Canine Pancreatitis

B., so sorry to hear that your pooch isn't doing well. Health issues like this can really drain the energy & desires from our dogs, more so than we would expect.

Next steps from here really depend on your dog individually. 11 years is a good long life, but some dogs can go another 4-5 years, others might pass away naturally within just 1 year. Only you know how healthy and responsive she is outside of this incident.

I will say, hospitalization away from home & family can be detrimental to a dog's mental well-being, and I wouldn't recommend it unless necessary. IV nutrition should not be necessary if she has her appetite back, unless there is a greater underlying issue, in which case, you are facing an immediate decision of "proactive" vs. "palliative" care.

The most important question to ask yourselves is "if the diagnosis after testing is X, what will we be willing to do to treat Pooch?". If ultrasounds show that your dog has a tumor, would you be willing to do surgery? Would it depend on whether it was benign or malignant? Or would palliative care be the most you want to do (esp. if your dog has compromising health issues)?

We have an older girl (13) who we thought we were going to lose more than once, but she managed to bounce back from infections. However, she has a compromised system, & we will not do surgeries or other heroic measures, because we don't want her to go suffering & succumbing to the effects of invasive treatments.

Best of luck, I hope she just needs a few more days to "feel like herself", & hopefully the new diet & probiotics will help. T.

A lot of vets will make you feel bad about not aggressively treating your pet's medical conditions. Seriously I lean toward doing the lest needed that will keep my pets home where they are the most comfortable. They are always so upset by trips to the vet's office that I can't imagine having to take them over and over again for anything. The added stress would probably make them even worse off.

I'm with you on leaning toward the second course of action.

There is a pretty definitive test for pancreatitis, it is called the spec cPL. If your vet didn't run that one you might ask for it.

If your dog seems to be on the rebound and is eating again I think I'd avoid hospitalization. (And I assume your vet mentioned this, but if she has pancreatitis she'll need a very low fat food, at least for a while. Maybe permanently.)

There is a good yahoo discussion group about canine pancreatitis, if you're interested. The members have an incredible amount of experience: ____@____.com

Best of luck with your girl, I hope she's feeling better soon.

We had pancreatitis in one of our cats. I suggest that you have a clear end point, be it health or finances. We could have bought a small car for what we spent trying to fix our cat. Some animals do recover, and some do not. When our more recent cat got sick, we got the diagnosis and did not go whole hog because we felt it was more harm than good. I would decide what point was either more harm than good/poor quality of life (even humans with cancer need to determine this) and my financial limit and work between those points. With our last cat, we had the fluid drained, had an xray, had him on oxygen for a day, and took him home vs putting him in the kitty ER. We spoiled him til he was no longer comfortable and let him go.

I really wish you the best. I would discuss the likely culprits (lyme disease is different than cancer, for example) and what would make the most sense to try.

We had a similar circumstance with our 11 year old, mixed breed, 95 lb. dog. He ended up living 1 more month even with all our efforts. He started holding fluid, was holding fluid in his lungs etc. It is very hard to know what to do. I would keep her as comfortable as possible and see where this goes. If she is eating that's a huge hurdle. It's understandable that she is "spent". This is very hard on an old body...even a young body for that matter. Give her time to bounce back. Keep her comfortable and go from there. I'm sorry. It's a difficult time. Wishing you all the best!

I can only tell you what we did in a similar (but not exactly the same) situation. (I actually posted about it on here at the time, nearly 5 years ago?)
Our GSD had had a high fever, and been put on antibiotics and something to bring down the fever (I think rimadyl... I know she was given rimadyl, just can't recall the sequence of events exactly at this point). She began pacing the house all night, vomiting, and began having seizures.

Vet said we could send her for an expensive MRI ($2,000) to see if it was a brain tumor, try anti-seizure meds (pheno pills) or put her down. We asked what happened (on the non-existent chance we would opt for the MRI) if they found a tumor. What was the treatment? Nothing. GReat! Waste of $2,000. Right?

Old school vet gave us some phenobarb for her and we took her home. She continued to seize for days. Was blind (I have no doubt). Stopped eating (ever though we were hand feeding her at that point, with rotisserie chicken from the deli) and keeping her hydrated with a syringe.

After the weekend, she slowly seemed to be coming out of it. Her balance was off terribly, and she was blind in one eye. But she could sit up and walk a few steps, very unbalanced. (She couldn't even stand to pee before).

By the next day, she had begun eating more, and was up a little more, walking a little more energetically, aware and alert, but still unbalanced and weak. Then we had out of town company arrive. And she began seizing again.

Took her to a different vet. The gave me a cost estimate for their proposed treatment plan (neighborhood of $600 or something) to hospitalize her, run a bunch of tests, IV fluid and nutrition, meds to stop the seizures, etc. To this day it has never been determined if she sustained some sort of traumatic injury to her head, or if she had low thyroid that brought about seizures causing her to hit her head (without us seeing it happen). There was even speculation that she had a deep ear infection (with shepherds, the structure of their ear canal makes it impossible to visually inspect this without a special instrument that requires anesthesia to use it safely), that caused the fever, and the cascade of following symptoms. Once she was stabilized fully, they did perform this and didn't find any infection. By then, it had been over a week since her initial fever/symptoms began, though. So I don't know if they would have seen evidence of an infection that was cleared up and gone, or not.

Anyway, they got the seizures stopped with diazepam, got her hydrated and on the road to recovery with IVs, antibiotics, steroids, etc. We left her at the vet on Friday morning, and brought her back home about 4 days later. Since that time she has taken anti-seizure preventative meds (pheno) and thyroid medication daily.
We have had NO more problems whatsoever. Best $700 (in total between both vets for that series of treatment/events) we ever spent. She's 11 now (birthday this month) and still brings me toys to play with like a puppy. Getting a tiny bit arthritic, but I will NOT give her rimadyl ever again. I strongly suspect that it contributed to her decline in the early stages of her illness.
I do give her glucosamine and chondroitin supplements, and she is happy.

She did go lame on one leg a couple of years ago. Took her in, and they found nothing, chalked it up to arthritis. Then a month or two later (routine exam with blood work) discovered erlichiosis enzymes or whatever. Gave her the appropriate antibiotics for that, and she was back to excellent health in under 36 hours! (If it is the correct diagnosis, it is easy to treat and there are almost immediate results after treatment, if done in time).

Long story short (too late!) It depends on how well you trust the vet, what you can afford, and how much longevity you expect your furry friend to have left with or without treatment. Our GSD was only 6 years old. Half or less of her expected lifespan really. At 11 years old, if it had happened now, I don't know if we would have gone to the same lengths.

Maybe ask for a 2nd opinion at another vet. Is your vet a younger one, used to treating today's pets as family members, or an old school one who views them as yard animals? That makes a difference in what they recommend, seems to me.
---
Oh! And during her recovery at the vet, she regained her eyesight. Apparently there can be a temporary vision loss after seizures. She sees fine now, except a bit of cataract in one eye. :/

the latter, for sure.
so glad to hear she's doing better!
khairete
S.

We don't make decisions based on $$ alone. I believe pets do better with home care in their normal environment if possible.

If there is any possibility of in home treatment ( even if you report to vet daily) I believe home treatment is best.

We had a Cocker who had spine surgery and required hospitalization. He cried and moaned all day and night. Finally, they called me in because although he acted as though he was in major pain, according to diagnostics, he should not be acting like he was. I got there and he quieted down.

Long story short, they sent Him home with me to nurse back to health and have daily chats with the vet. This dog just didn't do well at the hospital. He had never been in a crate or hospital so it worked better for home care.

He was the most serious if any of our pets. The poodle had eye surgery in 2013 and it involved much home care with daily eye drops fir a year post surgery. He has a bionic eye now!!

I hope your pet does well with treatment at home. It's just much more comfortable for them to be at home if at all possible.

Good luck!