Pancreatitis Diagnosis.

[ziglu]

Our 11 year old Orange Roan Lulu has just been diagnosed with Pancreatitis, we have just brought her home from an overnight stay with the vets having been on a drip and the usual blood tests. My question is could this have been coming on over a period of time or the result of eating something she should not have had the day before. The reason I ask is the day prior to her taking ill on one of her walks, she disappeared into a hedge and took ages to come back out, we have since found various bird food stuffs that people have put out for the birds including fat balls, and I am wondering if this could have brought it on. Also the vet gave us (charged us) for a few tins of Hills prescription food when I asked if Lulu should stay on this forever she was a bit evasive. So my next question is do dogs ever recover so they can get back to reasonably priced food...........Thanks   

[LucyJ]

My old dog Cooper had pancreatitis - he only had a few flare ups thankfully but it was horrible to see him going through it.

My understanding is that it could definitely have been triggered by eating something high fat - I think this a fat ball found on a walk is what caused Cooper's first attack too.  I had to be super vigilant about what he was eating after that which was especially hard as he was a scavenger.

He ended up eating a mixture of dried and tinned Chappie - so not the cheapest but not as expensive as vet prescription food.  This is from memory but I think the key is a low fat food - the pancreas helps with the digestion of fat so you are trying to avoid overloading it.

Also be really careful with treats as these need to be low fat too.

Hope Lulu is OK!

[Archie bean]

Yes - definitely can be triggered by eating something high fat. My last boy Dickon stole a chocolate Santa from my nieces stocking which resulted in his first bout of it. Although many dogs just have it once, recover and remain totally fine, unfortunately he went in to develop chronic pancreatitis and had regular flare ups. I had to monitor everything  he ate like a hawk. Nothing over 4% fat was allowed. After about a year of trying various things we eventually tried Royal Canin low fat Gastro-intestinal diet. It worked absolute miracles. He stayed on it for the rest of his life.

[Robbie34]

Henry suffered with pancreatitis mainly due to a high fat diet.  I changed his food to a low fat source.
Check the details of your dog's food to make sure that the fat content is low.

[ejp]

I would definitely be suspicious of the fat balls, and once you get things settled it is possible to keep to a low fat diet as long as you carefully check everything.  I hope he gets back to normal soon and you can get a routine sorted.