Pancreatitus question

[Marci and Buddy]

Buddy may have had a bout with CP yesterday-he was vomiting , sat by the radiator and didnt eat for 7 hours. i gave him pepsid ac and he beame new - purring , preening, the whole nine yards BUT he isnt eating well. maybe about 1/3 of his ususal intake, so his bg is on the low side. i have a vet appt tomorw , but she said its best to do an ultrasound to determine CP. she didnt think the fPLI test is reliable. my question : if he is over the bout of cp,can cp still be determined?
is it true that an ultrasound is better?
he's not eating well and drinking more than usual-i'm thinking he's dehydrated, but his skin isn't loose.
if someone has any thoughts on any of this stuff i'd love to hear it-thanks

 

[alexia&wednesday]

Hi,

So I am going to answer this from a human medicine standpoint, but when my cat was in the hospital with pancreatitis (which threw her into DKA and a new DM diagnosis), it seemed to present just like human pancreatitis.

The lipase level isn't the best way to diagnose a cat (in humans it is *the* way to diagnose). I think a baseline lipase level is good, so that when there are acute exacerbations (called A/C= acute on chronic), you can follow the trend and see what the lipase is compared to 'normal' or at baseline.
However, that is about the only way this seems helpful. I could be a bit off, but I learned a lot about this (as a student doctor for humans) when my cat was sick.

The US is the best way to diagnose pancreatitis, as you see inflammation directly.
It's expensive though! Almost seems best to treat it emperically (pepsid, pain meds, encouraging food), since you are treating the symptoms anyway. Sometimes you add an antibiotic to cover any gut bacteria that has escaped from the irritation, but that seems less troublesome than an US bill!

I hope this helps!

- Alexia