Fat is what causes the trouble, not the meat. A bowl of gravy, a plate of drippings or a pile of turkey skin can cause pancreatitis, and the signs often arrive one to four days later, though they can also start the same evening. Refusing food and repeated vomiting are the signs to act on.
Why the days after matter more than the night itself
Most households are braced for the evening of a big meal. A dog who steals something is watched for a few hours, nothing happens, and everyone relaxes. That is where this one catches people out, because the inflammation it causes builds rather than appears.
The pancreas sits beside the stomach and releases the substances that break down fat. A sudden, large fat load makes it work far harder than usual, and in some animals it becomes inflamed. Once that starts, it is self-sustaining for a while: the organ’s own enzymes begin to damage the tissue around it, which is why this hurts as much as it does and why it is not something to ride out at home.
Pancreatitis: what it looks like
- The praying position. Chest and front legs down on the floor, rear end up in the air, held for a while. This is a dog relieving pressure in a painful upper abdomen. It is specific enough to act on when you see it, but most affected dogs never show it, so do not wait for it.
- Repeated vomiting, often starting a day or more after the meal
- Refusing food, including food they would normally never refuse
- A hunched, tucked-up posture, or reluctance to be picked up or touched around the belly
- Diarrhea, sometimes greasy or pale
- Lethargy, restlessness, or an inability to settle in any position
- Panting at rest
- Dehydration, which follows quickly once vomiting is established
In cats it is far less obvious. A cat with an inflamed pancreas is often simply quiet, off food and hiding, with none of the dramatic posture a dog shows. A cat who has stopped eating for more than a day needs looking at regardless of the cause, because cats deteriorate from not eating faster than dogs do.
Some dogs are more prone to this than others. Miniature schnauzers, Yorkshire terriers and cocker spaniels come up often, as do overweight dogs and dogs who have had an episode before. If yours is in one of those groups, the margin is smaller and the kitchen rules need to be stricter.
What is actually in a holiday kitchen
The fat. Turkey skin, drippings, gravy, butter, bulk sausage, pork rinds, cheese, cream, pastry and the fat poured off a roasting pan. Any of these in quantity, and the roasting pan left on a counter to cool is the classic.
Raw bread dough. This deserves its own paragraph because it causes two problems at once. Dough carries on rising in the warmth of a stomach, expanding into a mass that stretches the stomach wall far enough to cut off the blood supply to the stomach itself. At the same time the yeast is producing alcohol, which is absorbed and makes the dog drunk: wobbly, dull, with a dropping body temperature. A dog who has eaten rising dough is an emergency now, not a watch. Do not wait for the bloating to become obvious.
Onion, garlic, leeks and shallots. In the stuffing, the gravy and the roasting pan rather than eaten on their own. The effect on red blood cells is cumulative and shows up three to five days later as weakness, pale or yellowish gums, dark urine, or a dog who tires on a short walk. Phone us if you see any of those in the week after a big meal, even if your dog seemed fine at the time.
Raisins and dried fruit. In fruitcake, butter tarts, pumpkin or pecan pie, and anything with raisins baked into it. Any amount is worth a phone call, because the kidney risk does not scale predictably with quantity.
Cooked bones, and the string around the bird. Cooking dries bone out so it shatters into edged fragments instead of crushing. The string is the part nobody thinks about: it comes off the roast soaked in fat, it goes down easily, and string stretched along the gut does more damage than a bone fragment usually does. If your dog has swallowed string or cooked bone, phone us the same day even if they seem fine, and watch for repeated vomiting, straining with nothing passing, or a tense painful belly. If you can see string at either end, do not pull it. That is what does the damage. Come in and let us remove it.
Sugar-free anything. Xylitol in baking, in gum left on a counter, and in some peanut butters. In dogs it causes a steep drop in blood sugar, often within half an hour but sometimes delayed twelve hours or more when it came from gum, so a dog who looks fine an hour later is not in the clear. Larger amounts can also injure the liver. This one needs attention in minutes rather than hours.
Alcohol. The glass left on a low table, the cream liqueur in a dessert, and the punch bowl. A dog who has had any is wobbly, dull and cold to the touch, and a small dog needs very little. Phone us straight away, because this one drops both body temperature and blood sugar.
If your dog has eaten something rich
- Phone us and say what and roughly how much. A lick of gravy and half a roasting pan are different conversations, and the answer depends on your dog as much as the food.
- Say whether there was dough, raisins, onion or anything sugar-free in it. Those four change the urgency completely, and dough and xylitol both mean come now.
- Withhold further food until you have spoken to us or to an emergency hospital, hours rather than overnight, and then follow what we advise rather than a general rule. Long fasting is not the current approach and can make things worse, so this is genuinely a question to ask rather than to assume.
- Keep water available unless your dog is vomiting repeatedly, in which case stop offering it and phone.
- Do not try to make your dog vomit. With a large fat load there is no benefit, and with dough the retching can make the stomach problem worse.
- Do not give anything from a cupboard or a cabinet to settle the stomach.
- Watch over the next three days, not just the next three hours. Refusing food, repeated vomiting, a hunched back, the praying position or a dog who will not settle all mean phone us.
- If we are closed, do all of this with the nearest open emergency hospital rather than waiting for us to open.
Our urgent care is the way in for this. Our diagnostics team runs the bloodwork and imaging that separate an inflamed pancreas from a blockage, which matter because they look similar from the outside and lead in different directions. Our medical services team manages the fluids, pain relief and feeding plan that follow, and most dogs need a few days rather than an afternoon. Afterwards, our nutrition counseling team is where the next few weeks of feeding gets sorted out, because a pancreas that has been inflamed once is more likely to do it again.
We are open 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM Monday to Saturday and 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Sunday. Big meals happen in the evening and the consequences surface the following day, so most of this falls inside our hours. The windows to plan around are overnight and Sunday evenings after five. If your dog has eaten raw dough, anything sugar-free, raisins, or anything with string or cooked bone in it during those hours, or is in obvious abdominal pain, go to the nearest open emergency hospital and phone ahead before you leave or have a passenger call on the way. None of those wait until morning.
Keeping the kitchen uneventful
- Put the roasting pan in the oven or the sink, not on the counter. A cooling pan of drippings at nose height is one of the easiest ways for this to happen.
- Let dough rise somewhere with a door. A microwave, a closed oven or a shut room, never a countertop or a warm spot on the floor.
- Brief the guests before the meal, not during it. A lot of dogs who get a plate of fat get it from a visitor who thinks they are being kind. One sentence at the door is enough.
- Shut the garbage away for several days, not just the evening. One bag now holds bone, string, skin and poured-off fat, and that bag stays dangerous long after the plates are cleared.
- Give your dog their own portion before everyone sits down. A dog who has eaten is a dog who begs less.
- Agree one person is in charge of the dog during the meal. In a full house, supervision that belongs to everyone belongs to nobody.
- Keep the counters clear overnight. The leftovers get raided at two in the morning, not at eight in the evening.
- Save our number and the number of the nearest open emergency hospital in your phone before the weekend starts.
Our guide to bringing the outdoor cat indoors for winter covers another change a North Delta household makes at this time of year, and the adjustments that go with it.
Questions we are asked
My dog ate a lot of turkey skin last night and seems completely fine this morning.
Phone us today anyway. Pancreatitis typically declares itself one to four days after the fat load, which is why a dog who seems fine tonight still needs watching, but it can also start within hours, so vomiting or pain the same evening is not a reason to wait. Phone us today and tell us how much and what size your dog is, and then watch carefully for three days for the praying position, vomiting, refusing food or a hunched posture. Any of those, come in.
What is the praying position, exactly?
Front legs and chest flat on the floor, hindquarters still up in the air, held for longer than a stretch would be. It looks like a play bow that does not end. A dog doing it repeatedly is trying to take pressure off a painful upper abdomen. It is worth knowing because it is hard to mistake, but refusing food and repeated vomiting are far more common, so the absence of this posture is not reassurance.
How much fat does it take?
There is no number, and that is an honest answer rather than an evasion. It depends on the dog’s size, their body condition, their breed, what they normally eat, and whether they have had an episode before. A small terrier and a tablespoon of drippings can be enough; a large dog with a robust gut may handle considerably more without trouble. Because the variables are in the dog rather than the food, we would rather you phoned than calculated.
Is raw dough really an emergency if he only had a small piece?
Yes, phone us straight away. The piece that went in is not the piece you are dealing with, because it keeps rising in the warmth of the stomach. On top of that, the yeast produces alcohol as it works, so you get a stomach problem and a drunk dog at the same time. It is one of the few food situations where we would rather see a dog before anything at all has happened.
Can I give my dog a plate of leftovers if I take the bones out?
Taking the bones out removes one problem and leaves the bigger one. The fat is what inflames a pancreas, and a plate of skin, gravy and stuffing is almost entirely fat, onion and salt. If you want to include your dog, a little plain cooked turkey meat with no skin, no gravy and no seasoning, in place of part of their normal meal rather than on top of it, is a reasonable way to do it.
My cat has not eaten since the family left. Is that just stress?
It might be, and a day of a cat sulking after a houseful of visitors is common. But cats hide abdominal pain well, and a cat who has stopped eating for more than a day needs to be seen whatever the reason, because not eating causes problems of its own in cats quite quickly. If your cat is also hiding, hunched or resenting being touched, bring that forward.
He has had this once before. Does that change anything?
It does. A dog who has had an inflamed pancreas once is more likely to have it again, and the threshold is often lower the second time. For those dogs the holiday rules need to be strict rather than relaxed, and it is worth a conversation with us about long-term feeding before the season rather than after the next episode.
Speak to the team at North Delta Animal Hospital
If your dog has eaten something rich, has eaten raw dough, or is showing the praying position or a hunched, painful posture, phone us and come in. Outside our hours, go to the nearest open emergency hospital and have a passenger call ahead.
Published by the team at North Delta Animal Hospital.
This article is educational in nature and is not a replacement for hands-on assessment of your own pet by a veterinarian.
North Delta Animal Hospital
8243 120 St, Delta, BC V4C 6R1
Phone: (604) 596-8252
Email: northdeltavets@gmail.com
Hours: Monday to Saturday 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM; Sunday 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM