Mild Pancreatitis: Really?

About a month ago, Chili had her blood taken before she had some dental work done. A couple of days later I come home to a message from the vet asking if I could call her to discuss the results. “Aw hell”, was the first thought that came to my mind. I was right. Her blood tests showed that she had mild pancreatitis. The vet explained that I should change her food as soon as possible to a low fat gastro. She recommended MediCal Moderate Calorie Gastro. You know, the stuff that all the vets sell. I was skeptical. I’ve never really thought much of the vet brand foods. No, I’m not a nutritionist nor a professional, but I do know that I should question things. What I do know is, if it doesn’t feel right, it probably isn’t. It didn’t feel right. It was time to do some research.

What I found out, I didn’t like. Pancreatitis comes in two forms, acute or chronic and it can be mild or life-threatening. Great. The vet just said Chili had mild pancreatitis, she didn’t mention anything about acute or chronic. To get it in hand, it seems that the best thing to do is first give the pancreas a rest and fast the dog for at least 48 hours. Chili was not impressed by this. A change in diet is also required. I was not impressed by this. It took me forever to find a brand of dog food that was high quality and Chili liked, and can you believe I just spent $80 on a bag of food not 2 weeks earlier. Figures. The new food should be high quality, low fat (about 10%), low carb, and grain free. Many sites recommend feeding raw. AND the final nail; we had to stop sharing our food with her. None of us were impressed by this. We all enjoyed the ritual of sharing.

Honestly, I don’t really want to believe. I don’t want her to be sick. After throwing my own little tantrum, I face the facts. Not that it was going to go any other way, but I just had to protest a little bit. I gather my food notes, take one long look at that almost full bag of food, shake my head and go directly to the pet store. For something like this, I have to go to a place where I trust, Your Pet Pals. From experience I know they are very knowledgeable and they only sell food that they have thoroughly researched and trust. When I tell them about Chili, everything they said about the food requirements was almost exactly the same as what I had researched. Right away I rule out raw. I’ve never fed her raw before and I really wanted to stay as simple as possible. I wanted to get her on the right diet, then get her blood rechecked in a couple of months, then take it from there.

The girl starts checking out the different foods. All the bags that she looked at said senior and weight management. What? Then she finally settled on one brand; Amicus, Small and Mini Breed Dog Food, Senior and Weight Management. Everything about this was anti-Chili. She’s not small (80lbs), she’s not mini (she’s a truck), she’s not a senior (she’s only 3 ½) and she’s not overweight (she’s very athletic and solid). It didn’t matter. The food met the criteria.

So, there it sits. This little bag of food (it doesn’t come in the large bags because it’s meant for small dogs), next to the large and full bag of Fromm (that still chokes me). Chili seems to be happy enough with it so that’s something at least. I don’t really know if it’s doing anything though since Chili didn’t really have any signs that I could gage it by. Or did she? Every now and again she would throw up, seemingly out of nowhere; or have diarrhea, out of nowhere; when she drinks, she really tanks up; she was very fussy about her food; just around the time when we had her blood taken, she had stopped eating, starting throwing up, and had diarrhea. I don’t know if all of that is relevant, but I do know that some of it is.

Now, we wait. Wait to see if this food change makes a difference and wait to see the next step. I really hope this works or at least is taking us in the right direction. I’m uncomfortable being at the mercy of the vet and their recommendations. I know I can do internet research, but that doesn’t make me a vet. Add to that, I just want my girl to be healthy. She deserves to be healthy. I don’t like the pressure of making these health decisions, what if I make the wrong choice. Obviously this won’t be my last post on this topic. I’ll let you know how it goes when it comes time to get her blood taken again.

Barking & Barfing

Barking. Sometimes I think Chili loves the sound of her own voice. Bark, bark, bark, bark. What was that? Should I bark? I should bark. What do you mean no? I’m pretty sure I should bark. That’s it, I’m barking. Bark, bark, bark, bark. Then she looks back at you all proud of herself.

Luckily she doesn’t bark at everything and it’s more or less confined to inside the house. She doesn’t bark at the doorbell or someone knocking. She just barks at imaginary sounds and things outside. OK, she probably does hear something that we can’t, but it doesn’t make it any less annoying. She has a very big bark for a little girl, an 80lb little girl. She’ll go for a while where she just ignores everything, then it starts up again. She’ll casually walk over to the French doors and stare out the window. It’s quite amusing, especially since we now know her body language. She looks back and forth, searching for whatever. We know when she’s ready to start because her head starts to jerk, her body stiffens and leans forward. She does look quite remarkable. I really have to get a picture of her in her intense stance.

It’s one thing to be barking in the middle of the day. It’s another when it starts in the middle of the night. That really sucks. Imagine yourself, dead asleep, then being woken up as if you were just shocked. Sometimes being kicked in the head as she jumps up to defend against .... whatever. Not a pretty picture. What could make it even better? Add some barfing.
Yes, barfing. It’s been a tough month for the Chill. We noticed that she had a crack in one of her canines. Now, I like to be proactive about these things so we had to get it dealt with right away. Anyway, a few days before she was supposed to go in to have her tooth fixed, she stopped eating, got diarrhea, and started barfing. Now, instead of waking up in the middle of the night to bark, she was waking up to barf. Poor girly.

Somehow we’ve been able to train her to do her best to go outside if she has to barf. She really does try. Sometimes she doesn’t make it all the way, but at least she makes it to the tile. Once she get sick I don’t really sleep, I just go to bed and stay in this half sleep, half awake state. I know the signs. She starts to pant, and lick her lips, then smack her lips. When she’s ready, she jumps up and off she goes. I want to be there for her when she has to go. I think she likes the moral support. She relies on me. She just has to move the right way and I’m half way down the stairs before I’m completely awake. Right by her side.

She did manage to get better before she was put under anaesthesia, only to be sick again from the anaesthesia. Another couple of nights go by where we’re running outside in the middle of the night. Finally she started to feel better. I was looking forward to getting a good night’s sleep. I did, for a day or two. Then she got sick again. I don’t even know why I bothered going to bed. Again, poor girly.

After a tough month, she’s almost back to normal. Almost. We did find out that she has mild pancreatitis which might explain the occasional barfing. As a result, we’ve switched her food and stopped sharing. The last one has been tough on her and us. We’re all used to the sharing ritual but when it comes to her health, we can be strong. It’s not over, but at least she seems to be feeling better.

I’ll take the barking any day or night, it that means she’s well.