Pancreatitis

[MontanaRott]

My pug Whitney has had pancreatitis once in awhile for a few years now. We are careful with her diet and now and again she will have a bout. I noticed late yesterday afternoon she was showing signs of it and got her on the pink stuff right away, but as the evening went on she was not getting better and by 3 am I knew we would be making a trip to the vets. So this am we packed her up and off we went. They did a full blood panel on her and her panreatic enzymes were not elevated, but the doc said that could be because I caught it so early. But 3 white blood cell counts were elevated so she is on Clavamax(sp) for 7 days.
She is in a fair amount of pain and not very happy and I am wondering beyond boiled burger and rice for a while, what are some other things you do for the symptoms?
I cannot for the life of me figure out what set her off this time, no fatty food anywhere near her!
She is running a low grade fever and not vomiting and no loose bowels but very uncomfortable and shivery. The vet was sort of stumped as to what else could be going on but nothing showed up in the blood work so he said go with the antibiotics and watch her and let him know if anything changes. So any suggestions as to things any of you have done to make them more comfortable?
Thanks.

[Rott-Wiley]

From what I remember, low fat is the key in the diet. Did you vet talk about putting her on any enzymes? That may be worth looking into.

[poohbearsmom]

Originally Posted by Rott-Wiley

From what I remember, low fat is the key in the diet. Did you vet talk about putting her on any enzymes? That may be worth looking into.

If low fat is the key, I'd think chicken and rice might be better than burger and rice... just a thought.

[MontanaRott]

The vet has me boil the burger and rinse it well before we mix it with the rice. She eats that better then boiled chicken. RW that is a great suggestion to use enzymes, I am going to mention that to our vet when we do a follow up on Monday. I watch this girls diet like a hawk, for fat. I obsess to be honest and it is my obsession that has caught bouts of this nasty stuff in the past before her enzymes levels elevated. I know this dog better then I know myself and can sense the tiniest change in her. I have taken her in to the vet before and told them she had a fever just by the feel of her body, the techs would say no she does not have a fever, take her temp and find out she most certainly did have a fever.
I just do not know what has caused this bout but I am looking at everything and checking the yard to see if something is out there, that she may have gotten into. She has gone 3 years with out a bout of pancretitis and I would love for this to be the last!
Thanks pooh and RW.
She also had a swollen lymph node on her neck, but he seemed to think that was related to her allergies, any thoughts?

[Rott-Wiley]

In some cases lymph nodes enlarge when allergies are active and sometimes they enlarge for no reason. Hard to say? ? ?

[MontanaRott]

Originally Posted by Rott-Wiley

In some cases lymph nodes enlarge when allergies are active and sometimes they enlarge for no reason. Hard to say? ? ?

Oh well, so it is one of those things we may never know, but at least her blood work looked good, so thats something! I need some young dogs, all these geriatrics are hard on the heart.

[Dianae]

Sorry to hear your girl isn't well. I can't offer any advice on this. My Vet did tell me that some dogs can't tolerate chicken or lamb or beef. My girls are in that category...

[HerculesMomma]

MontanaRott, I was feeding Hercules the boiled rinsed beef and rice when he had his parasite too. It put a lot of weight on him quickly acutally - about 10 pounds over a months period of time. I tried the chicken and rice formula, but he would just pick out the bits of chicken which weren't many actually because it's hard to cut up. Afterwards at the grocery store I noticed they had ground turkey and I wish I would have tried that. If you're dog is sensitive to fat, maybe that would be a good alternative? Just a thought.