As most of you know, Piper sent some time at the emergency vets just over 2 months ago. It started with a severe ear infection, then she showed signs of bloat (trapped gas in her abdomen, swelling, hardness and excessive vomiting, etc). After 3 days of being in and out of the vets and some overnight stays the Vets Now vet suggested testing for pancreatitis and did a snap test as it came back positive. With supportive care Piper improved and when we did a full pancreas test a few weeks later, her levels were normal and she remained on the low fat diet.
Last weekend, Piper started with her abdomen swelling again and was hard to touch and in very obvious pain. I assumed it was the start of pancreatitis and got her to the emergency vets within 2 hours of the start of the symptoms. The vet agreed that it seemed like the same as last time and did a blood test which showed fatty cells. Piper came home with pain relief, zitac and instructions to go straight to my vets on the Monday for the full pancreas test again. Well, that test has come back completely fine, so my normal vet is saying that Piper doesn't have pancreatitis and he now feels that the test previously was a false positive.
The next step is for Piper to have xrays and scans to search for tumours, so she is booked in for Tuesday morning. Otherwise its possible that she is just having bloat incidents, so my vet said that if everything is clear he wants me to consider a referral to a specialist for her to discuss stitching her tummy to the abdomen wall to avoid any future torsions if she does bloat again.
Does anyone else have a dog that has had similar experiences? Piper is definitely still in pain and its noticeable when her metacam is slightly late.