Your dog may experience lethargy and other behavioral differences if suffering from pancreatitis.
Your dog's pancreas is located between its stomach and small intestines. It can become inflamed for several reasons, one of which is consumption of fatty foods. Pancreatitis is a disease in which the pancreas becomes inflamed. It can be dangerous because the inflammation causes enzymes to leak out, causing severe tissue damage. Therefore, it is important to know as soon as possible whether your dog is suffering from pancreatitis in order to prevent further damage.
Instructions
1. Keep a close eye on your dog for abnormal behavior. Lethargy, or excessive tiredness, is very common in dogs that are suffering from diseases like pancreatitis. Food habits also may alternate if the canine has stomach problems or pancreatitis. Anorexia, or a loss of appetite, is very common with dogs that have discomfort or pain in their abdomen.
2. Watch to see if your dog has any signs of vomiting or diarrhea. While vomiting or diarrhea is easier to notice in inside dogs because the mess must be cleaned up, it is harder to notice these signs in outside dogs. You may need to spend some time outside to watch your canine to see if it exhibits any odd behavior, has diarrhea or is vomiting.
3. Do a pressure test on your canine. This includes placing light pressure on different parts of your canine's stomach and abdomen to see it is having any tenderness. With abdominal diseases like pancreatitis, dogs usually will display discomfort when pressure is placed on their abdomen. Some signs of discomfort to watch for include yelping or whining, aggressiveness or and trying to move away from the pressure.
4. Take your dog to the veterinarian as soon as possible. The only way to know for sure if your dog has pancreatitis is to take it to the veterinarian for a blood test or ultrasound to see if pancreatitis is the culprit for your dog's pain. Other stomach conditions like gastroenteritis, peritonitis, inflammatory bowel disease and intestinal obstruction have the same symptoms as pancreatitis. Therefore, it is important that your dog be taken to the veterinarian to determine which stomach condition it is suffering from so it can be treated accordingly.
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