A few weeks ago, my baby boy Mason became ill. He wouldn’t eat, and he had lots of nausea, some vomiting, and diarrhea. That same morning I had learned that a neighbor’s dog had contracted Parvo, the deadly disease every dog owner fears; and I learned that some of the symptoms were the same as what my dog had. Now Mason had had all of his shots; I have been known to be cheap, but I would never keep my dog from having all needed shots and medications, along with Heartworm medicine and flea and tick medicine. If you’re thinking of saving money by skipping those for your pet, be aware that you may be taking her life into your hands. Dogs need necessary preventative measures just like people do! I had heard that if a dog with Parvo has contact with your dog, even vaccines may not prevent your dog from catching it! But you know how those rumors are: some sort of true, and others, not even close!
So, when I heard that Parvo was in the neighborhood, and then almost immediately after that my little Mason showed signs of serious illness, I frantically called my vet. Jessica Potosky, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) urged me to bring him in immediately, so I raced to her office with him, holding his limp little body in my arms. He was vomiting every few minutes by this time.
In Her Office…
…Dr. Potosky checked Mason’s temperature and examined him. She gave him a shot for pain after she found that his stomach was hard, the muscles contracted and causing him considerable pain. She also gave me more pain medication to give him later in the day as it was needed, and she gave me some anti-diarrhea and anti-nausea medication.
I had given him Pepto Bismol earlier, but he just vomited it right back up. Dr. Potosky’s recommendation was to keep a close eye on him – as if I would in any case do otherwise – and keep her informed. She would call me later in the day to find out how he was progressing. She assured me that there was almost no chance Mason could have caught Parvo from a neighbor’s dog, saying, “If dogs have been through the full series of puppy vaccines and are regularly vaccinated against Parvo, they have almost a 0% chance of contracting the virus. Our vaccines are very good.”
Back Home…
Mason continued to refuse to eat or even drink water. He was glassy-eyed from the pain medication and pretty much like a zombie. I did not like that medicine, and since he didn’t seem to be in so much pain when it wore off, I didn’t give him anymore, but I was ready in case he needed it. The next morning, after I slept very little but Mason slept because of the pain medication, although he still staggered up to vomit every few hours, I was back at Dr. Potosky’s office. She suggested that though there was little chance he had contacted Parvo, we do a Parvo test to rule it out and for my peace of mind, which I gladly agreed to.
Then she did an X-ray to make sure there was no foreign object in his stomach. You know how dogs eat everything they shouldn’t when you’re not looking! Both those tests were negative, which helped my state of mind, and next, Dr. Potosky said that all indications were that Mason had pancreatitis, which is an inflammation of the pancreas. It’s not the same as the disease humans get – and by the way, always check for the canine version of any disease because there are so many differences between their bodies and ours. For example, if a dog eats enough grapes, and that’s not very many, he can die of kidney failure, while grapes will just give humans a good dose of vitamin C.
Dr. Potosky said…
Dr. Potosky said that pancreatitis can be caused in dogs by rich foods, and those most often come from their owners’ own dinner plates! I had just given my dog a little of my Chicken Divan, with its rich, creamy sauce, the night before, and I was always giving him just a little taste of whatever I was having. Giving him a little treat, I thought, while I still fed him good, healthy dog food, but I was wrong. Rich food, she told me, is not good for dogs; their digestive systems are not like ours, and the rich food, which of course they love and they’ll gobble down in a flash, is not healthy for them. It’s a good thing she didn’t see the cup of whipped cream he had as a treat at his first birthday party!
As we talked a little more about pancreatitis, Dr. Potosky said that most often the identified cause of pancreatitis is feeding your dog rich foods, but some breeds, such as Schnauzers, are predisposed to it and can have pancreatitis without eating any rich or fatty foods. Other times doctors can’t tell why dogs get the disease, but to be safe, it’s not a good idea to be giving dogs your ice cream cake and Beef Burgundy or other rich foods.
Dr. Potosky prescribed boiled chicken and rice for Mason to eat until his digestive system was normal again. She also filled the empty area beneath the skin behind Mason’s neck with IV fluid, so that he would receive nutrition and keep hydrated that day while he healed, with instructions to come back the following day if he did not start to eat and drink. As if he knew he had finally been diagnosed, right after Mason got that IV, he drank water when we got home, and as soon as I cooked the chicken and rice, he inhaled some like he was on the verge of starvation – which by then he was – but I gave him small amounts of it at a time every few hours for the rest of the day. I alternated this food with a dog food Dr. Potosky prescribes for dogs with pancreatitis.
The Moral of the Story…
I think because I got Mason to the vet so quickly, he had a fairly short bout of pancreatitis. It took about a week of the bland chicken and rice diet and the prescription dog food, along with his anti-diarrhea and anti-nausea medicine for him to get back to normal. And now, when I eat rich, delicious foods, I DO NOT feed samples of them to my dog. It’s important to note here that although the chicken and rice diet was good for him while he recovered, it is NOT a nutritionally complete diet. Dr. Potosky pointed out that if we were to feed our dogs this diet permanently they would develop deficiencies. That’s why the prescription dog food was also necessary while he recovered.
I also discovered from a neighbor another food that can work for dogs with pancreatitis; that is, to mix ground chicken with some mashed potatoes. It turns out that Mason thinks mashed potatoes mixed in with his ground chicken and dry dog food is in itself gourmet dog food, so I have the best of both worlds! I am keeping him healthy and feeding him a little of what he considers rich, gourmet food!