Pancreatitis is a painful inflammatory condition common in dogs, with both acute and chronic forms that cause significant suffering and require careful dietary management to prevent recurrence.
Acute pancreatitis is severely painful — dogs with moderate to severe pancreatitis are experiencing significant visceral pain that requires aggressive multimodal analgesia. Historically underrecognised in veterinary practice, pancreatic pain is now better managed with combinations of opioids, NSAIDs, and adjunct analgesics in hospitalised cases. Chronic pancreatitis creates a cycle of repeated painful episodes, progressive functional loss, and owner management burden. The most important welfare intervention is prevention through strict dietary control: dogs that have had one episode are at high risk of recurrence from any high-fat dietary exposure. This means rigorous owner education about what constitutes a high-fat food and the importance of never giving rich treats or table scraps. Dogs living in households where dietary management is inconsistently applied continue to suffer preventable recurrent episodes.