{"id":467355,"date":"2010-03-24T16:03:44","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T20:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/askthevet.smartpak.com\/?p=769"},"modified":"2010-03-24T16:03:44","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T20:03:44","slug":"is-pancreatitis-in-dogs-preventable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/467355","title":{"rendered":"Is Pancreatitis in Dogs Preventable?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a boxer mix male, neutered dog who when he was younger had Pancreatitis, about 4 years ago; he is 5 now. He is fine now, but I’m cautious about what I feed him. He’s currently eating Iams Weight Control dry food, wet down with warm water. My question is, what supplement would be best for him? I want to give him something that meets his needs and helps his body the best, something well rounded – don’t want to give him a lot of stuff. Is this condition chronic, or do they recover completely from it? I use SmartPaks for my horse and LOVE them!! Thank you. DC, Ohio<\/em><\/p>\n

Dear DC,<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to give you very specific advice without knowing why your dog developed pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) in the past, how bad it was, if he\u2019s had any recurrent attacks, and other information. Except for maybe being overweight, it doesn\u2019t sound like your dog fits neatly into any of the following categories generally recognized as potential causes of pancreatitis:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Specific breeds like Miniature Schnauzers that are prone to hyperlipemia (like high cholesterol in people)
\n\u2022 As a side effect of certain prescription drug treatments such as steroids
\n\u2022 Secondary to endocrine diseases like Cushing\u2019s, diabetes or hypothyroidism
\n\u2022 Overweight, spayed females
\n\u2022 Dogs on high-fat diets
\n\u2022 Prolonged anesthesia
\n\u2022 Shock<\/span><\/p>\n

So your dog probably had what we call idiopathic, or spontaneous, pancreatitis, which simply means a disease or condition having no known cause. If that was the case, then I don\u2019t think you have to be super super careful with him. You would know if he had chronic pancreatitis or permanent damage from his acute bout when he was younger because he would probably have stool issues (form, odor, frequency, etc.), abdominal pain, poor appetite, and maybe even some vomiting and diarrhea.<\/p>\n

My advice would be to investigate supplements<\/a> that support a healthy GI system with probiotics, prebiotics and enzymes then ask your veterinarian which product is best for your dog. Other steps to reduce his risk of another episode of pancreatitis include feeding two or three smaller meals a day instead of one large one, not feeding table scraps and not feeding high-fat foods. Since one of the biggest culprits in an acute pancreatitis episode is getting into the garbage or getting rich foods around the holidays, just do what you can to avoid these scenarios and I predict you guys will be fine!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have a boxer mix male, neutered dog who when he was younger had Pancreatitis, about 4 years ago; he is 5 now. He is fine now, but I’m cautious about what I feed him. He’s currently eating Iams Weight Control dry food, wet down with warm water. My question is, what supplement would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":137,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/137"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467355\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}