8yo cocker spaniel with pancreatitis :(

[SESthebrave]

Our wonderful Lucy has been sick and off her food. Blood tests have come back suggesting pancreatitis and she looks jaundiced as the whites of her eyes are tinged yellow. She is to have an ultrasound tomorrow afternoon to confirm the diagnosis and see how advanced it is.

I am sure this is not good though. Our other cocker spaniel (Jessie) had the same, aged 8, nearly 4 years ago and had to be put down.

Lucy doesn't seem as poorly as Jessie did, is getting up to us and wagging her tail but DH is already preparing for the worst and doesn't want her to suffer. He is the "dog lover" and so I will be guided by him. I was actually scared of dogs until I met DH and had to learn to live with Jessie as DH already had her. We then got Lucy together as a puppy when we moved in together as company for Jessie. How could I not love that 9wk old bundle! After Jessie died we got another (Megan) as company for Lucy.

I guess the reason for posting is 2-fold.
Firstly to ask if anyone else has experience of their fog suffering from pancreatitis and what the outcome was?
Secondly, just as a place to be able to voice what's happening as I need to be able to support DH in real life.

We have really positive results with hospitalise immediately putting on intravenous fluids with pain relief and antibiotics. Once recovered enough to leave clinic going home on a low fat diet to prevent recurrences. Most lapses happen when owners think it is okay to just give a high fat treat.

Thank you for your reply. I guess we'll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

DH is reluctant to allow treatment following what happened with Jessie as he thinks the prognosis is so poor. I'll encourage him to listen to the vet.

I've had one with pancreatitis - and have a number of friends whose dogs have it too.

With careful management, it is possible for a dog to continue for years without significant problems. Maintaining a low fat diet is imperative but that's not too hard or expensive tbh. There is quite a lot of information on pancreatitis here which may be helpful.

Thank you - that is very useful. I will forward the link to DH.

Feeling quite sad this morning. DH is determined that he doesn't want to drag out her illness and doesn't have much hope. He had a little cry last night and just seems to be preparing for the worst. I don't feel ready for h to make that decision :(

Sorry to hear your dog is unwell. ultrasound is not a very good technique for saying how severe pancreatitis is, I suspect they want to have a look at her liver if she is jaundiced and make sure there are no masses etc. You can see if the pancreas is "brighter" than usual on the image (inflamed) but that doesn't correlate well with prognosis. You said blood tests were suggestive of pancreatitis which I assume means raised lipase and amylase? There is now a specific blood test for canine pancreatitis (CPLI) which is quantitative and can be used for monitoring.
I'd agree with lonecat that many dogs respond really well to supportive care (fluids, antiemetics, pain relief, antibiotics) during an acute episode and then a low fat diet long term. I would only consider euthanasia if there was no response to treatment after a few days hospitalisation. My own dog was diagnosed 2 yrs ago and has not had another episode.
I hope you get some more positive feedback today, but I'd encourage you not to make any hasty decisions.

Our flat coat had pancreatitis and survived with a special diet for two years but unfortunately died young of a heart tumor (unrelated) so whilst it's not great it is treatable.

I had a thread about it at the time. I'm on my phone but you may be able to find it with search. My username was the same.

Thank you for replying.

It's encouraging to hear positive stories. I'm worried DH is just going to make a rash decision based on what he went through previously with Jessie. I will try and phone him and talk to him about it.

Ok so scrap the thread title - DH now says it's not pancreatitis but hepatitis. He mis-heard the other day as he doesn't understand all the terminology!
I've been so worried all day!

The ultrasound didn't show any obvious tumours on the liver but apparently it looks lighter in colour than it should. Can they tell that from an ultrasound? They've given her antibiotics and a tablet for her liver and we wait and see.

Glad it's not pancreatitis. Don't know anything about hepatitis but it sounds promising so hope he's ok.

She sorry

Infectious hepatitis is one of the illness that dog vaccinations prevent. Has she had all her jabs?

It sounds more likely to be the infectious one than the chronic if they've prescribed abs. Do you know which it is?

Ultrasound images show changes in density of an organ, so "lighter" or "brighter" on the screen actually means more echo dense and usually corresponds to inflamed.
"Hepatitis" just means inflammation of the liver, and can be caused by many things including but by no means limited to the virus included in the standard dog vaccinations. Antibiotics would be a pretty standard part of a treatment plan.
I hope Lucy improves soon.

Yes - she's up to date with all her vaccinations. The vet said to give the meds time to take effect and go back in a week to 10 days for review (unless she gets worse in the meantime obviously). She's still not really eating anything.