3 y.o. cat diagnosed with pancreatitis, likely chronic - any advice/stories?

[butternutsquash]

Hello,

My 3 year old cat Butternut stopped eating and started hiding about a month ago. We took him to the vet, they ran x rays and blood work and urinalysis and couldn't identify the problem, so they sent him home with an appetite stimulant. He started feeling a little better so we thought it was just the stress from the new kitten we adopted. But then a couple weeks later it happened again, this time with obvious signs of pain and/or nausea. I thought it was his mouth hurting him, but a vet ran the fPLI test and found he had pancreatitis. They gave him more antinausea, antibiotics, and sub-Q fluids and asked us to come in again a couple days later for more of the same and suggested we switch him to a high fiber, low fat diet.

He is doing a little better - hiding less, willing to eat, but he clearly doesn't feel better yet. Not playful, still slinking about, still sleeping a lot, and still losing weight. He feels better after not eating for a while and gets hungry but after he eats he feels bad again for a few hours at least.

I've purchased some digestive enzymes and plan on adding it to his food, I'm hoping that will help. Most of the stories I've seen online have involved cats with other conditions, and almost always much older cats. My Butternut is only 3! It's hard to gauge what to expect when all the stories online are about cats near the end of their natural lifespan anyway, and very few stories about cats who are young without other conditions.

[mr_frisky]

I haven't an experience with chronic pancreatitis, but two of my cats have had acute pancreatitis, one at age 5 in 2016 and one aged 11 or so, in 2019.

One of my sister's cats had it too when young.

They are all fine now (pancreatitis-wise). One had to be hospitalised for 3 days, and had jaundice and a enlarged liver which was squashing her bile duct but was ok when she got home.