Gina's Daisy 11/30 surgery 12/28 conservative + Pancreatitis

At 4 weeks post op tissue is still healing and that is the reason for 100% rest 24/7 unless the dog is at potty or doing PT. Both potty and PT require a harness, leash (plus sling if the dog is wobbly). The harness and leash are to control speed and bolting whenever a dog is out of the recovery suite.

At the exam your vet will hopefully be able to determine if she has torn or pulled some muscle tissue or if he thinks she has had another disc problem or even the same surgical disc having released more disc material.

If the vet feels it is not disc related then she needs to rest and maybe would be able to slowly be reintroduced back into physical activity at the end of her 6 weeks of post op crate rest on graduation day Jan 11.

If the vet feels this is disc related, then 100% STRICT crate rest 24/7 only out at potty time for a very, very few footsteps for a full 8 weeks. 8 weeks is how long it takes a disc to form secure scar tissue.  

Crating now is until you have a more firm diagnosis.

Are you giving a Gi tract protector with the prednisone? Cortisteroids (Prednisone, Prednisolone, Dexamethasone, etc.) are involved with stimulating gastric acid secretion causing GI upset to the more threatening bleeding ulcers or holes in the stomach or intestine. Phrase the question to your vet in this particular way: "is there any medical reason my dog may not take Pepcid AC?" If there is no reason, we follow vets who are proactive in protecting the stomach by giving doxies 5MG Pepcid AC (generic name is Famotidine) 30 mins prior to steroid. Excellent med look up site to bookmark:  www.marvistavet.com/html/pharmacy_center.html

Knowledge is the best defense in fighting and winning with this disease.  A very quick way to get up to speed on meds, how healing happens and when for each of the phases is the "Overview: the essentials" yellow button. Then work your way through the rest of the orange and blue buttons to complete your education. Here's the link www.dodgerslist.com/healingindex.htm This Disc Disease DVD is a wonderful way to help other family members understand and even others who might be around or taking care of XXX: www.dodgerslist.com/store/DVDorder.htm

I also highly recommend adding this comprehensive "must-have" $3 DVD on IVDD to your arsenal of educational resources. Friends, family and those who will be caring for your dog should also watch this DVD; plus don't forget to order one DVD for your vet www.dodgerslist.com/literature/litorder.htm

Let us know what the vet says tomorrow.

Although I am sorry to hear about Miss Daisy, I am a little relieved to know that my Coco is having the same kind of problems you guys are. She had her surgery 12/1. Hope all continues to get better for you!!

Good job Gina in getting Pepcid AC on board!

You know Gina, just to be safe, I'd assume that during that bolt out the doggy door perhaps the same operated on disc tore because the early healing scar tissue was not yet strong. Or could have been another disc started to tear. There really is not a way other than an MRI to see/know what went on with that bolt. No harm can come from restarting crate rest as of Dec 28 and giving 8 weeks for the "suspected" disc to again from good secure scar tissue. No meds heal a disc…just limited movement of the back and the recovery suite that provides the necessary healing environment.

Prednisone could get to work on mild swelling where you see the effectiveness in an hour. Swelling is painful. Often it takes takes pred more like 5-7 days to resolve swelling. So your vet is trying out a 3 day course of Pred to see if the swelling is gone..the test is on the taper. And to give a clear picture the pain meds would also be backed off or tapered too. Any hint of resurfacing pain on the Pred taper, lets the vet know more time is needed before trying another taper.

So if the taper goes smoothly (no pain evident) that would mean the swelling has been resolved. Assuming the pain came from a disc tear..that takes 8 weeks of limited movement to heal.

We do have some good ideas for emergency crate training here: www.dodgerslist.com/literature/EmergencyCrate%20Training.htm

Let Daisy know that the recovery suite is a good thing. Be positive around her. Reward her for sitting or lying down quiet with praise and a happy voice. Bring her a lo-cal, lo salt broth ice cube to lick on and praise her for quietly enjoying the treat. In other words, let her know you are pleased and happy when she is resting in the recovery suite. You are her pack leader if you emote positive energy, positive body language, then she will pick up on that and mirror it and know things are the way they are supposed to be.

Hello Gina! Glad to hear Daisy is doing better. When CoCo initially hurt her back we were giving her plain chicken and rice. After 2 weeks the doctor said we could restart her on her regular food. We feed her Royal Canin Doxie formula too. Coco gets the same way while on her crate, bored and whiny. Admittedly the whining is probably because she is feeling better and wants to be held. To occupy her we do the frozen chicken broth cubes as well as the rubber Kong toys that can be filled. We tried the treat filler in a can but it seems the hard treats last longer. Hope this helps!!

I know we did not start the Pepcid soon enough, just started administering for first time this week - was not aware of how important it was soon enough .  In any case just went to emergency vet and got the sucralfate and started first dose tonight. 


All day literally. every. hour. Daisy has been hunched over straining and diarrhea (not much coming out but orange in color) with a few drops of blood at the end.  So we have the stomach protection in place what can we do to control the diarrhea?   Daisy has not slept since her episode began I know she is tired, not how I envisioned my New Year's Eve so hopefully we get through the night and this soon this will pass.

Update.. Another trip to the urgent care this afternoon.  Daisy was getting worse, diarrhea all night into the morning, as of this morning a loss of appetite and vomiting within 10 minutes of administering meds (pepsid) or drinking water.  

Blood test revealed that she has Pancreatitis and severe lipemia (high level of fat in the blood), further testing is being done to see if she has hyperlipemia too.  No food or water for the next 24 hours except Sucralfate, also prescribed were Cerenia and Famotidine.  She will be on a low fat diet the rest of her life - prescription id gastreo food...the odd thing about the blood test is we had it tested on 11/23 and everything was normal.

Administering prednisone was a huge mistake! We Thought her pain was because of her recent surgery . Urgent care Doc said when she bolted through the doggie door she could have moved in such a way that hurt her pancreas Which resulted in the immediate onset of pain (very similar to the symptoms she was having before surgery).  Prednisone was making the condition worse along with the cheese we were using to get her to take the meds.  Fortunately though we had not given her prednisone since early Tuesday.

if we can make it the next 24+ hours with only improvements we can keep her from being hospitalized.

Be careful beating yourself up about the Prednisone and treating this as a disc episode. I think any of us would have done the same. And honestly, without having done blood work on that initial visit (which would not be routine) no one can say now that it was pancreatitis from the start. That bolt though the dog door had to have jarred her pretty severely to have injured her pancreas to this degree. Steroids can cause pancreatitis so perhaps it was a disc episode and the treatment caused more complications. You just can't know now and you made the best decision you could with the information you had in the moment.

I'm concerned that she's had this diarrhea and they don't want her having any fluids. I worry she will become dehydrated, if she isn't already. I would urge you to contact your regular vet in the morning and question this, she may need to have some IV fluids or be allowed to have fluids by mouth. Dehydration is a serious issue and will really complicate the situation.

I hate to fully question the emergency vet but I would also suggest you ask your vet about the safety of the Cerenia in this situation. Cerenia can be hard on the liver which will also be stressed by the pancreatitis. I know the vomitting certainly needs to be controlled but you might just ask if you are on the safest drug. The Cerenia is convenient because it is a pill, other nausea medications would have to be given by injection by the vet. And the Cerenia may be just as safe as others but I would ask to make sure everyone is thinking about all the options and making the best choices.

Pancreatitis is indeed a severe illness. I hope she shows some signs of improvement quickly! Please keep us posted.

Gina, the hospital that did Beulah's surgery did not send her home on anything for her stomach. I know they gave her something earlier after the surgery. When I asked about Pepcid etc. they informed me that she probably wouldn't need it. I started her on it as soon as I got her home anyway. She has had some issues with her stomach but thank goodness no blood or diarrhea. I think part of what I thought was back pain with her early after surgery was her stomach. Thank goodness for this site. I have vented on these good people so much. I am a basket case trying to take care of my baby. I have an eight year old that had back surgery a few years ago. She had a couple of bouts with pancreatitis and has been diagnosed as having chronic pancreatitis. She is on the Hills ID. They have a dry, canned and you can get a treat that is compatible. She gets absolutely nothing off the table etc. Beulah is on the ID right now because it is easier on the stomach and must taste better, she eats it better.

Any updates on lil Miss Daisy?? Hope all is well

I'm very glad to hear that the pancreatis is under control, Gina! It's amazing how happy we can be about normal bowel movements after something like Daisy has gone through. And it's a very safe and wise decision on your part to continue with the crate rest.

Good to hear!!