pancreatitis question

[Hugo]

well my little magic (5 lbs toy poodle) has had pancreatitis and been at the vet since wed. we brought him home yesterday after the vet said he was doing much better. he spent wed, thurs, fri night at the vets on iv fluids and antibiotics. when we picked him up yesterday he was feeling very good, frisky glad to be home. we thought we had our boy back. but after we fed him yesterday evening (science diet i/d canned) he became very lethargic and tired. he didnt want to play and we actually had to go touch him to see if he was awake. again the same thing this a.m. of course i will be contacting the vet in the morning, but my question is-prior to a bout of pancreatitis, is this a normal thing? could he just be exhausted from his time at the vet and still not at 100% better? or is the pancreatitis coming back? was it ever really better? any insight on how dogs should act after pancreatitis would be appreciated. like i said i am calling the vet again in the a.m when they come in, but i am curious if this is a normal reaction. i know when i have "been sick" it takes a few days for me to get back to normal. thanks~

[sammy]

that's scary. I'm no help- sorry. I hope he's ok and is just tired from the ordeal. let us know what the vet had to say.

[calgal]

My personal opinion is Science Diet is one of the worst pet foods ever! I'd put that little thing on rice & ground meat. Vets. are being paid from the dog food company to sell certain products and I've never been to any Vet. office that I didn't see science diet. Vets. are in no way experts on nutrition. Their training comes from what ever the pet food company tells them, so you know how that goes! Here is some horrible information on what goes into animal food and who regulates the pet food industry.

http://drjackie.freeservers.com/arti...ven_a_dog.html

http://www.nexusmagazine.com//Petfood.html

http://www.homevet.com/petcare/foodbook.html

http://www.belfield.com/article3.html

http://home.att.net/~wdcusick/03.html

[Raised By Wolves]

My vet diagnosed my old lab years ago, with what he called "a borderline pancreas problem", whatever that's supposed to mean! He recommended no basted or fatty raw bones and a low fat diet.

This is just "hearsay" advice my vet gave me. I'm not that familiar with this condition.

I would ask you vet for some literature and further explaination on the condition and also do a random word search on the internet by typing in something like "canine pancreatitus" or "canine pancreatitus diet".

[Hugo]

calgal, i wholeheartedly agree on the science diet thing and normally would never consider feeding science diet under normal circumstances. BUT since this is the food they fed him fri and sat and is prescription for pancreatitis attacks. it is supposedly a bland low fat food for dogs recovering from pancreatitis. i bought 3 cans so that i could watch his progress and recooperation from this bout of pan. and will switch him to a higher quality low fat dry kibble or a home cooked diet once i know his system can handle it. but was is this a normal behaviour that others have experienced prior to pancreatitis?. i feed raw and home cooked to my other dogs and he was even eating this way-but obviously something happened that he couldnt tolerate the diet i already had him on (lean meat, rice, oats, supplements, etc). i too have read all the horrid things in dog food such as our own beloeved euthanized dogs. this is why i made the switch to raw/home cooked. thanks again for all the input!

[Kymcole25]

Jagger has had several cases of pancreatitis, and has gone through the same exact thing. We feed him what we call "White Stuff" it is a mixture of several different ingredients, and helps him to get his energey back, and also add weight. I can get you the recipe if your interested.

[Crossfire Bulldogs]

In this type of situation I truly believe that Science Diet ID is about the very best thing you could be feeding, while it does contain corn meal its more about digestibility at this point and personally I'd feed this before I'd go with ground beef and rice. jmo

Has your vet been able to determine a cause for the bout? I'm not a vet but it was always my understanding that this type of GI disorder is usually the effect of another cause. Many dogs going through and recovering from pancreatitis have bouts of depression severe enough to look as if their lathargic but any time a dog appears lathargic it should be immediatly be seen by a veterinarian in my own opinion. Hopefully by now you've spoken to your vet.

Getting that energy level back up is an important part of getting well but as for what to feed to increase that along with any weight lost at this point would also be something I'd leave in the veterinarian's hands. Best wishes and lots of hugs to Magic!

[CTDog]

I don't know about other vets but the one I work for does not get paid to carry science diet by the company. He gets a deeper discount than pet supply stores but that is all.

After my little schnauzer had a bout of pancreatitis, I had to introduce food very slowly. When I first brought her home, I wasn't allowed to feed her for another day or two. I had the option of ID or cooked white rice and boiled chicken (all the fat washed off). I went for the rice and chicken mixture just because I thought she might enjoy it better. We started slow and built her up. I don't recall her getting ill on the chicken/rice mixture. Definitely call your vet in the morning if she doesn't perk up.
Is she at least able to hold the food down?

[Hugo]

no they havent determined the cause of the pancreatitis. he thinks it was probably brought on by a fatty food (i disagree because i am very careful about this with the 3 poodles). unless a treat such as a rawhide stick could have caused it. i have also read that some types of chemicals can trigger pancreatitis. i did mist their bedding with fabreze the night before this happened. i have racked my brain trying to come up with a cause for this.

he is keeping down the food very well, no problems with this. and seems to be very hungry, eating it very quickly. i resisted giving him more (to eat) than i think he needs, thinking the less-is-more approach for his system right now. keep in mind that he did go without food for a period of 3 days at the vets during this whole ordeal. i am confident the vet released him with knowing he was ok. i am just concerned about him being "tired" acting. i just fed him his evening meal so we will see how he does this feeding.