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Does anyone have any experience with Pancreatitis? Is it fairly uncommon? Is it often fatal?

Malachai had that when he had the tennis ball stuck. I just kept him hydrated with SC fluids and a really bland diet broken up into many many small meals. Poor malachai couldn't keep anything down even after the surgery. The vet can give you a bland diet too, and then just puree everything.

My friend's dog was in good health this past Friday...eating, drinking, full of energy. Then Saturday morning he ate his breakfast and threw it up. By Saturday afternoon he was lethargic so she took him to the emergency vet. Sunday morning they told her he had Pancreatitis and Sunday evening he went into cardiac arrest. The dog was only five years old and had no prior health issues. I just wanted to understand the condition better for the future and to know if this was just a fluke thing or if Pancreatitis isn't normally so life threatening.

No pancreatitis should not be life threatening in and of iteself. My guess is he had something else going on. Malachai was testing positive for pancreatitis for going on two straight weeks.

It CAN be acute. Myla had it once, when she was 5. I took her for a walk, she was fine. We came home, and within 1/2 hour, she could not even stand. I took her to the emergency vet when we got there she started vomiting peanuts in shells. I didnt give these to her, and thought she had been poisoned. The vet gave her IV fluids, and she improved quickly. Myla had eaten nothing but kibble in her life, and the vet felt the pancreatits (sp?) was caused by the fat content in the peanuts.

I used to manage a vet clinic in NJ - Pancreatitis is a fairly common condition but can be fatal. We saw it a lot in smaller breeds that had eaten something that really did not agree with them. It is super common in schnauzers/yorkies/wheaten terriers. It can be fatal but normally when treated properly they pull through. It can be fairly acute. Normal treatment is IV Fluids/Antibiotics, Regal, Pepcid and absolutley NOTHING ORALLY for at least 48 hours. Some dogs even more if the vomiting and diarrhea persist. If they are fed too soon the pancreas will become inflamed again and you can have a repeat episode. Another common cause of it in some dogs is pancreatic cancer. 6 is considered Geriatric in a large breed dog by AAHA standards - and dogs get cancer twice the rate of humans. Dogs dying of pancreatitis is more common then most would think.

It's probably not the pancreatitis itself, it is the volume depletion that takes place from the vomit and diarrhea. I'm sorry to hear of your friends loss, this is horrible.

Her boy threw up his breakfast Saturday but stopped after that. At the vet later that day they told her he was nauseous and attempted to vomit but nothing came up. He did not have a bowel movement Saturday or Sunday and wasn't urinating on Sunday. They had him on IV fluids and anti-nausea medication Saturday evening through Sunday evening until he passed away. It's so discouraging. I can only assume there may have been more to his condition; maybe pancreatic cancer like Geri is suggesting it could have been.

the dog could have had a cardiac condition that the pancreaitis stressed, he could have had internal issues from straining to vomit (twisted stomach, intersussion of intestines etc..) The pancreaitis could actually have been secondary to some other undiagnosed condition

He was OFA cardiac normal by a cardiologist but that was done when he was two and even being certified that still could have been some issue. They did blood work, an x-ray, and an ultrasound to determine he had Pancreatitis and that was the cause of his illness. It is frustrating because we wish the vet would have found whatever was serious enough to cause death if Pancreatitis was not the only issue. Unfortunately, you can't go back in time. The vet has told her that there are extreme cases of Pancreatitis and that is "obviously what he had." I just thought if it was such a fatal issue, I would have heard of it as being so at some point before.

I really appreciate everyone's feedback.

Even a healthy heart has stress when the body depletes it's volume (dehydration) that is why supportive care is so important. If he only vomited once, they may have thought that was not enough, but if the dog had not been drinking and eating normally in the first place, this makes the dehydration effect faster.

Did they do a necropsy????

I suppose not, or they would know something.

A rottweiler I had to put down 3 years ago had pancreatitis once. I took him to the regular vet on a Saturday (at this point we didn't know what was going on). The vet gave him a shot and said if he wasn't better to bring him back in Monday. By Sunday morning he was very bad off. He had a lot of blood in his stool and was vomiting a lot. I took him to the local emergency vet. They diagnosed him. They gave him two bags of IV fluids and told me to take him to my regular vet Monday morning. I took him to my regular vet Monday morning and was told if I had waited until Monday to bring him back in he would have passed. Not from the pancreatitis but from dehydration. I myself haven't heard of a dog dying from pancreatitis alone. My dog was fine after two weeks on bland food and some meds.