Meghane, need your advise

15 years ago

My dear friend 4 year old poodle is seriously ill. Below is the symtoms she describes. Can you offer any input?

My little poodle, BeBe, is seriously ill. He has not eaten in 3 weeks, except once in a while we can get a teaspoon of baby food down.

We follow him around cleaning large globs of regurgitated foam off his face. When he starts gagging, he needs to walk. We were surprised he lived through the night. We are terrified that he will aspirate on some of the foam. He is a tough little guy.

Yesterday they did birium xrays. His esophagus is very enlarged. I could see on the xrays that there was no damage or obstruction. The esophagus being large allows a large airpocket to form and that keeps the food from going down. It doesn't make sense, but I saw on the xray that the birium just sat there in the pocket under his back bone. I then saw an xray where they pushed a probe on down to his stomach, so again no obstruction. Most likely the neurotransmitters are not sending the message to the muscles of his esophagus. It is as if the muscles are paralized.

They sent us home with 2 cans of canine critical care ensure type liquid. We hope to be able to get a teaspon of this down every 3 hours. Of course he won't touch it. I am going to mix it with baby food. It has to be liquid, as the part still open is very small. It looked to be about 1/2 the size of a match stick. The good news is he is drinking water. I know they can live a while without food, but not water.

This is so rare a defect, that this is the first time the vet has seen it outside of vet school. He is in contact with the doctors at Texas A & M University vet school on a regular basis, making care decisions. In one artical I read the vet had seen this 4 times in 32 years.

He will live the rest of his life with his food and water dishes elevated so the substances can go down easier.

We are hoping the test results for that test on Tuesday will be back monday. The test was for a neuromuscular disease, named myasthenia Gravis.

I am not sure where we go from here, but the artical gives me hope.

Thank you!

Edna

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Comments (4)

trinigemini
15 years ago
There is a bulldog on one of the rescue sites that has a pocket in her esophagus. She has to be fed on an incline so the food goes down properly. Maybe instead of just putting the food higher they should also feed her on the stairs. Not sure if its the same problem but it might help to get the food down if the dogs body is in a position to help. The throwing up of foam is probably due to the empty stomach. My old bully used to do that if she did not eat for long periods.
Meghane
15 years ago
The condition is called megaesophagus and it causes regurgitation and aspiration pneumonia, which can be fatal. I have a bulldog patient who has congenital megaesophagus- he has aspirated several times and each time it is a little worse. There is permanent damage to his lungs what with each incident of aspiration gets worse. Eventually it will kill him. This is the fate of any dog with megaesophagus unfortunately. If there is a cause that can be found, the megaesophagus can be controlled and not get worse, but there is no real treatment other than trying to prevent aspiration pneumonia.

Ways to prevent aspiration pneumonia vary depending on the severity of megaesophagus. Mild cases can be fed upright with gruel or liquid diet, which makes it easier for food to get past the esophageal sphincter. Once past the esophageal sphincter the animal cannot regurgitate, so they cannot aspirate. There is a regular at the veterinary school with severe megaesophagus who had a stomach feeding tube placed. The dog cannot eat or drink anything by mouth- he has to be fed and watered through the tube. However being a golden retriever he sometimes gets into things and aspirates, landing him in ICU if not on a ventilator for a while. This is very expensive but the dog is totally worth it and luckily the owners can afford several $2000 vet bills per year.

If the dog has MG that is the best case scenario. It can be treated, so the megaesophagus will not get worse. However the current degree of megaesophagus will not improve.

This is a disease which carries a poor prognosis, unfortunately. But some owners are able to provide their dogs with a relatively good, albeit shortened, life. Eventually aspiration pneumonia gets most of them. I wish your friends good luck.
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todancewithwolves
Original Author
15 years ago
Oh dear, that is sad news. I wonder if I should tell her or leave well enough alone :-(

Thank you so much for answering my post, Meghane. You are an angel in this forum.

Edna
cindyxeus
15 years ago
Please send this link over to your friend, belive it or not there are many survivors with ME, and this is from a group that lives with it and can walk your friend through everything.

Here is a link that might be useful: help for dogs with Magaesophagus

Meghane, need your advise

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Meghane, need your advise

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