Pancreatitis recovery

[Cicadanymph]

Our beautiful JRT girl (13) has been really poorly with pancreatitis. She became Ill overnight Monday and gradually got worse each day. She visited vet every day from Tuesday onwards, given anti sickness shot, painkillers, omeprazole, tummy lining paste, rehydrate solution but eventually ended up on a drip for the day Friday.

That did the trick in perking her up a lot, she’s been given a RC low fat liquid feed and she’s gradually eating tiny amounts of low fat wet food (I found Hi Life wet food with very little fat).

The Hi Life food is not ideal long term as it’s a complementary food rather than complete. She isn’t fussed on dry food, ideally the Hi Life should be given alongside a complete low fat kibble.

Vet have Hills prescription loaf food, he suggested Chappie but she won’t touch either.

She doesn’t like Butternut Box, Lilys kitchen. Fussiest dog ever. She’s lost weight and she wasn’t a big dog to start with - not food oriented at all.

She seems to love the RC liquid feed (it smells like a creamy chicken soup) but it’s £10 a bottle and she’d need more than 1 a day!

Any suggested food would be gratefully appreciated 🙏

My little jrt had it in January. He's 16. He ended up spending 5 days in the vets on a drip.

Tbh I think it was a one off, I tried him on chappie and he refused it. He now eats grain free butchers tripe. The low fat one and we've had no further issues.

I wonder if my DSS had given him a cake or something the day it happened.

We gave our dog (jack russell x Pomeranian) boiled chicken (small amounts several times a day) after he had pancreatitis- he also had bakers meaty chunks. We have more or less kept him to this diet since

Ddog had a cute pancreatitis, ended up with a diabetes diagnosis too. He eats burns white fish and Chappie dry. It's the lowest fat content food I could find. Henhouses
To be on Chappie wet but they changed the formulation that took it over 10% fat.

We started if on hills w/d but the ingredients were worse than Chappie original.

The Hi Life food is essentially shredded chicken / rice etc, it’s very low fat.
she’s just very fussy and would normally be eating Winalot plus bits and pieces of our food (whatever we eat she’d have a few bites of).

I’ve honestly thought of trying to find a low fat cream of chicken soup to drizzle over her food. Am worried to give her anything that will tip her over again though.

She won’t eat fish of any variety apart from tuna with mayonnaise (she seems to love creamy food)

Take your vets advice on food. You don't want another outbreak. One of my dogs had it. He was on hills but you can give chappie. I made sure he ate not tidbits as he was really ill with pancreas issues. He never had another episode whilst on those two foods.

Hi
We have a beautiful miniature schnauzer, and we have to be super extra careful, because this breed are notoriously prone to pancreatitis. For three years, Dottie has been on Burns Original Fish and Brown Rice kibble. We were recommended by Burns helpline to put her one one protein only - and they recommended fish. They did this with the risk of pancreatitis in mind. Dottie’s “treats” are raw vegetables, dried sprats, fish skin crunchies and the occasional half a Bonio. In these three years, she has not had as much as an upset tummy, and her diet is very low fat. Her health is superb and I cannot recommend this food highly enough. She also loves it.
I hope this is helpful.

Interested in this as I think I've caused it in my dog. She's 10 and in heart failure. The only thing that gets her to take her tablets has been mackerel in tomato sauce. So she's been having a little before her food to get her to take the tablets. She's on them 3x daily so been having a little each time.
Today she's been very quiet, vomiting bile and won't eat.
Just been googling her symptoms now as she's pottering round the garden. She's no tenderness in her abdomen though.
Does it always need a stay? She hates being away from us.
Keeping a close eye on her tonight and will be calling our vet first thing.

@SnoreSnoreSnore How is she today.

One of my boys got pancreatitis as a result of meds he was on. Acute pancreatitis is usually pretty obvious. As well as vomiting and refusing to eat, one of the main markers is the dog going into ‘prayer position’ stretching downwards, rear end raised, to try and relieve the pain and they will look very poorly and sorry for themselves.

We were told mild cases can be treated on an outpatient basis if better for the dog, but moderate/severe really need inpatient treatments with drips for pain relief and nutrition, which is what our boy had. He was in for just over a week. He had separation anxiety and had preciously injured himself trying to escape the vets, so they kept him sedated and he got through it ok.

Not much fun for him or us, but we had to give his meds by physically putting them down his throat after the pancreatitis. No choice, as he had another life threatening illness that he needed a complex med regime to manage.

If she’s still not right today, I would book any appointment with your vet. Fingers crossed it’s just an upset stomach or bug, rather than pancreatitis.

Thank you. She's a little brighter today. She's still spending most of her time on her bed but managed a wander round the garden for a while and has drank a little water. She's sniffed at her food bowl but not bothered with any of the boiled chicken I've put down. She did lick a bit off my hands before. Will be calling the vet this afternoon for an appointment.
Thanks for your reply.

When my cocker spaniel had pancreatitis several years ago I switched to raw feeding afterwards. He has the lower fat meats and he’s not had a single bout since. I know it’s not for everyone but it’s made a huge difference to him.

Our JRT had it a few years ago. We check the ingredients on any food or treats and make sure its less than 10% fat as per the vet's instructions. She has Caesar or Butcher's trays and hasn't had any recurrence thank goodness.

She's had bloods done and as well as being in heart failure she's now in kidney failure. I'm broken.

@SnoreSnoreSnore I am so sorry. It’s so hard when they get older, but she has you and knows she is loved and you will do whatever is best for her. Sending unmnetty hugs and a handhold.