This Yorkshire Terrier had Pancreatitis

As a Yorkie, I can tell you having Pancreatitis is not fun...it hurts...I had a bad case of it in 2010.  This can be a condition that seems like other health problems, and requires a visit to your Veterinarian and a careful description of the symptoms.  I recovered, and didn't have any recurrences in the 3 years since. 

Here is what happened to me, I am hoping that it will help other Yorkie friends out there.

I started getting (sorry, this is yucky) diarrhea a lot easier than I used to, and we thought it was triggered by certain foods.  My owner did all kinds of things to take things out of my diet, and carefully add new things, very gradually, that's what you have to do when you're changing foods with a Yorkie, or any dog.

One day, I got really bad symptoms, and we went to the Vet.  We've done that before, but this time, they did a blood test for Pancreatitis, and I came up as having it.  There are really no medications for this, but they did treat it in almost the same way as they did when I had bloody diarrhea in 2009...since that post was lost during a transfer of this blog, we are going to update and re-post it for you tomorrow.

Here's some things my owner did wrong (I forgive her) and what the doctor had us do:

• My owner gave me Chicken Livers the night before, you would think that wouldn't bother me as liver is a very popular treat, but it's very rich and high in cholesterol.  When I was younger, I could handle more foods than I can now or could when this happened.


• The next day I had VERY yellow diarrhea, and was throwing up, also yellow, and walked around with my back kind of hunched and head down because it hurt inside. So we made an appointment with the Veterinarian...so important if you think something serious is wrong.


• The vet gave me subcutaneous (I think that's the word) fluids, they put a lot of water just under my skin with a needle to help with dehydration since....


• I wasn't allowed to drink or eat anything for 24 hours!!!  But it wasn't that bad, I wasn't feeling well at all so not very hungry, and if I did eat was in pain.


• I was given 1/4 of a 10mg Pepcid A/C tablet on an empty stomach in the afternoon a 1/2-1 hours before when I would have had my dinner, then every 24 hours for a week before my evening meal. The veterinarian had us add another week on because I still wasn't quite right after a week. After finding that to be a battle (I hate taking pills), and after I had started eating again, my owner added it to just a tiny bit of chicken breast so I wouldn't notice it, or so she thought, and that made it easier for me to swallow.  Then I got the rest of my meal a little bit later.


• I had to eat several small meals a day of white rice (or Gerber's baby flaked rice...just about a tablespoon mixed in with the cut up chicken with a little water added) and chicken breast, morning, mid morning, noon, mid afternoon, and dinner time, about 2 tablespoons of food each time until I got better.

I finally did get better, then there was the quest to find the right food for me, which we did by trial and error.  I seem to do best with chicken and rice foods, beef doesn't agree with me at all.

If you are dealing with Pancreatitis with your dog, we wish your dog a speedy recovery. 

Updated 2/28/17