I'm sitting on our couch with our little Maltese Cross , Hamish, next to me. Two months ago he came down with Acute Pancreatitis. On reflection, we reckon he had chronic Pancreatitis on and off for years. The stress of losing his Cocker brother a couple of months ago pushed him over the edge into Acute.
He was passing black tarry stools (Malena) so had blood in his stomache. Ultrasound showed enlarged pancreas and lymph nodes but no masses. Blood tests showed very high lipids (I think lol) He was put on pain killers, stomach settling meds and anti biotics. My wife is an Emergency Nurse and the vet knew us well, so we got him home with a mobile drip for us to look after him! Our living room looked like a hospital room. He also had a Fentanyl patch for pain relief! He hardly are a bite for days.
Then he did. A tiny bit. Then a little bit more. Little and often...the tarry stools dried up. Then they got watery and bright red! The vet said this was ok as long as he wasn't vomiting...then they dried up too. Then he ate a bit more and pooed a bit better.
Two months later he's still on meds, but off them soon hopefully. Really low fat diet and low fat treats ( shark cartilage.) And he's here sitting next to me, looking fine, behaving fine, back to his old self. We probably need to keep him on the low fat diet for life, but other than that he's definitely out of the woods and should be fine.
Prompt treatment, be prepared for it to get worse before it gets better and change to a special diet for a while or life are my advice. Pancreatitis is serious, but they can recover from it OK.
Oh, and Hamish says Hi!
