Archive for January 1, 2004

The surgeon told us yesterday that Zeus’ case of pancreatitus was very severe. What we found out today was that in talking to one of the other doctors, she admitted that it was actually one of the worst she’s ever seen.

Thought this would be of general use to other people out there. Zeus is doing so poorly not because of any bones (although those can be very dangerous for dogs and cats because any fowl/poultry bone that has been cooked is thinner and more brittle than things like bones from pigs and cows, and that thin, brittle nature makes them cause stomach and bowel perforations if the animal doesn’t completely chew them up before swallowing, and since our Zeus is *SUCH* a food hog, he *always* tries to swallow his food as fast as possible with as little chewing as possible when we are handing out treats). Not because of how much food he ate. He’s doing this poorly because he ate a combination of too much food and food with too high of a fat content. Pancreatitus (sp?) happens when a sudden influx of fat hits the small intestines and the pancreas kicks up enzyme production to handle it. If the pancreas gets overloaded, then it kicks the enzyme production up to a super high level, a level so high that it can’t even control it any more. At that point, both the intestines and the blood start to see elevated levels of the digestive enzymes. It can also cause the intestines to sometimes back flow a little fluid out of the intestine up the small tube connecting the intestines to the pancreas. When that happens, you usually have bacteria make it into the pancreas and suddenly you now have to deal with an infection on top of everything else. And all of this is happening with an organ that is *SUPER* sensitive. In dogs, when a doctor knows they are going to be operating even just in the area of the pancreas, they will try to get an ultrasound to find out exactly where the pancreas is so that during their surgery they can make sure and *NOT TOUCH* that thing. Even just a minor touch during surgery can be enough to trigger onset of pancreatitus.

And pancreatitus is not nearly so rare as people think. It’s just that it comes in degrees. You can get pancreatitus that’s so minor that you don’t even really know. As it gets a bit worse, the dog may vomit or have other “tummy” problems but otherwise be acting normal. As it gets a bit worse, they start to get dehydrated and act a little lethargic. This is the point that people might take their animal into the vet, the vet says no food or water for 48 hours to let the pancreas settle down, then slowly add back in mild foods. As it gets worse from here, the diagnosis starts to become much less optimistic and the problem much more life threatening. But, the point of all this, is that dogs get pancreatitus much more often than humans suspect purely from humans doing things like feeding them chunks of fat off of steak or hams or stuff like that. It’s the excessively high fat content that triggers this more than anything. That’s why dog food has a very controlled dietary balance of fat versus other nutrient types. And because it usually isn’t severe, most people don’t think there is anything wrong with feeding their dogs fat like that. Then they go overboard just one time, and that can be the one time that shows them just how wrong they were.

I wrote all this up because I wasn’t aware of a lot of this before this all happened. I knew table food bad, small quantities only. But I didn’t know why, and I didn’t know how those small quantities that seem OK can trick you into thinking “Oh, this big hunk of stuff won’t be bad for them, they’ve ate table scraps all their lives.” But, how many times did those table scraps give them minor illnesses that you thought was just the flu or a cold? How many times have you made them sick and didn’t realize that it was the food you fed them that did it? I know I’ve probably done it many times without knowing the full story. Now I do. I thought others might like to have the benefit of this realization.

Went and saw him this morning. He’s still doing really poorly. The worst part about this morning’s visit was that the doctor let us know that if he doesn’t improve in the next 48 hours, if the drainage from his belly doesn’t slow down and he doesn’t start to ease off on the pain and the blood pressure and heart rate don’t get better and the blood clotting is still not working properly, then we should really consider putting him to sleep at that point. We were told basically that if he isn’t better in 48 hours, he probably won’t get better, and keeping him going after that is just a very slow, agonizing way for him to finally pass as opposed to the much quiter, calmer, and more peaceful passing of putting him down. Not a good conversation to hear. Neither of us took that well. Diversion….need a diversion….