Hi my name is Kristen and I live in Lexington, KY. I have a 10 month old male boxer, Chase, who has been recently diagnosed with pancreatis. I originally took my Chase to the vet because he had a seizure one day and also because I had been concerned with the fact that he had been having diarrhea a lot. The vet told me seizures could be caused by problems with the pancreas or some other organs. She did some blood work which told us that Chase's pancreas wasn't functioning properly and could have been the cause of the seizure and the diarrhea. We were sent home with some medicine while we waited on more thourough blood work to be sent off and anaylized. As it turns out chase has pancreatis and the vet decided he should be on a low fat diet. This concerned me because Chase is already extremly skinny due to the fact that his pancreas is not digesting properly and the nutrients run right through him. So we tried the new diet which was Purina's veterinary diet dog food called EN GastroENteric formula. Chase's diarreah still had not improved so the vet added a pancreatic enzyme to his diet called Viokase-V. This is given to him daily with each meal to help him digest his food properly. The vet also recommended Chase have an ultrasound of his pancreas to see if there was anything wrong with the pancreas that couldn't be determined from blood work. A specialist from Louisville to come do the ultrasound since it is difficult to find the pancreas and properly diagnose the problem. My vet has been conferring with an internal medicine vet in Louisville, KY on Chase's condition to ensure that he gets the right treatment. However, I am still awaiting the official results from the ultrasound and how they plan on treating Chase.
It has been a slow, frustrating and expensive process to find out what exactly is wrong with Chase and how to fix it. His diet and medicine haven't brought his condition back to normal and his weight is still under. Though it has helped, I really want him to recover completely though I realize this might be something we have to deal with all his life. This has been very hard for me to deal with this emotional and financially. I am a college student at the University of Kentucky and am currently doing an internship for the planning division for the city of Lexington. It has been very difficult to deal come up with the money for everything being a full time student and working thirty to forty hours a week between my internship and a part-time job delivery Sandwhiches. I also have two other dogs, Chase's mother and sister, Jezzebelle and Jazmine. Chase's dog food costs $50.00 for a 30lb. bag and it's hard to keep the other dogs from eating his food. Separting them to eat is nearly impossible. II have also spent over $700 in the past month trying to help Chase and I don't know how much longer I can afford his medical bills. I have my hands full of more than I can handle but I will do what ever it takes to keep Chase healthy. Luckily I have my boyfriend who loves the dogs as much as I do and he helps a lot. I am concerned about Chase and what is best for him as well as what is best for me. I just wonder if there is something out there that can help him that maybe my vet hasn't thought of. Also, I was wondering if there is perhaps a different diet chase could be on that won't strap me financially but will be helpful to him. There are so many things I am confused on about this and everything seems to still be up in the air as to what is really wrong with Chase. I assume it is the pancreatis but everytime I go to the vet, she has something different to say. If anyone out there has delt with this problem before or knows anything about it or has any suggestions on diet or medication I would appreciate it very much. Thank you for taking the time to read my message. I will keep you updated with Chase's condition and hopefully my information can help someone else.
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