It has been suggested that Badger MAY now have a pancreas defficiency problem :-(

Has anyone got any experience with this?

Can anyone tell me the symptoms?

How best to deal with it?

Please, we need your help .

Oh dear Leigh, I hope he gets well soon.
I can only coment on dogs that I board. To my knowledge, I have boarded 3 dogs with pancreatic deficiencies. Strangely enough 2 of them were GSD's, the other a crossbreed. All dogs were fairly light in weight, had regular upset tummies with the runs. They could only tolerate a bland diet and when having a "bout" of it could be quite off and depressed. All 3 dogs had "Panazym" powder on their meals. Thats all I think, hope it helps.
Dawn.

Dawn, thank you for your prompt reply. Much appreciated :-)

Hi Leigh, A friends dog had a pancreas def. a few years ago, and it took a long time to diagnose. As far as I can remember, the symptoms were, intermitent bad stomach upsets, sometimes with vomiting, sometimes not. A reluctance to eat at times, and quite severe weight lose.

Leigh, just looked in my book for you ,it says......there are two major disorders of the pancreas...Acute pancreatitis, causes can be fatty food,obesity,infection, disturbances of immunity. During an attack dogs show a high body tempreture, vomiting and diarrhoea, which is often blood stained. The dog may adopt a praying postion to relieve the pain, but the front legs and head lowered to lie along the ground. During an attack nothing should be given bymouth because the stimulus of substances in the digestive tract only intensifies the signs, all drugs and fluid should be injectedThe other one is....Exocrine pancreatic insufficientcy..very common in GSDS. This arises when 90% or more of the cells which prodice the pancreatic enzymes in the glamd have been destroyed, or have disappeared.This condition, (of idiopathic or juvenile atrophy) is common in young dogs, usually under a yer old. Signs poor weight gain, or lose of weight. May indulge in coprophagia, and they produce large volumes of faeces, having a cowpat consistency. Coat usually goes dry. Condition can be confirmed with blood tests.Enzyme preparations will be needed for the rest of the dogs life

Leigh, I typed in...Pancreatic Dog Illness on Google and it get me quite a lot to look at, hope this all helps a bit.

Phil, many thanx for the info and your quick reply. I have been running searchs and you are right .....there's loads of stuff :-)

A friend's dog had this and had to be kept on a very restricted diet. She fed him on Chappie, which is extremely low fat and he did very well on it. I'll check on the symptoms when I see her sister tomorrow.

(((Hugs)))
Joan
Take the rough with the smooth

Thank you Joan, that would be great.

We did try Badger on Chappie when this first blew up, but it just poured out of him :-(
I thought that was a bad sign at the time. If something like Chappie has that effect, where do you go from there!

I've spoken to my friend, her sister's dog's symptoms were: - looked extremely down and poorly, a great deal of pain, so was very tucked up and hunched, a lot of sickness, sometimes with diarrhoea, loss of appetite and very sorry for himself. I wouldn't know what to suggest if chappie didn't help as it is about the lowest fat there is.

How are your other invalids?

Joan
take the rough with the smooth

Joan, thank you for checking for me :-)

Bear is much improved today but Badger isn't to good at all. Just waiting for the first bloodtest results to come back now.

A friends Flatcoat had Pancreas Defficiency. She brought her to me the Christmas before last, really so that I could see her one last time to say goodbye. This Christmas she brought her again and Sky chased "The Flower" around the garden!

Never give up Leigh, we are all rooting for you both.

Love, John

Petit pois .. when we have this confirmed we will deal with it .. :-)
It is treatable .. Badge or the *widge* .. will be ok .. :-) .. get that jumper on him .. LOL .. Ok .. so his menu is a bit bland .. he will live with it. See you later Paul xxxx

The two GSD's I mentioned on the other thread - fed on Chappie - both thin - both lived to 15. All the best Jackie H

Jackie & John, thank you for your support, it is appreciated :-)

Treacle,

caught up with a different vet at 8.30 this morning.When we got there, the veterinary nurse informed me that I had to stand outside in the rain with my dog, because he could be *contagious*! I'm afraid I wasn't very polite and pointed out the error of her ways.
As for the vet, I didn't leave him in any doubt as to my feelings, but at least he sat up and took notice this time. I know I promised to be *tactful*, but by that time I finally got to see him, I wasn't in any mood to stroke his ego, so just told him exactly what we thought. He *felt* we might have a point !!!! He got his own back anway, when he handed me the bill for the blood tests (£140). O, and he said to stop the powders immediately :rolleyes:

The results will be back late tomorrow and then we see where we go from there.

Widge kept the jumper on for less than 2 minutes ... I timed him :D

Leigh xxxx

OOOOOOOOOO, What a b******.People like that make me so mad!!!
Shes obviously not in the right job, I dont blame you one bit for having a go. Hope you found some helpful stuff on your searches. Let us know the results tomorrow please.

What p'd me off more Phil, was I had just paid out £50+ to confirm that he wasn't *contagious*!! I suppose, as he looks like the walking dead, she decided that it didn't really matter if he added double pneumonia to his symptoms.

I'll let you know the test results when I get them.

Fingers crossed we get to the bottom of this quick.

Bloody hell Leigh, thats even worse!!!! £50+ and then told to wait outside!!!! Id have been spitting fire :) As an afterthought (sorry!) hows the other half doing?

The other half was much better, until the vet handed him the bill for the bloodtests .. he came over all peculiar then :D

Hi Leigh,just caught up with this ive been away for the weekend,its a shame we arent closer to each other because I have surplus tins of the hills diet which could be ok for Badger.Sadly no cure for the Vets bill though :( We currently are being asked to take in a dog who is on 5 tablets a day @ £3 per tablet !! I wonder where they get the prices from !
Anyway fingers and toes crossed for you all.
xx

Leigh,

Hope you get some proper answers soon.

And please keep us all updated.

Karen

Thank you Karen :-)

My dog callum had the same tests done on him because he was very thin and never put any weight on, anyway it came back that the pancreus was fine but the intestines were not, basically all the food that he was taking in was not going anywhere except straight through him, and he did used to have sicky days bringing up bile, so the vet suggested that he go onto hills id diet (£50 a bag ) and see how he was on this, well he is now a different dog, he put loads of weight on and i mixed the id biscuit with some tripe to give it some more flavour, he also has a carton of actimel every 4/5 days to stop the sickness which works a treat, a cheap alternative to prozyme powder and works the same good luck with your dog hope it works itself out Diane.

my father in laws dog has had a pancreas problem all her life (now 10).the only thing that keeps her right 100% is hils w/d prescription food from the vet.some feeds have been better than others but this one works with her brilliantly, i was sceptical thinking the vet was just trying to sell on some more expensive food but the results speak for themselves in her case.i think its about £40 for 15kg.

Hi Leigh

Sorry I can't help as I know very little about pancreatic problems but just wanted to add my support and hope everything turns out well. John's wee story was certainly hopeful!

Rooting for ya :-)

Leigh- Sorry but I'm pretty much the same as ClaireB- I don't really know anything and I've been off line for a week (trouble with my ISP) but I sincerely hope and wish you all the best;)

Stacey x x x

Thanx for your support and feedback peeps :-) Much appreciated.

Leigh

Thank you so much for starting this topic.

I have two rescue dogs who both suffer from these symptoms constantly and have had biopsies and bloods but never for pancreatitis. They are fed on chappie, but it literally runs out of them, and they suffer from all of the other symptoms mentioned.

Thanks to your topic, I will be discussing having them both tested for pancreatitis with my vet.

Again many thanks

Theresa

Theresa,

I am sorry to hear that you are having problems with your poor dogs too.

I hope that your vet can get to the bottom of it.

We are clutching at straws now, but Badgers symptons are in line with a pancreas problem. Unfortunately, as he is 13 years old now ... it could be anything.

Good luck with your dogs.

Keep us posted how you get on won't you.

Leigh

Leigh,
What a worrying and miserable time for you all. I've no pearls of wisdom to offer,but just wanted you to know I'm rooting for you,
Clare

Leigh

We have gone through all of this with Minstrel the middle one. She was 10 when she started with the severe upset tummies. She lost alot of weight and also alot of her happy go lucky personality. We were back and forth to the vets who did all the tests.It was concluded that it wasn't an infection or anything to do with the pancreas but more than likey colitis.We tried the Hills Science Prescription diet which made her worse. We were at one stage thinking that the kindest thing would be to put her to sleep but we persevered and through lots of experimenting with food and TLC she started to pick up.It also helped that she has access to outside at all times if she is caught short. She was always very upset if she messed in side.The thing we found that has helped is feeding James well beloved for older dogs. Even though she has episodes all the time it is not constant. She has put alot more weight on and seems alot happier in herself. One thing we do stick to is not feeding her any other types of food as this does agravate her tummy.

I hope badger will soon pick up. It is a very worrying time but I am sure that things will improve soon for you

Lucy

My friends GSD had this condition confirmed a few years ago.
The dog had inexplicable weight loss (severe) but a good appetite and ate everything offered - it just seemed to pass straight through without sticking. He was happy in himself though and his energy level seemed unaffected throughout. Enzyme supplements straightened him out and he was on them for the rest of his life. He was a working dog and continued to work as normal until he retired and then passed away for other reasons.

Leigh,

Have you tried Denes pet food a friends dog had to have this as it was the only thing he kept inside.

Karen

HI Leigh

I know next to nothing about the health problem you refer to, but do so hope you manage to get to the bottom of it and sort it all out :)

It is so heartbreaking when dogs are ill. Do let us all know how things are going.

Best wishes
Lindsay

I know this wont 'cure' the problem but Aloe Vera is brilliant for aiding digestive problems. It worked wonders on my Boxers problems.

Sorry - but I have no advice or experiences of these problems to offer but join everyone else in hoping that Badger's troubles can be identified and that you will start to see him improve.

Good luck - you must be so worried.

Lisa
xx

Hi Leigh just found this topic now!! As I said in the other thread we thought my young dog had been left with a damaged pancreas so thats why we tried lots of differen things, our vet also told me it could be treted so try not to worry & just perserve. You`ll get there!
Christine2