What is pancreatitis?

Pancreatitis can be defined as a severe intense inflammation of the pancreas. This condition affects both dog cats, but is more commonly seen in dogs, perhaps because of the more pronounced clinical signs.

The pancreas gland is located in the abdomen. It is responsible for producing enzymes that aid in the digestion of food. It also produces essential hormones such as insulin and enzymes inhibitor to stop the pancreas from digesting itself.

What causes is?

Pancreatitis appears when damage occurs to the pancreas for various reasons. This allows digestive enzymes to leak outside the pancreas where they go about doing their job of digestion, but unfortunately this includes the pancreas itself. This in turn causes intense pain and discomfort for the patient, due to extreme inflammation of the pancreas.

Pancreatitis presents itself as either acute or chronic. Acute presents as sudden intense onset and chronic being frequent repeated attacks which range from mild severe.

What are the contributing factors?

1. Hyperlipidemia

Once contributing factor related to unusually high fat levels in the blood, this is known as hyperlipidemia. In the normal healthy animal, a fatty meal temporarily increase fat levels in the blood but is then metabolized and this returns to normal levels. It is thought in some animal, they possess a metabolic problem which inhibits this, and their blood levels remain high. Bouts of pancreatitis in these cases are usually seen after a big or high fat meal.

2. Obesity

Another contributing factor to pancreatitis is obesity, which is a problem all of its own. There seems to be a direct correlation between overweight animals and the incidence of pancreatitis. Dogs fed a predominantly fat rich diet tend to be more predisposed to pancreatitis and that obviously explains their obesity problem. Usually overweight, elderly, couch potato dogs who are fed Sunday BBQ leftovers, which are normally always high in fat seem to be affected. Not to say that nutrition is the only factor but it seems to show a definite correlation in susceptible animals.

3. Trauma

Trauma may also cause an attack of pancreatitis. Whether this is H.B.C., abdominal injury or irritation caused by surgery. We find that any impairment to vascular function of the pancreas can be enough to trigger pancreatitis.

4. Infection

If animal are exposed to infective agents this can also contribute. Bacterial infection contracted through exposure to contaminated food or water may pote.

5. Drug Use

Certain drugs such as glucocorticoids, chemotherapeutic, estrogens or diuretics may potentiate a bout of pancreatitis. Commonly dogs on long term corticosterioud use are affected.

6. Lifestyle

Although not always true, there seems to be higher prevalence of pancreatitis in older aged dogs, who have been desexed and live a sedentary non physical life.

What are the clinical signs?

The most obvious signs associated with the pancreatitis is intense abdominal pain and tenderness. The abdomen will usually also appear quite distended. On palpation, pain is extremely evident and most intense in the cranial right abdomen. The animal may have difficulty walking up straight and they normally take a praying stance (down in the front, standing on the back), to relieve some of the discomfort that they are feeling. Vomiting is very evident and usually occurs several times an hour. Anorexia is present because of the fact they are unable to hold anything down and also because fever and depression are present. Diarrhea is usually evident. Pancreatitis dogs normally display signs of hypotensive shock which is intensified by signs of dehydration. Generally they feel pretty bad.

How is Pancreatitis managed?

If an animal falls into a category of being prone pancreatitis then we need to access any contributing factors that we may be able to correct. Feeding a fat restricted, highly digestible diet which can either be of a homemade or commercially prepared such as Hill’s I/D of Hill’s W/D may be enough in some cases to prevent to reoccurrence. If the animal is obese, the obesity needs to be addressed. Using Hill’s R/D will reduce the animal down to an ideal weight and also reduce fat intake, a precursor to pancreatitis.

High fat foods such as pigs ears, schmakos, liver and other dog treat with preservatives are to be avoided and instead feed Hill’s Prescription Treats. Owner must reduce the amount of food their animal is feed. Not feeding table scraps, BBQ bits and basically normalizing eating patterns is the first step towards prevention. If drugs are a major contributor then reassessment of drug therapies may be indicated.