Pancreatitis what symptoms do dogs and cats have?
Dogs and cats can develop inflammation of the pancreas due to a still unknown cause. This is called pancreatitis and the complaints of dogs and cats can vary greatly in severity. Complaints range from being vague and uncomfortable to death from complications. <
The functioning of the pancreas (pancreatic) has been discussed in
Pancreas (Pancreas) what is that organ?. In this blog, I will discuss the symptoms that dogs and cats may show as a result of mild to severe pancreatitis. Unfortunately, many symptoms are quite common and therefore owners are often less likely to associate them with pancreatitis.
Symptoms in dogs with pancreatitis,
The symptoms of a dog with pancreatitis:
- Loss of appetite
- Buckling
- Diarrhoea
- Tummy pain, sometimes dogs bend over more to reduce this
- Fluffiness
- Fever
- Dehydration
- Very serious other symptoms such as cardiac arrhythmias, respiratory problems or shock
The symptoms of cats with pancreatitis
Unfortunately or fortunately, symptoms in cats are often much more vague than in dogs. This makes inflammation of the pancreas in cats often much more difficult to recognise.
What symptoms cats with pancreatitis have:
- Lethargy, sometimes even as the only symptom
- Loss of appetite
- Diarrhoea
- abdominal pain
Diagnosis pancreatitis
Diagnosing pancreatitis is often a somewhat longer process because symptoms such as those described above are quite common. This is why more common causes of abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea are often assumed initially. If the symptoms are very severe, persistent or recurrent, then of course further investigation is done. Often, after an extensive history (questions about the dog or cat to the owner) and a physical examination, the vet will decide to perform a blood test to determine pancreatic enzymes such as lipase, among other things. If abnormal values are indeed found, this may be a reason to visualise the pancreas by ultrasound. If the ultrasound of the abdomen indeed shows abnormalities, veterinarians can also take a biopsy to determine exactly what the abnormalities are. They can then determine whether the abnormality is inflammation or caused by a tumour.
Hoppa a little treatment and gone is the pancreatitis....
Unfortunately, that's not how it works with inflammation of the pancreas. The body will have to heal itself but symptomatic treatment is obviously needed so that the body can do the rest. You can think of pain control through opiates, infusions to replenish fluids, drugs against nausea and when the animal does not vomit, force-feeding is often necessary to get it to eat. Fortunately, all these measures are not necessary for all pancreatic inflammations because chronic pancreatitis, for example, is much milder. Then a food with low fats is often sufficient, which will make the dog feel better quickly.
Complications of pancreatitis such as exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI).
When inflammation is very acute and severe, it can unfortunately happen that a dog or cat may still die with the best symptomatic care. Fortunately, this is not the case in all animals as there are also very many that simply recover, sometimes even without damage or other symptoms.
EPI: exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, too little or no digestive juices.
When there is subtle chronic recurrent inflammation, it is very possible that damage occurs in the pancreas. If this is more in the endocrine part, an animal may develop diabetes. If the damage in the exocrine part becomes too great then the animal may develop exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI). In EPI, the damage to the pancreas is so great that no digestive enzymes can be produced, or far too few. This results in a large amount of faeces, as too little is digested, causing too many unabsorbed nutrients to leave the body again. It is also noticeable that the faeces have taken on a completely different colour, it is grey with the colour of putty. Since the eaten food thus leaves the body virtually undigested, the dog or cat has too little usable nutrients and energy so that they emaciate greatly despite appetite. Unsurprisingly, these animals are constantly hungry and will therefore eat everything they come across. In doing so, they also eat things (pica) that are actually inedible.
Dogs and cats that have EPI will have to be helped to digest their food properly again. These are therefore animals, often dogs, that start adding pancreatic enzymes under the supervision of the vet to help them digest the easily digestible low-fat food properly. In these animals, a quantity of pancreatic powder such as Zymoral is added through all the food given. In these animals, it is necessary to add the pancreatic enzyme powder through all the food offered and hence all snacks for proper digestion. When pellets are fed, it is highly recommended to moisten them slightly so that the powder sticks to them properly.
-This is an automated translation- |
