Tummy probs? Higher pancreatitis risk in cavaliers

[Karlin]

Carol Fowler got some interesting information from one of the researchers into canine pancreatitis for her website on cavalier health, www.cavaliercampaign.com. The researcher says that cavaliers are presenting at a higher rate than many other breeds generally with pancreatitis and there's concern that this is being misdiagnosed and therefore remains untreated. Dogs with chronic diarrhea and/or vomiting or tummy pain may have this problem. If left untreated and if diet isn't adjusted this can get worse and a severe crash of pancreatitis can even be fatal so if you have a cavalier with these signs it may be worthwhile having the possibility of pancreatitis thoroughly investigated.

Carol will be getting this new info on to her website shortly and I'll post a direct link then.

[Margaret C]

Carol Fowler got some interesting information from one of the researchers into canine pancreatitis for her website on cavalier health, www.cavaliercampaign.com. The researcher says that cavaliers are presenting at a higher rate than many other breeds generally with pancreatitis and there's concern that this is being misdiagnosed and therefore remains untreated. Dogs with chronic diarrhea and/or vomiting or tummy pain may have this problem. If left untreated and if diet isn't adjusted this can get worse and a severe crash of pancreatitis can even be fatal so if you have a cavalier with these signs it may be worthwhile having the possibility of pancreatitis thoroughly investigated.

Carol will be getting this new info on to her website shortly and I'll post a direct link then.

This is the reason pancreatic research is one of the four research projects that benefit from the SM Cavalier Collection Scheme.

[Pat]

Interesting - I look forward to learning more. I've not heard this although I've certainly known of quite a few Cavaliers with bouts of pancreatitis.

For those in the US, there is a fairly new blood test from Idexx that is far more definitive in diagnosing pancreatitis than just looking at amylase and lipase on a blood chemistry screen (those blood values were previously the main test used). This is the Spec cPL test

http://www.idexx.com/animalhealth/la...ccpl/index.jsp

Ultrasound is also used as a diagnostic test, especially if blood chemistry is ambiguous. I've heard it described that a pancreas "lights up" on ultrasound in the presence of pancreatitis.

Pat

[Jay]

One of my dogs, Gem, had a nasty bout of pancreatitis awhile back. She presented with bloody stool and bloody vomit. She has recovered quite nicely but those first symptoms were really scary for me. Now she is dealing with anal gland problems. She is fed a pre-made raw diet which is low in fat and gets high quality training treats. My other cavaliers are fed exactly the same food as Gem and (so far) have had no problems. It would be interesting to see if there is a genetic factor. (She and Monty are from the same breeder and have the same sire). I hope she never has another bout of either of these problems. I will be watching Carol's site for more info. Thank you for the link. Her story about Bonnie is heart-breaking.
J.

[Nicki]

Sadly we lost our precious Rupert last December to a bout of acute pancreatitis

Cavaliers seem to suffer with both conditions - Pancreatitis whereby the enzymes are greatly raised, and actually destroy the pancreas; and Pancreatic Insuffciency, where not enough enzyme is produced to digest the food.

In the latter, they produce lots of poo, which contains undigested matter. They also lose weight despite eating well, and often start to eat their own poo.

Pancreatic Insuffciency can be easily treated by adding pancreatic enzymes to their food {following diagnosis by a vet} - although they will probably have to remain on these for life.

[Nicki]

Information has gone up on Carol's website

http://www.cavaliercampaign.com/othe...m#pancreatitis

[EddyAnne]

Our nearly 9 year old Cavalier has just started having Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency (EPI), where not enough pancreatic enzyme is being produced to digest the food she eats, even though she is being fed extra well she is still losing weight and now wants to eat her own poo, she produces lots of very soft pale coloured poo which contains undigested matter.

Our veterinarian has sent off a blood test for trypsin-like immunoreactivity (TLI) and we are waiting for the results. On conformation it looks like the treatment would be to add pancreatic enzymes to her food which can be obtained in a commercial pharmacy product, and where we are in Australia it will cost about $100 a month and this for the rest of her life.

We are looking into the alternative in the pancreatic enzymes, where instead of using the commercial product we instead use chopped bovine pancreas from an Abattoir which can also be used (pork pancreas should not be used because of the rare transmission of pseudorabies). The probable expectations is that her Symptoms should improve within a few days but the amount of pancreas added to meals may have to be adjusted to suite depending how she presents at that time, but lifelong treatment of this added on her meals probably will be required.

By the way, living out in the country we do have a local Abattoir for human consumption, and already my wife has obtained a fresh cow's pancreas for FREE, and she has already chopped it up into 1 ounce servings and stored it in the freezer, and note the pancreas cannot be cooked as that will destroy the enzymes.

Regarding Exocrine Pancreatic Insufficiency here is a link to a good article and where Cavaliers are mentioned.
World Small Animal Veterinary Association
World Congress Proceedings, 2003
Edward J. Hall, MA, VetMB, PhD, DECVIM-CA, MRCVS
University of Bristol, Dept. Clinical Veterinary Science
Langford, Bristol, England
http://www.vin.com/proceedings/Proce...6553&O=Generic
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Update - Just received her serum trypsin-like immunoreactivity (TLI) result = 1.5µg/l.
The reference range for canine TLI is >5 to 35 µg/l. In EPI, values are typically <2.5µg/l.
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[Nicki]

Sorry to hear about your girl.

I have one with EPI too - he has Lypex capsules, which are enteric coated and very effective.

I know that prior to pancreatic enzymes being availble {I remember them being trialled in the UK- I think it would have been about 8 years ago}, dogs were originally treated by giving bovine pancreas.

It's really hard to get things like that here now - with all the food scares of recent years, abbatoirs aren't allowed to sell direct to the public.

I would love to hear how you get on.


BTW the oldie I foster, Fufu, who is 11 1/2 has just been diagnosed with Pancreatitis too - she's doing ok, had 5 days of twice daily injections and a course of antibiotics just in case; on a low fat/lower protein diet and she's doing ok.

[RodRussell]

There now is a chronic pancreatitis page on http://www.cavalierhealth.org

[EddyAnne]

Nicki, an update on our Cherrie, and thanks for posting.

Soon after my previous post we received Cherrie’s serum trypsin-like immunoreactivity (TLI) result = 1.5µg/l. The reference range for canine TLI is >5 to 35 µg/l and note her test result was well below this ‘normal range”. Simply Cherrie lacks the pancreatic digestive enzymes Lipase, Amylase and Protease, and diet testing with these has indicated she needed at least the amounts found in “Creon 25,000” at one capsule per meal. This Creon product we used is the same as your Lypex but as it’s manufactured by another company it is called by another product name, and capsules are available in several different dose quantities of the enzymes.

Today Cherrie is back to her normal weight as it was before this started, note when the EPI started she quickly lost quite a lot of weight and the TLI test result showed why. What food was going in her mouth was coming out the other end nearly the same, and that explained why way back then that she and our other dog was interested in eating her poo, well that stopped about 24 hours after started the pancreatic enzymes where her poos then became normal firm poos and where the colour even returned back to normal.

For the pancreatic enzymes we initially used natural bovine pancreas at 20grams per meal, this as it took us a while to obtain the Creon which we started when we received that, and note she had been losing weight where we really needed to act. We are currently thinking of going back to using the natural bovine pancreas as we obtained better results and maybe we still will. So far it appears that she does NOT need to be on any special diet, and what appears to really matter is that she is given sufficient pancreatic enzymes to match the amount of food and food type given to her, and it looks like we may have to give her pancreatic enzymes for the rest of her life. We still do NOT know the actual reason why her pancreas started to stop producing sufficient enzymes and to drop to such low levels, and note she is nearly 9 years old and previously never had any problems with her pancreas. I have mentioned about Cherrie elsewhere on the internet, interestingly I have received a number of replies mostly privately where other Cavaliers had Pancreatic Insufficiency but at various ages and where they too had to be given the enzymes with their meals.

By the way, for our Cherrie we asked our veterinarian about vitamins, antibiotics and such, and our veterinarian said that in Cherrie’s case that’s not needed, and just to focus on giving her the enzymes that she needed, and she said it was OK for us to even give the natural bovine pancreas.
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