Megaesophagus

[stellnme]

After a battery of tests on Christmas Eve, my Basil has been diagnosed with Megaesophagus.  We're waiting on the results of some of the tests to see if they can determine a cause.  We're quite devastated by what's happened in a relatively short amount of time - we were investigating a collapsed trachea, but this is far worse.  I'm interested to hear if anyone has gone through this with their dog and if so, how did you cope with the management and change in lifestyle?  I know about elevated feeding and the Bailey chair, which apparently isn't available in Australia to buy, but some handy people have made one.  Anything, really that might help.  Our healthy, cheeky  boy has gone downhill rapidly and it's heartbreaking. 

[Deeds]

https://www.buildsomething.com/plans/P2BC3ED1049F866AD/Bailey-Chair-For-Dogs

 

I hope this may help.  

[Rebanne]

Yes it was me with my girl Fern. 32 kilo greyhound. I never bothered with the chair etc, was 100% confident that it would not have been suited for us. I did elevate her food bowl and the water dish as high as possible. She slept in a crate which had pillows etc each end which kept her head up high. I always thought Fern had a rather mild case and most likely had it for at least 2 years before being diagnosed. There was no known cause and I didn't  bother with any further testing. I did experiment with different foods to see what had least chance of coming back up but can't recall what I settled on. I do remember being surprised that dry food, slightly moistened  was ok. It was approx 12 months later that I had Fern pts, she'd had a very bad 24 hours and gave me the look. She had slowly gotten worse over the 12 months. I'm so sorry Basil has got this 

[Dogsfevr]

Boarded a few dogs with it .

All I can say there is quality of life and there is using measures that at the end of the day isn’t quality .

It is a daily lifestyle change in so many ways 

[The Spotted Devil]

I had a pup from my last litter with megaoesophagus. I knew as soon as I started weaning him. It was awful. He also had other issues (including a stricture and overshot jaw) and clearly just didn’t develop quite right in utero. Hardest but kindest thing I did was to give him his wings at 5 weeks. Thank goodness my repro vets were 100% supportive as it was heartbreaking. I wish you all the best. 

[Dogsfevr]

The boarders we had just used foot stalls .4/5 meals a day which is hard if you work .Finding the right food combos was the hardest especially for one of our Boxer clients .
They literately turned most of his food into smoothies & every few days still had some harder food to give some variety but it was also based on "how " he was that day .He was a very untrained dog & as they felt sorry for him let him get away with things that didn't help overall.Quiet time after eating was something this dog struggled with so would result in bringing up the food .They struggled with letting him live life but also being proactive in minimizing  some of the risks of bring up food namely pneumonia ,he suffered from this a couple of times which told a greater toll on him in the end
They kept him far longer than he probably should have .
We have boarded others that seemed bad but once on a good diet path actually flourished but still a lifestyle change