Most dog owners know the term “garbage gut”. Those that don’t can easily piece it together though: dog gets into garbage and get horrendous vomiting and diarrhea. Sometimes the problem just affects the intestinal tract, but sometimes the sickness can effect the pancreas, an important organ for both digestion and for maintaining things like blood sugar. In these cases, dogs can progress to a life-threatening state and is doesn’t have to be garbage or other gross things that cause the issue. Perfectly normal foods can as well.
We are still unclear as to what exactly causes damage to the pancreas in pancreatitis, but it can be stimulated by anything outside of the normal diet and in large amounts. This includes healthy table scraps or even a new dog food changed too rapidly. Think of when you’ve been eating healthy for several weeks and then decide to have a very rich “cheat meal”. Many times, you will not feel well the next day because your body was not used to digesting that kind of food. Now imagine you are a dog who eats the same dog food every day without the normal variety we get even with healthy eating. That same problem can be amplified significantly. There are many factors that lead to this feeling of sickness, but two main ones seem to be inflammation of the intestines and an overgrowth of bacteria. Both of these can slow the intestinal flow and cause a back-up. If severe enough, this can affect the pancreas. As a normally wimpy organ with the consistency of tissue paper, any insult to this organ can cause damage. Since it also produces and stores digestive enzymes, any leakage can also cause a lot of damage to the tissue surrounding it.
Luckily, with advances in newer treatments, pancreatitis can often be handled conservatively without hospitalization. However, if untreated, the damage can cause bacteria to leak into the bloodstream causing a life-threatening condition called sepsis. This condition requires ICU-level care and still carries a poor prognosis. Pancreatitis is diagnosed with blood tests and, sometimes, imaging like ultrasound. Ideally, any time a dog is vomiting, we would like to run lab work to rule this problem out. We will be more concerned if there is anything in the history to indicate any dietary indiscretion. Common cases of this around here, especially as the weather warms up, are eating things off of the beach (dead animals or human leftovers) and guests giving cookout food to dogs without permission. But always remember to avoid anything different in your dogs diet unless is a slowly and gradually introduced.