is very low fat, and (currently) poultry free. Royal Canin did a fish kibble, but added poultry oil to it without informing vets or customers. It very nearly killed her.

My local vets have started using Lypex having seen my specialist prescribe it for Teasel, and apparently they're having very good results with it.

Another revelation was that the genius specialist unconvered a research paper that said that Glucosamine and Chondroitin can cause severe liver failure in dogs with compromised livers. Teasel's liver results had been going drastically and unexplainedly downhill for years, to the point where it was entering fatal territory. I'd also been giving her these Dorwest supplements for her bad back. Within weeks of taking her off the them her liver results returned to within almost normal ranges, or at least levels that weren't scaring us. She's on Denamarin to assist her liver as it's been through a lot, and whenever she has a pancreatitis flare up, her liver results go up too.

Maybe you can find some info from here and all the other posts that will help. I hope so. Sending love to you and Evie.

[Robin black mini]

Mike t and agent...I found your posts really informative and went on to look up links on the warnings about glucosamine and liver inflammation...very interesting indeed..thanks both for your input.

[Agent]

Likewise Robin Black mini, I've just read your post and it's very interesting. Teasel had campylobacter when she was a puppy and then went on to have really awful IBS afterwards. Apparently it damages the villi, just as yours experienced, and leads to long term damage. At first the pancreatitis diagnosis was masked by it....I think there's a merging from one to another, indeed the consultant has told the insurance company that everything is to be classified under one condition 'biliary tract disease' as it's linked.
Teasel's tummy is also maintained with Protexin Pro-Fibre which is a mixture of probiotics and fibre. I tried stopping it and she got the moderate squits quite rapidly (excuse the expression!). Sometimes I give her tree bark powders for a tummy flare-up or post pancreatitis sore tummy, but less so these days as it's the ever present play-off with fat content. Pro-Kolin in moderation (half recommended dose) is the real winner for caiming down the tummy after a crisis, but it's hugely high in fat. Wish they would think about their ingredients and who might be using it.

[Evie_Parker]

I have changed Evie on to Lilys Kitchen wet food, plus mixed with the Gastro Intestinal kibble and she has improved no end. I am feeding her three smaller meals a day. I fact we have had a week away in Wales and she has been like a different dog. Obviously we are over the moon with this and hope that she can continue to be stable. I am currently looking into anything else I can give her to help support her digestive system, so any other advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I have put her on the Yudigest as someone suggested so thank you for that, and just changed her onto Maxxi Same, instead of Denermarin.

[zeta1454]

Great news that Evie is doing well

Good food and probiotics should go a long way to helping her recover and it sounds as though it is working.p

[Agent]

Brilliant news, really pleased for you. It sounds as though you've found the right balance for her. My pennies worth is that you should do comparative blood tests now if you don't have recent ones (including bile acids stimulation tests) and in 3-6 months time to keep an eye on her liver results if they've been an issue previously, as you've taken her off the Denamarin.

[Evie_Parker]

Just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone that has commented on my post. I have taken a lot of the advice on board and please to say she is happy and stable at the moment, so everything crossed it continues.

Interesting about Pro-Kolin - I had no idea it was high in fat and she did have two tubes of this prescribed by the vet Needless to say I will use half the dose in future and I will also mention to my vet about the high fat content.

After we have finished the Gastro Intestinal kibble (as I don't intend to keep her on this long term, I think I will get the Burns Fish kibble. She's always been fine with fish so this seems the best option. She has been OK with chicken in kibble, but not fresh or in wet food.

I am going to book her into the vets this week to get her liver enzymes checked, will also mention about doing a bile acid stimulation test too.

[Jean Martin]

We were away in our caravan near Shrewsbury when Polly, our then 3 yr old mini started with what was later diagnosed as pancreatitis. It was about 7pm and her cries of pain were hard to bear. We rang the local vet who wasn't interested and told us to give her just water and if she was same in morning to take her in. We couldn't leave her like that so we rang our own vet explaining the situation. He asked how long it would take to get back to Hereford so I told him midnight by the time we had put everything away and got ready. After packing away in the dark and getting away it was an awful 2 hr drive listening to Polly crying in pain but the vet was waiting as we parked the car and caravan outside the surgery at midnight. He called another vet in, also a nurse, because he was delivering pups when we got there. They operated on Polly but said after cleaning out the gut they couldn't find anything wrong. After blood tests, scans etc it was then they diagnosed it as pancreatitis. From then on she was on Royal Canin Intestinal Low Fat, nothing else. Thankfully afterwards she didn't get the excruciating pain so much, it was more discomfort. When this started she sometimes had pro-biopics from the vet but we kept Zantac anti inflammatory tablets and Tramadol, a quarter, for pain if she had any. When she had a flare up of mainly colitis we gave her Zantac and a diet of just chicken and boiled rice. Like others, early in her illness she was showing low liver enzymes so we sprinkled a third of a sachet of Samylin on her food to help with the enzymes. I too used to poo watch and wanted to shout for joy when she did a firm one with no blood or mucus in, knowing it would be a few months before she got it again.
In June we were away in the caravan at Rhayader and I could see that Poll had had enough of life. She started to get incontinent and couldn't walk very far. She wasn't very happy and on arrival home we took her to the vets hoping he could help but fearing the worst. He did give us hope but the following morning he rang and when I heard his voice I knew it was bad news. He said all her organs were shutting down and her liver enlarged. I then asked if we could fetch her home for a few hours and if he could come later to the house. We cooked her some chicken and she loved that and I nursed her until the vet came 6 hours later. Polly was 14 yrs and 3 months so she lived with this condition for a long time so please don't give up hope. The vet said we must have been doing something right for 11 yrs to get her to that age. I miss her terribly despite having Bailey, our black mini, but there will be an addition to our family on October 3rd when we fetch Bonnie, a black and silver. I'm hoping she has the same markings as Poll, but she will never replace her. There was only one Poll. Chris Martin.

[Evie_Parker]

Jean Martin - so sorry to hear of your loss of Polly, she sounds like she was a wonderful girl with a fighting spirit and sounds like you did everything right for her to live a long life despite the problems she had.

Best of luck with the new pup, how exciting.

[Evie_Parker]

Hi everyone,

I've not updated in a while, I'm pleased to report Evie is doing well on the food we have settled on and the liver supplement MaxxiSAMe. Also on advice of someone else we also give her a Yudigest tablet daily too.

I was wondering if anyone can recommend anything that may help her joints and movement, I think she' getting a bit creaky! I've noticed she sometimes struggles a bit with stairs now. Obviously theres the usual fish oil supplements but these aren't suitable for her with being too high in fat. So I was wondering if there were any herbal supps that she may be able to take that might help her a bit.

Thank you!

[zeta1454]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone can recommend anything that may help her joints and movement, I think she' getting a bit creaky! I've noticed she sometimes struggles a bit with stairs now. Obviously theres the usual fish oil supplements but these aren't suitable for her with being too high in fat. So I was wondering if there were any herbal supps that she may be able to take that might help her a bit.

Thank you!

Good to hear how well Evie is doing

You could try Yumove (by the same company who produce the Yudigest supplements). We give a tablet daily to one of our elderly dogs and it does seem to help keep him moving well.

http://www.lintbells.com/dog-health/joi ... yumove-dog" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Evie_Parker]

Thank you,

I've looked into Yumove but it's too high in fat for Evie unfortunately

[zeta1454]

Not sure about the fat content with these but they may be an alternative. Dorwest Herbs are a great company and would be able to advise you re their products

http://www.dorwest.com/Products/GC/gluc ... s-and-cats" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


P.S. I have checked the Yumove tablets too and fat content is only 2.8% and the tablets weigh less than 1g each so fairly minimal fat content per "serving".

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Evie_Parker]

Not sure about the fat content with these but they may be an alternative. Dorwest Herbs are a great company and would be able to advise you re their products

http://www.dorwest.com/Products/GC/gluc ... s-and-cats" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


P.S. I have checked the Yumove tablets too and fat content is only 2.8% and the tablets weigh less than 1g each so fairly minimal fat content per "serving".

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thank you very much, I have obviously been misinformed re the fat content of Yumove, so they might be worth trying but will also contact the other company too. This forum is great