What is Pancreatitis and how does it relate to diabetes?
Diseases of the Pancreas (extracted from The Cornell Book of Cats) Acute Pancreatitis. Acute pancreatitis is uncommon, but can occur in obese cats that get little exercise and may have eaten a meal with high fat intake. Steroid administration and a decrease in the blood supply to the pancreas each may play a role in the production of acute pancreatitis. When pancreatic cell damage takes place, pancreatic enzymes are released and begin breaking down the fat in other adjacent tissues, resulting in bleeding, shock, endotoxemia (bacterial toxins in the bloodstream), and possibly death. Clinical diagnosis is based on intuition and speculation. A cat that has had an episode of vomiting, fever, and anorexia, which responds to supportive care in forty-eight to seventy-two hours, may indeed have had acute pancreatitis. Many cases are not diagnosed until after the cat’s death, when a necropsy (autopsy of an animal) is performed. Traumatic Pancreatitis. This is usually caused by an accident such
