Please help, pancreatits again or HGE I have an 8 yr old Yorkie that I cannot seem to keep well no matter how careful I am. She has had what they think is pancreatitis several times and bleeding gastroenteritis a couple of times. In addition she has severe skin allergies for which she takes daily medication and even with that still has outbreaks of hives every few months. I am lucky in that I live 14 minutes from my vet who is also an emergency vet hospital. It is a big practice and I like some of the vets better than others. The thing that really frustrates me is that they all seem to give different advice and Idont know where to turn.
So this month alone, my baby had pancreatitis then a milder reoccurence of this about 3 weeks later, then an episode of hives 3 days ago and tonight diarrhea with blood in it.
I noticed that when I came home from work. It was just a small amount but I know enough about this to be concerned. Went right to the vet who said she thinks it is chronic colitis (irritable bowel)and not necessarily pancreatitis. She didnt mention HGE at all. So for the second time in 3 weeks I was given antibiotics, stomach meds, fluids and sent home. However, tonight she has had another episode with again just a small amount of blood but I called the vet anyways. I wanted to know when I should worry. Other times when she had the same symtoms and presentation, they insisted she be admitted and stay for 3 days at least. I understand this is typical treatment as you want to rest the system. this time they didnt even tell me to withhold food. I am so confused and worried about her. Why do you get admitted at times and not others? Why dont vets all know the same information? For example, a year ago, she developed severe ulcers that they said were from steroids they used for her allergies. She was in the hospital 6 days and very sick from this. They said she shouldnt have steroids again.
Then when I went in 3 weeks ago for the diarrhea and vomiting, one of the vets said steroids are one of the treatments for chronic pancreatits and gave her a shot of steroids. Then this week they gave her another shot of steriods for the hives. I again questioned her about this mentioning what they had said before about steriods and this particular vet said she doubts it was the steroids that caused the problem.
The thing I know though is that she was just getting back to normal after the initial episode 3 weeks ago, and then had the shot on Tuesday. She was so agitated from it, she peed on my bed twice, was nauseous, panting and obviously uncomfortable, didnt sleep all night that night. Then today, she develops the bloody diarrhea. Hard for me to not see the connection, though I dont really know.
Sorry for making this so long but what Im asking is 1. Is a little bit of blood in poop something to worry about or if it doesnt get worse, should I just wait it out? I can return to the vet at any time but they said these things usually resolve in 24 hrs so not to worry if she still has some problems. Thats fine but how do they know its not HGE?
2. For the chronic issues...could the skin allergies be related to the stomach problems or does this sound like chronic pancreatitis or something else?
I just dont know who to believe or what to do. I have a bad feeling we will be back at the ER vet tonight or tomorrow which I dread for her and me. Ive spent everything I managed to save over the last year on her health problems and really dont know how much more I can do. Ive spend over $600 this month alone. Id give anything to help but I do have limited resources unfortunately. |