Pets with chronic pancreatitis often have a history of repeated bouts of abdominal pain aod gastrointestinal upset. Between episodes, the dog seems normal, but each episode of acute pancreatitis causes additional destruction of the pancreas. Eventually, some dogs develop progressively more severe signs. Careful dietary management can alter these repeat episodes. Cats, in contrast to dog's frequent bouts of acute pancreatitis, experience persistent chronic pancreatitis, producing a slowly progressive inflammation and vague signs of illness.
Some researchers report that chronic pancreatitis is more common in the male than in the female cat.
Abdominal pain is not present in cats with pancreatitis. Most cats with pancreatitis suffer loss of appetite, weight loss and variable lack of energy. Many of them also urinate more often than usual. Abnormalities are not as consistent in the blood analysis of cats with pancreatitis as they are with dogs, which makes the disease more difficult to diagnose in cats. Often, laboratory results from cats with chronic pancreatitis are normal.