diet/pancreatitis attack

Question
Hi Jana, well since we last wrote. First of all I wanted to let you know that YES- both of my girls are related.  2 different litters.  same mom/diff pappa.  anyway, we had started the hills pres diet d/d duck & potato.  we immediately saw some regurgitation going on with Sadie.  I decided to do the transition over a good week.  mixing the old (homecooked) with the new.  Her itching has done amazingly well.  However, we had a pancreatic attack this past Monday.  I do not kmow if her meals were given too close together that caused this.  Normally my neighbor would come to the house to feed them at 10 am, and 2 pm.  This past Monday however she had some things to take care of in the morning and I didn't even give it much thought but, she came to feed them at 1:00 and again at 3:30,  Then i fed them again when i got home at 6:00.  within 20 minutes Sadie was in pain.  She was slow coming down her doggie steps and you could totally tell something was not right with her AT ALL.  So, of course I tried not to panic, we got her in the car and drove to the er vet.  her stomach was so HARD!  i thought at first she was bloated.  we got to the er vet.  she seemed ok.  we decided to only drive there just in case things got worse we could be right there and run her in.  

she was shaking in the car.  she never does that.  she got a little excited but still she was in pain.  We get to the vet 30 min away.  and at this point she is acting like- ok what are we doing here??  she was wagging her tail and she seemed ok.  well with that, we decide to come back home and we told the er receptionist that if things were not good after we got back home, well then... we'd take the trip back there.  Sadie was doing ok, trust me otherwise... she would have been seen by the vet.  They also told us that is would be at least an hour wait when we first got there too.  we sat outside with her and i walked her around the parking lot and she vomitted a tiny bit of clear.  so fast forwarding to getting back home.  she seemed ok.  i with held food for 5 hrs. I tried to go all night but she was carrying on like a crazy dog screaming for me to feed her.  still i gave in- but only gave her maybe 2 tbls of food.  i was not risking it.  well since then, i have been feeding the same meals but smaller amounts.  she was still doing some regurgitating the last couple nihgts.  so yesterday I asked the neighbor to only feed her 1/2 of the food i had left her.  Today she was kind enough to come and feed her 3 times.  I also had added potato into the food to make it more bland last night.  Hubby and i researched foods again last night and we came across the hills i/d formula which is made for pancreatitis and gastrointestional.  The vet okayed this for us to try about 3 mos ago but then I was still homecooking and I changed my mind.  I asked him about this particular food.  it wasn't like he suggested it.   I don't have much faith in our vet (we have decided to only go to him for labs and use our specialist)

I have not had a chance to call our specialist today and they are closed tomorrow and all w/end but i do remember when we saw him last June, he said that there were several hills diets and other pres diets out there that we could try.  just to keep it low fat.  I would like your imput on the i/d.  I am very leary to change foods with her again.  I do know one thing for certain- the omega 3 in the i/d is less than the d/d so maybe the i/d would be ok.  it is a tad bit lower in fat as well.  the only thing that makes me nervous is the whole ibd thing she has going on.  her stools have been formed and i am nervous to feed her a food that has rice in it.  the i/d has rice in it bc i opened a can of it togight.  I mean i did research the ingredients, but i kinda wasn't expecting to see as much in this food.  I am nervous though I can tell you that.  tonight i mixed 1/2 potato and 1/2 dd duck & potato and so far no regurgitating.  she did earlier but light compared to the past few days.  I read somewhere that giving antacid may not be good for pancreatic dogs.  so i stopped giving her that as well.  i did however give her a reglan last night because on the site that my husband and i saw the i/d idea (this site was listed by a vet) he also mentioned giving the reglan for nausea and vomitting.  well i gave sadie the reglan around 8pm, she woke me up at midnight and got sick and then immediately started eating it before i could get out of bed and clean it up.  it was dark in the bedroom so I could not see it.  when i looked there was nothing there.  i wonder if the reglan upset her tummy again?  not for sure.  i thought about going forward for a few more days with just small meals and adding the potato to the d/d for a while to see how she does but this is really lowering the protein for her by doing this.  The vet told me to do this as we were introducing the food to keep it more bland but how long would we safe actually doing that.  Plus i do have to say that hubby is really wanting and thinking that we should be feeding her the i/d since it's made for her condition.  i worry loose stools are going to come back.  they have looked well and formed.  sometimes a little mucous still however.  but some days there isn't any.  sorry for the delay but you were not accepting any questions and i had to keep checkin back until you were available.  

(long..... again) sorry
Renee

Answer
Ya I got slammed with questions yesterday. I am wondering if the vets are all on vacation so they get me- the lowly technician. Oh well.
Well let me tell you what I/D does. You already know it's for those too conditions, so let me just tell you that is is a low residue food- meaning it moves through the system fairly quickly and cleanly- leaving no gummy stuff behind. It tastes really good too. Yes I have eaten it. It is made with some pure ingredients and is basically chicken and rice. That and some vitamins. So it is a very gentle diet.

I think you need to make her meals a lot smaller and maybe less frequent also. Did the vet tell you to feed her so many meals in one day?
I wonder if that isn't irritating her gut. It never has a chance to rest.
As you saw, too many too close together will set off her pancreas. That is why fasting helps dogs with pancreatitis, it gives the whole gut a rest.
The pancreas become so inflamed it starts to digest itself. I am not sure I can find one,but if I can I will include a picture of what it looks like.
Here is a great article that you can read about it:
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_canine_pancreatitis.html

So talk to your doctor about the amounts and times you are feeding and see if lowering that helps some.I saw that you started it, so keep it up and see how it goes. I think the reglan makes her vomit, so why give it. Maybe you should give a half a tab- try that. Have you tried to give Cimetidine instead? It's the same as Tagement. I have no idea if it will help but it is an acid buffer. Again, ask your doc.

Lowering the protein a little isn't going to hurt her at this point. These foods are still full of nutrition so she should be fine even with the added potato.
Let me know how it goes with the I/D.

Here is the photo too.Click here-->  http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_pancreatitis.html