The pancreas is a part of your pet's digestive tract, and it serves to create insulin and other digestive enzymes that aid in your pet's ability to process the food that he eats. When your pet's pancreas becomes damaged for some reason or another, feline pancreatitis occurs. This condition typically involves an improper release of the digestive enzymes, which causes your cat's body to begin digesting the pancreas itself. As a result, your pet's pancreas becomes inflamed, and it continues to lose functionality. Left untreated, pancreatitis may cause long term damage or even death.
One of the best ways that you can help to moderate feline pancreatitis is through the food that you give to your cat. Pancreatitis oftentimes comes about in pets that have unusual or inconsistent diets. If your cat's pancreas is constantly adapting or modifying its production of enzymes and insulin, there is a greater tendency for the system to go awry and for your pet to develop this damaging condition.
Fasting Is Suffering from Pancreatitis
In many cases, your veterinarian will recommend that you force your cat to fast for a period of time if he is suffering from pancreatitis. The goal of any pancreatitis treatment is to reduce the workload on your cat's pancreas and digestive system, and fasting completely eliminates the need for your cat's pancreas to function in this way. Many vets will also recommend cutting off your cat's water supply for hours or even days. Of course, during this time of fasting, it is important to ensure that your pet remains properly hydrated. Intravenous hydration techniques are useful in ensuring that your cat remains stable during the fasting period.
Following the designated fasting period, you should gradually reintroduce solid food into your pet's diet. Fasting tends to work best for acute cases of feline pancreatitis. In chronic cases, this treatment method may temporarily ease your pet's pancreatitis symptoms, but it will not sufficiently solve the problem of the cause of the pancreatic inflammation and damage in the first place.
Easily Digestible Foods
Whenever your pet eats any food, the pancreas responds by producing digestive enzymes. The more difficult the food is for your pet's body to process, the greater the number of enzymes that the pancreas will produce. Consequently, it is best to limit the amount of work that the pancreas has to complete, and to reduce the number of enzymes that your pet's body produces in the first place. A low-fat diet of easily digested foods and non-solid food items is ideal.
Many of the leading cat food brands offer low-fat and easily processed formulas. Science Diet and Prescription Diet are two of the most popular brand names with these specially formulated diets for cats suffering from pancreatitis.
It is important that you work with your vet to address your pet's condition. Left alone, pancreatitis will not normally resolve itself, and will continue to progress. Your cat's long term health and comfort rely upon a prompt and thorough treatment of his pancreatitis.