Severe pancreatitis

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Coz50
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Severe pancreatitis

Post by Coz50 »

My little mini Georgie is seriously ill with pancreatitis. She's currently been at the vets for a week now with no significant improvement. She's in itu on a drip being tube fed where possible although not tolerating this very well and they are having to take it very slowly. The vet has upped he pain killing meds as he says he needed to control her pain. I can't tell you how devastated me and my husband are, we are beside ourselves. She's only 4 and this seemed to come out of the blue. She was sick last Saturday night which just seemed to be a regurgitated meal and we didn't worry too much as this has occasionally happened to her and our other schnauzer. On the Sunday she didn't want her breakfast but she is a tiny mini and quite a fussy eater so again I wasn't too worried. By the Sunday evening and early hours Monday she was vomiting blood, at which point we rushed her to the emergency out of hours vet.
Pancreatitis has been diagnosed and we are now at the point where she has not eaten for over a week. They are throwing everything at her, antibiotics, painkillers, fluids, anti sickness meds, stuff to calm her tummy down and now very tiny bits of a liquid food. Apparently the stomach lining needs this to begin to heal. She is still vomiting up some of it though.
They are going to re-scan tomorrow. I am so scared this is the end and feel like they are preparing me for this.
I can't sleep, eat and just feel so desperate and guilty. What have I given her that has caused this? Yet my other schnauzer eats exactly the same, although more so as he's a bigger and greedier dog and he is fine.
Has anyone else been in this situation and got their schnauzer home again. Please help.
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zeta1454
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by zeta1454 »

I am so sad to hear that your Georgie is so ill. Acute pancreatitis is a frightening illness and I can understand your grief and anxiety over her future. However, dogs do pull through against all the odds and she is no doubt receiving the best of care at the vets to help her do just that.

I know that whenever anything awful happens to our dogs we blame ourselves and look for anything that we did or did not do that could have caused it. You must try to put the guilt out of your mind with this though - the causes of pancreatitis are many and varied in dogs and from what I have read are really not fully understood to date. Diet alone is not always the cause, toxins, infections, other underlying health conditions...all sorts of things may trigger an attack especially in a dog that may have a genetic predisposition to suffer this illness. Miniature schnauzers are considered one of the breeds that may have an increased risk due to the fact that many have higher levels of fat circulating in the blood than other breeds.

I have no experience of a dog with this condition but there are several Forum members with schnauzers who have or had this illness (it is not always fatal by any means) and will be able to give you some personal and practical advice and support.

There is a link here which has some information although you may already know all you need to about the condition:

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/news/P ... 579-1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sending hugs and hope that you get positive news from the re-scan tomorrow.


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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by tbloke99 »

My thoughts are with you! Hope Georgie starts to recover. Nothing worse than your little baby being poorly.
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Coz50
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by Coz50 »

Thank you zeta for your reassuring reply, I'm just praying now that she starts to pick up. It's so desperately sad to visit her but I think some of it is because she is so drugged up. The vet called this morning to say that it is very very slightly better than yesterday in that she hadn't been sick since yesterday morning and seemed to be tolerating the tiniest amounts of whatever they are feeding through the feeding tube, just one or two ml at a time.
They were rescanning this morning to check the pancreas and rechecking her bloods as an indication of how she is doing.
Hubby is visiting at lunchtime and I'm hoping for good news. The vet says she has a big uphill struggle and it can still go either way.
Can't bear the thought that we'd lose her at such a young age.
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by Jean Martin »

I made this post back in September in reply to a similar post so have just copy/pasted our experience and I hope it helps. I do remember our vet saying at the time that the old treatment for this condition was to starve the dog for two weeks. If you scroll back to September you will find other peoples replies to pancreatitis. Hope your dog pulls through, just be positive.
Post from September ....

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.
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Coz50
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by Coz50 »

Thank you all for your reply's, it really does help to share. First bit of positive news for over a week today. She now hasn't been sick since yesterday and is keeping down tiny bits of nutrition via a feeding tube in her neck. She is still very poorly and in doggy itu but we have at least a little hope. The scans show no change to her pancreas which I'm thinking means it is still swollen but no abscess. He bloods are a bit skewed but vet said that is to be expected. He said she's in no way out of the woods and it could go either way but he was 'cautiously optimistic ' (vets words). Hoping tomorrow continues with improvements.
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Coz50
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by Coz50 »

Another small improvement overnight. No further vomiting and accepting small amounts of tube feeding. This is to be increased again today. Still very poorly but slowly improving. :)
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Champ629
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by Champ629 »

Hi there, sorry to hear about your little one and hoping she will make a full recovery.

I have three Mini's, two have Pancreatitis..... My boy had it due to too much fat in his diet and my girl had it as a result of other health issues going on at the time, which caused severe inflammation in her pancreas. My boy was in the vets for a while on a drip and pain relief. With a strict low fat diet (not vet diet) we manage his condition quite successfully, although he does still have small flare ups from time to time. My girl is a more complex scenario as she has other health issues, she was initially in the vets for quite a while on fluids and very high doses of Methadone. She does still suffer with Pancreatitis on and off, even on a low fat diet. Her tests have gone much further and she also has low level hyperlipidemia, which is currently being treated.

Pancreatitis is a serious condition and needs to be treated promptly. Don't give up hope, your girl is in the best place and hopefully your vets will make her better. Best wishes.
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Coz50
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by Coz50 »

I've been to see her today and she's very quiet and subdued. The vet did explain that she is still on quite strong painkillers which will be making her drowsy. She is still being tube fed through her neck and has fluid drip in etc, although they say she has been taking small sips of water herself. At the moment she has taken 2/3 of the amount of tube food she needs to but so far no vomiting. They are planning to increase her food tomorrow with a view to increasing to the full amount and lower her pain killers a little in the hope she will be less sleepy. Vet says we are slowly moving in the right direction and it's as much as we can expect at the moment. I had hoped she'd be able to interact with us a bit more but she did seem very poorly still. Although medically she has improved.
I can't believe I didn't know anything about this dangerous condition!
I'm certainly going to be very anxious about what she eats after this!
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zeta1454
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by zeta1454 »

I am so glad to hear that Georgie is improving. Often medication will keep a dog very sleepy so do not worry if she is not able to interact with you just yet. Sleep is good to help the healing process.

I do feel for you, having sat crying my eyes out over one of our dogs years ago when she was in the vet hospital and not thought to make it ( not pancreatitis). But she did pull through and was so much better once she was able to come home.

Take care and do let us know how Georgie progresses x


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oscarsmate
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by oscarsmate »

Oscar has had Pancreatitis for about 3 years now. He seems to be allergic to chicken we discovered as well. So now he has Butchers lean and tasty or Chappie with his Royal Canin kibbles.

It's been a learning experience especially as he is a gannet and will eat anything he can get his hands on. He has his ups and downs but we are getting better at managing the condition.

He also has epilepsy which doesn't help.

Lets hope Georgie continues to mend.
Oscar 28/12/2008 - 27/8/2019 taken too soon, truly loved and sorely missed. He was a
n annoying git but he was our git :D
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by oscarsmate »

P,S. Our vet recommended Lypex tablets to help which do seem to work.

He hasn't had an bout for about a year, i.e. no vomiting except for when he bolts his food. But still has the runs which we use the lypex for,
Oscar 28/12/2008 - 27/8/2019 taken too soon, truly loved and sorely missed. He was a
n annoying git but he was our git :D
Agent
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by Agent »

I'm so sorry to hear about Georgie. Pancreatitis is a devastating disease, as you say. My 8 year old mini has it, and we've had several stays in ITU since she was 2 years old. Lypex is without a doubt the reason she's still alive, so ask your vet to put her on it immediately. Local vets are only just becoming aware of it more recently, the specialist internal medicine vets having been using it for a few years. You will be able to do lots with fine tuning her diet in due course, with any changes done very slowly. Ultra low fat and maybe single protein if you discover that she's developed a sensitivity, plus fibre and probiotics. But for the time being get her on Lypex. It's pancreatic enzymes from pigs I believe....the replacement enzymes that Georgie's pancreas is struggling to produce. When they have an episode of pancreatitis, the pancreas gradually burns itself out so it can no longer produce enzymes. Re: her diet, when the gut becomes so inflamed that it bleeds, it can develop sensitivities/intolerances to the proteins that the dog is being fed, so it's worth bearing in mind that you might need to change protein source in course. My mini cannot tolerate even the hidden oils or flavouring in food of any kind other than fish.
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Coz50
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Re: Severe pancreatitis

Post by Coz50 »

Thank you for all your help and advice, I will definitely speak to my vet about Lypex. At the moment we are on our first day at home and Georgie still has a feeding tube in her neck. She looks pretty skinny and so I'm aware that I not only need to be very careful with her digestion, I also need to feed her up.
However, she's on antibiotics, and an anti sickeness drug and special low fat diet recommended by the vet. It's a low fat wet diet at the moment as the vet says that this is easier to digest. She doesn't seem very keen on it though! Still it is early days and I have also been shown how to tube feed her if I need to. Apparently the problem with resorting to tube feeding can sometimes mean that the dog doesn't ever get really hungry, and she probably needs to be hungry to eat this food!
I'm too scared to do my own food as yet but I will do some research into a low fat home made diet once we've got a few weeks out of the way.
For now I'm just relieved that she's home and hopefully recovering.
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