Here is a good overview of pancreatitis:
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/pancreatitis__feline_.html

I would suggest you keep a very close eye on how much your kitty eats, cats should not go very long without food or they could be at risk of fatty liver disease
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_hepatic_lipidosis.html

If he does not eat by tomorrow morning, please give your vet another call and make sure she realizes its urgent!!

And keep us posted!

The marvistavet site is a good one.

Here is a link that might be useful: pancreatitis info

Did your vet run a full blood panel to check your cat's organ function? If not, you should have that done immediately and ask for a copy of the blood test results for your own records. That will allow you to do some research online so you can get a better understanding of the significance of the different blood values.

Pancreatitis is difficult to accurately diagnose in cats. It requires specialized testing. If the condition is confirmed, it will necessitate a change in diet for your cat.

Sammycat is correct about the importance of keeping your cat eating. If he refuses to eat on his own, it will be necessary for you to assist feed him by syringe until his appetite returns so you don't risk him developing hepatic lipidosis.

Let us know exactly what diagnostics your vet performed this morning, please.

Laurie

Silvergold, we don't mean to scare you about pancreatitis - it's probably nothing serious. If your vet says it's rare - then you're probably not dealing with something so serious.

I would look at mechanical reasons for your cats behavior first - like maybe a sore mouth. Will she eat canned food? Canned is more stimulating to an animal, of course. When you say "dental work" is it just a cleaning?

vicky

Thanks everyone for your responses!! Actually I'm pretty familiar with pancreatitis - our IBD cat was diagnosed with it. The web pages you mention are really good too. What I didn't really follow was the connection between dental work and pancreatitis. On one of the webs I had read something about trauma being a cause - could that be it? Or something about the drugs they give during the dental work? He did have three extractions in addition to the teeth cleaning.

Just to keep this straight - Bo is the cat currently having problems. Cougar is the IBD cat previously diagnosed with pancreatitis. With Cougar we did all the blood work and an ultrasound. His condition is maintained with pred and pepcid ac. He flares up every winter so we have to be more careful then. Most of the time Cougar insists on eating the same prescription diet food the other two cats eat but seems to know instinctively when to eat his Low Residue food. One thing we have learned with Cougar, is you give him what he will eat, just roll with it or he will starve himself (or vomit and loose weight that way). The vet has been OK with that. For a while he ate ID food, but he turned his nose up at that. We will always bring him to the vet early if he flares up and we can't seem to control it. Our vet actually said she thought Cougar was going to die when he first got sick, but that was a few years ago and although he needs care he is doing really well. Cougar is a small tabby, but we have always suspected that he has some siamese in him. Some place I had read that digestive track issues are more common with siamese.

Bo is showing some of the same eating signs. Over the last few weeks he has got more and more picky about his food, more distracted when eating. Thursday was the 'last straw'. It took me 40 minutes to get him to eat that morning and he didn't even eat 1/3 a cup of food. He was an 18+ lb cat!! In the evening he would not eat. I pulled out Cougar's Low Residue and he finally ate some last night. (I had actually tried a couple weeks ago to give him some - but it was mixed in with his normal food and he didn't go for it.) This morning I was so happy when he ate 1/4 a cup of the Low Residue and then asked for more. But then he wouldn't eat again this evening - this the cat that normally is always hungry! Just before bed I did get him to eat some. The vet says he needs to eat just over 3/4 cup to maintain his weight. He had lost about a pound since he was there in January - and I think most of it was this week. So, we are watching him closely. I did give him pepcid ac this evening so perhaps that is why he finally ate.

It's hard to know for sure as he did seem like he was having problems with the large kibble - lots of it falling back into the bowl half chewed, acting like it was getting stuck in his mouth. Either way, the vet thinks it's good food for him because it is bland for his digestive track, plus small size. The Low Residue is dry food that he ate, but did also try giving him some of the canned and he ignored it completely.

Regarding blood work, he had everything (blood, urine) before his dental work. There was some blood showing in his urine at the time - we tested again and the vet determined it was OK. We did take blood today for a CBC so she can compare the white blood count. Will know results on Monday. Will go from there to see if he needs more blood work, or an ultrasound if he isn't eating. I will probably continue to give him the pepcid this weekend. The vet knows we have tried it but not continued it before. Nothing found with the physical exam - mouth healed OK, no tenderness in the abdomin. He had a premolar pulled on both sides so perhaps thought that could give him issues with the large food.

So, any thought about why the rare link between the dental work and possible pancreatitis? Thanks for your input. You all are a great group!

(And did I mention Wilson - the cat we think has allergies and sores at the corner of his mouth that haven't gone away since last spring. Currently on pred and antihistmine. Will continue with that for another couple of weeks and then more testing for him if he still doesn't improve. We had tried both pred and the antihistamine before, but never together. Talked about allergy testing today with the vet - at least it isn't the same pin prick method I had done on me!! His sores do not look like the granuloma I've seen pictures of. )

Well, I did some searching on the relationship between pancreatitis and surgery. From what I read it may be related to aneshesia-induced hypotension (low blood pressure)/decreased blood flow. This really has me worried. I remember the vet saying something about having to reduce the amount of gas during surgery for such a big cat because of low blood pressure.

He seems to be eating a little better, but his eating habits really remind me of Cougars that I still think there is something there. Poor kitty!!

I just came up with the same thing- ischemia can cause pancreatitis in cats.

The vet was referring to reducing the anesthetic gas. Anesthetic gas is delivered as a percent of total gas, usually between 1-5% if using isoflurane which many vets do. The rest of the gas is 100% oxygen. Reducing the gas means that instead of using say 2% isoflurane, they turned it down to maybe 1.5 or 1%. Which is the right thing to do in the face of low blood pressure. But if reducing the iso wasn't enough to increase his blood pressure to the correct level, they should have done something else too, like increase his IV fluids for example. There are other things you can do to increase BP while under anesthesia, but they are usually reserved for emergencies (administering colloids IV, certain drugs).

Please watch him carefully for signs of hepatic lipidosis. As an overweight cat he is at an extremely high risk if he isn't eating enough food. Unfortunately cats with hepatic lipidosis feel crappy and stop eating, which is exactly the opposite of what they need to do. As long as the food doesn't hurt him by exacerbating any other medical problems, give him anything he'll eat.

Dropping the food out of his mouth sounds like he is having mouth pain. I know just having a dentristry you'd expect there to be nothing wrong, but mouth pain is a primary differential for oral dysphagia. Perhaps an extraction site became infected or just hurts for some reason. It is really difficult to get a good look into the mouth of a fully awake cat, so if need be, a little sedation for a good oral exam may be in order, assuming his CBC is normal.

I hope BO continues to do better.

Thanks meghane for your response! I really appreciate it. Bo is such a mama's cat. Although I think he probably did just barely make it to target food today (he finally ate some of the canned low residue too), he is just not himself. I think the pepcid ac is helping some too as we gave it to him again tonight when he wouldn't eat his dinner. So he did better than he has the last few days which is good.

I watch the way he eats now - so easily distracted, not eating when he is obviously hungry, needing multiple feedings where in the past one would do. That is so much like Cougar has been over the years. And knowing he is overweight presenting a special risk.

I think we will call early Monday morning to go ahead and do the rest of the profile work. He was so cranky today. DH kept wanting to hold him tonight and he wanted nothing to do with him. But followed me wherever I went to and cuddled with me under a blanket. He slept all day from 10:30 - 5:30 with Cougar - even Cougar who was napping with him seemed worried as he was ready to get up long before that. In my gut I really feel like he does have pancreatitis too. Just hope we can control it like we did with Cougar and it doesn't develop into HL.

Since we switched him to the Low Residue which is much smaller he isn't dropping the food like he was. So, that is much better.

Thanks again for your response. I'm so worried for my baby!!

Whew - doing much better. Bo is doing a good job of eating his new food today and Sunday. The vet said it was actually low heart rate, not blood pressure during the surgery. Going to do the rest of the blood/urine work on Wednesday since he was so out of it Saturday just to be sure, but the CBC came back really good. Going to hold off on an ultrasound and see how he does.

silvergold,

My cat had his teeth cleaned six years ago and had lots of trouble eating afterward. Food kept falling out of his mouth and he didn't seem to be able to chew properly. It turns out he had a stroke because a careless vet allowed him to be deprived of oxygen while under anesthesia. He would get frustrated and stop eating. He wanted to eat but it was so hard for him he gave up. I had to feed him with a syringe for over six months before he was able to eat enough on his own to be healthy. I'm not saying that this is what happened to your baby but it may be a possibility.

Got another theory- esophageal stricture due to something that happened under GA. Possibly he had a gastric reflux while under GA and that can literally burn the esophagus. They're usually OK at first, but as the esophagus heals it constricts. This can make it very difficult and painful to swallow, which may be why he's reluctant to eat and has a bit of dysphagia. It can be checked out with some advanced imaging- either barium study or fluroscopy. So if his bloodwork is OK and he's still having trouble, that may be another possibility.

Hi there. I really think it is the food size as far as his difficulty chewing and dropping his food. As soon as we changed food to a smaller kibble he stopped having issues with that. So, don't think there is an issue with stroke.

He is doing really good on the new food and actually ate more than he is supposed to yesterday. And ate really well this a.m. We are keeping withe the pepcid ac for now too. So, hopefully all will turn out OK.

Thanks!!