Posted on 12/17/2010 1:41:58 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
My daughter's 11 month old Red Standard Poodle has been diagnosed with "mega esophagous" which means that his esophagous is nearly twice as large as it ought to be, and the food has a hard time making into the stomach and just sits in the esophagous. He regurgitates much of his dinner daily.
This is a worrisome, messy, smelly condition, but not fatal. Her vet says she should learn to manage it by keeping him calm & upright for a half hour after he eats and offering smaller meals. Obviously he's getting some nutrition because he's 49 lbs, although he's on the small side of the standard scale.
Has anyone on the Doggie Ping list had any experience of managing such a disability and any tips to offer?
Show lambs? I am not familiar with how they feed show lambs. Can you explain further?
I have to agree with you. I love dogs as dogs. Dogs are cool because they are NOT people. Unless I really had the money to spare, I would not spend a lot of money keeping an ill dog alive. But that’s me, I don’t judge people who feel differently harshly.
The more prosperous a society the more money we are able to spend on our pets. Pets are a luxury. If we lived in a third world country or were just very poor we would not give pets such a high priority. The book The Yearling comes to mind.
I wish your daughter and her pup well....it looks like you are getting some great advice.....I know nothing about this problem but a number of years ago I sought advice from FReepers regarding my dog and I decided to go for the surgery for him and he did real well...there are a lot of good people on this site
..Merry Christmas
This is a problem for German Shepherds, and I was concerned long ago that my puppy had this (she did not - but has a host of other issues!).
I don’t know much except to definitely recommend getting a tall dish table/holder so the dog does not have to put his head down to feed. Better to use gravity to help it to the stomach.
Megaesophagus is a problem in that the dog can indeed become malnourished. I don’t think there is anything they can do to truly help or fix it, and only “management” solutions can be tried.
Looks like you got lots of tips from FReepers.
My dog was tested for megaesoph a couple of years ago. Negative for what your daughter’s dog has, but surgery and tests over the course of 2.5 weeks totaled more than $2K, and no definitive diagnosis. The closest they could come up with was high-normal levels leaning toward perhaps atypical Addisons.
Now I feed elevated food & water, but no need for a Bailey chair. My dogs browse feed anyway to help avoid torsion. The dog with the problem, tho, tends to throw herself into all activity with enthusiasm - including feeding & drinking. I have to fuss at her to “take a breather” so she doesn’t regurgitate what she consumed only moments before. Also she isn’t allowed to eat ice any more because one piece triggers a puke session. Winter living is lots easier, less need for her to come running to the water bowl, LOL. I give her a couple of laps at the bowl, then have her step back for a few breaths.
Indeed, there are. I'm going to copy this whole thread and take it to my daughter at Christmas when we are visiting and meeting Rusty for the first time, along with the offer to buy her (or build if my husband is willing) a Bailey Chair. I was amazed to learn that 1 out of 50 puppies born have this problem. I'm not sure if that statistic includes those who develop it later.
My middle Lab - a/k/a "Psycho Ruby" - is a classic candidate for bloat and torsion - high energy, thin, narrow deep chest, ravenous eater. So when we had her spayed (just to add to the fun, she's also EIC Affected so could not ethically breed her) we had the gastropexy (tummy tack) at the same time.
What is EIC affected?
Yeah, what *is* EIC Affected?
I wish I’d thought to get the gastropexy with all of mine. In that vet stay I mentioned in the previous post, the first thing I had the vets do was open her up to check for digestive blockage. I’d already lost one to it, and we all were paranoid about it.
One of those lovely genetic diseases -- found in Labrador Retrievers, Chessies, and Curly-coated Retrievers, as well as in Boykin Spaniels, German Wirehaired Pointers and Pembroke Welsh Corgis.
More than you want to know here, including a video that will curl your hair. The dog in the video has the worst case of EIC I've ever seen - my Ruby is nothing like that, it takes a lot to trigger an episode.
Reader's Digest condensed version: Affected dogs have two copies of a gene that disrupts the chemical essential to transmitting nerve impulses along the spine. 10-20 minutes of hard exercise combined with intense emotional excitement and hot weather will cause the dog to lose control of his hindquarters - just as though he was paralyzed. When Ruby went down the first time, I thought she had stepped in a hole and broken her back.
As many as half of all Labs are carriers, but carriers show no symptoms. The gene was only isolated and a test developed about two years ago. The current plan is to alter all Affected dogs, and not breed a carrier to a carrier, but given the large number of carriers there's not going to be any way to completely eliminate the gene.
Also, just like with sickle cell anemia, one copy of the gene seems to confer some advantages, at least from a field trial/hunting point of view -- high drive and retrieving ability, for example. My Katy is a carrier, and she has tremendous (but controllable) drive. Ruby's drive is extreme and to some extent uncontrollable . . . at least not by me.
Try here: U Minn website - EIC .
Check your link.
Yeah, just not my night. Finally got it right in previous post.
Scary disorder. The website mentioned nothing about pain, so I suppose the owner’s reaction has a lot to do with how the dog handles a seizure?
It sure has a lot to do with how a dog handles epileptic seizures, as I witnessed for myself with the previous lab. Poor baby.
I've adopted a "just the facts" attitude with Ruby - very calm, very matter of fact, because the last thing she needs is to get MORE excited.
She has had a couple of near-collapses since the first one, but we've been able to forestall a full blown episode by being alert to early warning signs. Her first sign is being non-responsive to commands, so if I pull her from the line, dump a bucket of water over her, and stand her in front of a fan as soon as she blows me off, the attack goes no further.
It has to be a really hot day and she has to have a bad run - with lots of whistles and recasts - before an attack is imminent. Every time you stop her on a retrieve she gets more worked up - you can hear her whining in frustration all the way back at the line. So I try not to handle her too much on a retrieve!
Have never had a dog with classic epilepsy, but have some human family members with it. Scary -- for everybody except the sufferer!
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