Megaesophagus

[Christine Pullen]

Does anyone on the site have a dog with meagesophagus? I would be interested to hear how you manage your dog as regards diet and when they were diagnosed. Jack, our 4yr old was only diagnosed 18mnths ago, which is quite late even though we now realise he had this from birth and has been on and off antibiotics ever since, when well he is a happy boy who "talks" and eats for England!! I know there is a yahoo group for this but just wondered if anbody here has exerience with it?

[Howard Glansfield]

I am sorry to hear your dog has magaesophagus.You have done very well to keep Jack going for so long.

My wife and I had Albert, who died when he was just ten, in 2003.He was always a well and healthy dog but he developed all the symptoms with magaesophagus when he was aged about nine.It was devastating and is a horrible condition.The dog does not digest his food and,as you will know,regurgitates everything including water .It is not vomiting as there is no retching.

Albert went to the the Animal Hospital in Cambridge where they tried to save him and he did live for a few more weeks but he was in such a sad and unhappy state that it was not kind to let him continue.The advice was there was nothing we could  do to help him.We were told it can happen to a dog at any age .

I am sorry this is not constructive but it shows how well you are doing .I hope that you can continue to do so.

 

[Christine Pullen]

Hi Howard, thanks so much for your input, yes very nasty disease. Jack has been ill since the day we had him and was misdiagnosed as lung worm originally..after numerous tests and bronchoscopies they finally tested his swallow and there it was. I think, hearing other stories such as yours, that we are lucky to have kept him reasonably well but he does get many chest infections each one scarring his lungs more. It must have been such a shock for you with Albert, at least we are used to Jack being "special" but he is still a setter and a real character!!!

[Christine Pullen]

Hi Sue yes we have to do upright feeding too.Jack stands with his front feet on a chair and we have to roll his food into balls and feed him so that it goes straight down his throat, after months of doing this the other two have realised that he is being hand fed and are starting to play up!! It does help feeding him like that but he also has to stay there...should be 15mins but it's very hard to achieve when he is determined to get down. there is something called a bailey chair that some people use that keeps them upright but am reluctant to go that route. thanks for you input!!

[Christine Pullen]

thanks Sue, yes he does like a cuddle and we try to make it a special time for him but he just wants to get down and out in the garden!! Funnily enough he is a very stoic boy in most things but not this!!

[Astrid Landsaat]

My girl had MO and epilepsy. We lived with MO for a year and a half.  I fed her 4 meals per day which she had to eat in sitting position. After every meal she had to sit for at least 10 minutes.When she wanted to drink some water, she also had to do this in sitting position. This all went very well, the only problem was that she often swallowed her saliva the wrong way. Epileptics are usually always hungry, the meds cause that. We had her on antibiotics very often. The MO gave me a lot of work but it was easy to live with. Finally epilepsy caused her death.