Megaesophagus, any ideas?

[Jacoskeeper]

This last week our 8 month old female was diagnosed with megaesophagus. I did a search of the forums but nothing showed up. It all started a few months back when she would slightly vomit after eating. I talked with our vet about it and at that time decided it was probably regurgitating rather than vomiting due to the food still being intact. The vet believed it was related to how fast she ate. She has always consumed food like she hadn't eaten in weeks. We ended up slowing her eating habits down at that time by only putting a little in the bowl at a time and giving her time to swallow it all before adding more. Well over the last month or two the regurgitation got worse, even to the point that she would regurgitate water. I took her into the vet and they performed a barium xray revealing the megaesophagus. The vet now has us feeding her from an elevated platform so she has to stand up on her back legs to eat to allow for gravity to help pass the food into her stomach. The vet wants us to try this approach for a month or two and then re-evaluate the situation to see if it has improved. She seems to think that our girl will outgrow it as long as her esophagus doesn't continually get overstretched. I did some searches on the web, and from what I've found it is a life-long condition that can't be outgrown. Does anyone else have any experience with this condition? Any ideas upon treatment would be greatly appreciated.

 

[gmacleod]

There have been a few (not many, but a few) members on this board with dogs with this condition - as I recall, the feeding position that your vet has suggested did help and was even essential. Here are a couple of previous threads from the board: http://boxerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89208
http://www.boxerworld.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89755

And a few other links that might be of interest:
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_megaesophagus.html
http://www.upei.ca/~cidd/Diseases/GI disorders/megaesophagus.htm
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1571&articleid=848
http://www.caninemegaesophagus.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaesophagus

 

[SherylM]

My sister just lost her chocolate lab Taz to megaesophagus. It is not something that is outgrown. He ate from a raised feeding station and only small meals several times a day. He lived to be 11 years old. She was part of the Yahoo Megaesophaugus group which she found extremely helpful and supportive. You may want to search Yahoo for it. Hugs and prayers to you and your baby.

 

[zomo]

Yesterday on New Posts I saw some Xmas pictures of somebodies dogs, and the very last link had a video of a woman that had a dog with megaesophagus. The reason I watched it was that our Zoe has a similar situation. We had a Baileys chair made for her and she eats in the chair in an upright position. We keep her in it for 15 minutes after eating or drinking. The chair works really well and the only time she regurgitates now is when she eats snow. She even backs into her chair and sits pretty by herself now. If you can find the video I found it very encouraging.I'm going to look around and see if I can find it and then get back to you.Also check out the sites on yahoo I found them very informative.

 

[zomo]

Great!

I found it appicon Go to Show off your dog, Christmas pics 2007, Valantar ,4th link. at the top of the page you will see megaesophagus and video. Fifteen minutes seems long at first but I now really enjoy the quality time I get to spend with her. Good luck and let me know how things work out.

 

[aaranda]

Hi, just saw this post and wanted to join in as Buster, the Boxer my husband and I adopted about 9 months ago, also has megaesophagus.

We did a lot of research when she was first diagnosed and heard about the Bailey chairs but neither of us is very handy so we haven't built one! But, we do feed her on the stairs so that she is in an elevated position and after she's done eating, we make her "sit" and then we hold both of her paws up so that she's in a begging position. We do this for a couple of minutes after her meals and anytime after she drinks a lot of water, and it seems to really help! She used to regurgitate once or twice a day and now she only regurgitates once every couple of weeks.

As far as megaesophagus being a life-long condition, I have read that for adult dogs there can be underlying causes (such as a thyroid problem -- that's the only one I can remember off the top of my head) and if you treat those underlying causes, the megaesophagus may also be corrected. Unfortunately for Buster, she doesn't appear to have one of these underlying causes, so for us it probably is a lifelong condition. I have also read that for puppies, they may outgrow it, so hopefully that'll be true in your case.

That said, when we first learned about megaesophagus, it seemed completely overwhelming. But now that we've been dealing with it for several months, it's really not that big of a deal.

 

[zomo]

Hi, just saw this post and wanted to join in as Buster, the Boxer my husband and I adopted about 9 months ago, also has megaesophagus.

We did a lot of research when she was first diagnosed and heard about the Bailey chairs but neither of us is very handy so we haven't built one! But, we do feed her on the stairs so that she is in an elevated position and after she's done eating, we make her "sit" and then we hold both of her paws up so that she's in a begging position. We do this for a couple of minutes after her meals and anytime after she drinks a lot of water, and it seems to really help! She used to regurgitate once or twice a day and now she only regurgitates once every couple of weeks.

As far as megaesophagus being a life-long condition, I have read that for adult dogs there can be underlying causes (such as a thyroid problem -- that's the only one I can remember off the top of my head) and if you treat those underlying causes, the megaesophagus may also be corrected. Unfortunately for Buster, she doesn't appear to have one of these underlying causes, so for us it probably is a lifelong condition. I have also read that for puppies, they may outgrow it, so hopefully that'll be true in your case.

That said, when we first learned about megaesophagus, it seemed completely overwhelming. But now that we've been dealing with it for several months, it's really not that big of a deal.

Neither one of us is handy either I had someone else build it Maybe it is because our dog doesn't quite have the same problem. She has a hiatal hernia but we are treating it as megaesophagus. We didn't know what else to do because the prognosis here in Canada isn't very good for the operation. :( Most dogs don't make it through. She is stable right now and we are hoping to keep her that way for as long as possible.Right now we don't seem to have any other options. She is doing very well right now so we will continue as is .