Pancreatitis and HGE.

I had my Cooper put to sleep 3 weeks ago today. On the Monday before, he vomited once in the morning, but seemed ok, other than not being excited about food. He did eat though, and was walking around. We assumed he had eaten poop (which he did often) and had an upset tummy. By that evening, he was vomiting much more and we came home to bloody diarrhea in the kitchen. We took him to the vet, who suspected HGE and pancreatitis. His bloodwork showed evidence of both. We had the option of leaving him there to get fluids and other meds, or taking himi to an overnight ER, where they might do an ultrasound (this cost was going to be $500 to $600). We all assumed, including the doctor, that he would probably improve by morning but would have to stay hospitalized there for at least 3 days. so, rather than take him to the ER, we chose to leave him there at the vet overnight, where he was administered fluids, potassium, metronidazole, ampicillin, famotidine, and cerenia. The next morning he was worse, and the doctor said there was much more blood over night than he expected. They thought he might have a tear in his colon. They had already done xrays the night before that looked good. But, he did a different xray the next morning with some kind of gas that would show if there was a tear or blockage in his colon. There wasn't. He had also told me that his rectum was so inflamed that he couldn't even examine it with his fingers. Later on in the morning, he called and said he thought we were going to lose him. He temp was dropping, even with heated fluids, heating pad, and blankets, and his intestines were shutting down, gas building in his stomach. I went over there. My only options were to put him to sleep, or take him to the local university who the doctor had already been in consulation with, and had tried two things they had suggested (the gas xray and placing a stomach tube in to try and relieve the gas). He was too weak to withstand any kind of surgery and basically looked almost dead already. They had given him pain medicine, then later reversed it to see if he would show any signs of movement. He barely raised his head once when i came in, but that was all. he was lethargic and very cold. I decided to let him go. I am so unsure about whether i made the the right decision, and haunted by leaving him at the vet alone overnight where he might have been in pain and scared, and maybe this exacerbated his condition? So, my questions are, do you think these were appropriate treatments? Would you have done the same? The doctor told me that cerenia helps with visceral gi pain and that likely helped him feel more comfortable that night, but they didn't give him anything specifically for pain,and i keep reading how painful pancreatitis is. The doc just didn't think he was in much pain cause he palpitated his stomach to check for pain reaction and there wasn't any. The doc also suspected that maybe he had some underlying cancer of disease that these other things were secondary to, because he declined so fast and had so much bleeding. I'd just like your opinion on everything, and mainly if you think the cerenia helped his pain that night. Thanks, dAphne

Thank you for that reply. I have really been tortured thinking of him spending that night alone at the vet, maybe in pain and scared, and thinking mabye that was so stressful that it made him worse. I've also wondered if his low temp and intestinal paralysis on the next day were maybe reversible or temporary, but they had been trying raise him temp with heated fluids, blankets, and a heating pad, to no avail. I hope I did the right thing, I'm just sorry now that I didn't take him to an ER to spend the night so he could have been monitored and maybe made more comfortable if he seemed to be in pain later in the night, and they could have done an ultrasound, although I keep reading that those can be inconclusive too, just like xrays. There are many what ifs here and I am just heartsick that I didn't immediately take him to the vet that morning when he seemed to have a tummy ache. I never dreamed he would be dead the next day. He was really bonded to me and vice versa so I am really questioning myself and missing him terribly. It's comforting that the cerenia and other medicines hopefully made him feel better at least. The vet did press on his abdomen but I'm just not sure if Cooper would have shown if he was in pain or not. Now I'll never really know, but I will have to hope that his last night wasn't spent in terrible pain and stress. I had hoped he would live to be 14 or 15 and be put to rest in our home. Anyway, thanks again. I appreciate all the information. Daphne

Do you think the low temp and intestinal paralysis meant that his body was shutting down? maybe multi-organ failure? i've been so worried thinking maybe he was just in shock and could have come out of it, that maybe i should have waited a few more hours. our great dane got very sick with addison's a few years ago, we didn't know he had it and he went into an addisonian crisis while we were boarding him and on vacation. he came out of that with expensive treament and several days at the vet, but then in just a few days went into heart failure. we tried treating the heart failure at home for a week or so with meds, but he was not having a good quality of life. we have since said many times that we were wrong to force him to live those extra few days, forcing somany pills down him daily, and him suffering. i didn't want to do that to cooper, so i just based my decision on that. i will try to stop asking anything else after this. i appreciate your patience.

Thank you. The vet said his temp had started dropping that morning, but had been hovering around 100 before then.

Just so hard to think about him suffering like that and dying so unexpectedly. He was so young and full of life and mischief. He did vomit occasionally, but as I said, he liked to eat poop so we assumed that's why. Now I wonder if he had mild chronic pancreatitis.

The vet also sent in a cytology of cells from his colon, and the skin cells seemed normal, but the vet said that he still could have had some kind of cancer, maybe intestinal. But, they did see he clostridium bacteria there.