does anyone elses dog have this, megaesophagus

[TIGGERLIT]

HI
just found out that my little toy poodle has megaesophagus, and she is nearly 2 now.
ive searched on the net for info but dosent give you much. at the moment she is on 6 tablets and a diet of chicken, lamb, rice and potato. she is not allowed anything else, which is really hard when you have 3 other dogs and they all have treats. i was wondering if anyone else has this and if they had any recepies for treats that i can make so she is not left out.
the next 2 weeks is crusial, and she is so presious to me as she was my mums last litter to be born and she was born 2 days before my mum died and she never got to see her, i know it might sound silly to people but she is all i have left of my mum, and if i lose her then i lose my mum.
so any help or advise would be really great from someone that lives with it rather then a clinical veiw.
thanks

[thugulike]

Hi tiggerlit
My Neapolitan Mastiff died from this complain tearlier this year. He was a much older dog though and towards the end of his life. It's very important to make the dog stretch up to eat as this creates a sharper angle for the food to go down. I wasn't advised to give any specific food but found that he would only eat certain things anyway. He did eat fresh salmon fillets ( I bought them frozen from Aldi so it wasn't that expensive)and this helped to prevent infection. We managed the condition well but the vet wanred us that the antibiotics he had to take for 6 weeks at a time would eventually not work. This was the case and although he looked fine when we lost him he eventually succumbed to infection and the antibiotics didn't kick in. The condition is manageable, especially in a younger dog, but you will always have to be careful about infection. Oily fish is a natural way to build up resistance to infection, hence the salmon. Make sure that your poodle is fed from a height to ensure the food goes right down the oesophagus. Good luck and I hopw your dog is OK. xx

[lankeela]

This is a fairly common condition in some lines of GSD's (believed to be hereditary) and I bred a bitch puppy who had it. I was told to give her soft liquified food to help it go down, but found that this made her bring it up again, and I eventually got her settled on complete dry food, finding the biggest nuggets I could so she had to chew and swallow each one individually rather than gulp the lot down.

Sadly although I rehomed her to what i though was a good knowledgeable home, able to cope with her disability, their vet said there was no point in carrying on and they had her put down without even telling me. I was so angry that I had gone to the trouble of stabilising her, and would certainly have had her back if they had let me know.

I have got an article somewhere, I will try to find it and post the link.

Bit worried about the salmon, (got an article on that somewhere too!) but hope you keep your girl stabilised.

Keep us informed.

[lankeela]

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_megaesoph agus.html

[TIGGERLIT]

hi thanks so much for the info so far, i will have a read on that link you gave.
so sorry to hear about both your dogs, i just hope i can do something. do you know if they can live a long life still if i can get it sorted out. even if she drinks water she is sick. im waiting on my vet to ring me as when she went to the vets it wasnt my normal vet, so that he can explain it all to me.
i will keep you up dated.
its so good to have a website like this

[lankeela]

I am sure your vet will have experience of this condition and will be able to reassure you. Don't hesitate to get a second opinion if you are not happy with the vet.

Good luck with your baby, I hope this can be sorted or at least managed.

[sambro]

Hi Tiggerlit

Sorry to hear about your poodles health problems. I am a cat person myself, but I love all animals.
I just wanted to let you know about another forum you could perhaps use to get more information. I cannot do the link thing but if you google yahoo user goups dog health , you will be able to join the forum and ask your questions. it goes worlwide and you should get a good response.
one of my cats, a cream persian who is now 6 had a problem with his jaw. On 4 ocassions he has yawned and then he has not been able to close his mouth. We had to take him to the emergency vets each time for an anaesthetic so that they could get his mouth closed .It was not dislocation. none of the vets we saw nor our own vet had ever come accross this before. Cutting a long story short. I posted on yahoo got a reply from a lady in Philadelphia with lots of information about it . Her cat had the same problem and had surgery to correct it . It was a very rare thing, only 6 documented cases of this in cats. 4 of which were persians. So it is probably genetic.
I presented all this info to my vet, who took some x-rays, agreed this was the problem, and operated on my cat and fixed the problem. Had it not been for this wonderful lady
reading my post I dont know what I would have done. I didnt even have aname for his condition till this lady told me what it was. hope this helps.

[gelda]

About what Lankeela said about the salmon, a vet told me some time ago that raw fish especially salmon is poisinous to dogs I have also seen this in articals about what not to feed your dog. As far as I know cooked fish is okay.

[Noweia]

http://www.provet.co.uk/health/diseases/megaoe sophagus.htm

http://www.gsdhelpline.com/megaoesophagus.htm

[lankeela]

Raw Salmon
Salmon eat snails that carry a fluke that contain bacteria that can harm dogs if ingested by them. The flukes can be found in any part of the raw salmon but mainly the head and the guts. Sadly your dog can be harmed by just coming into contact with the salmons blood. You can kill this bacteria by freezing, smoking or cooking the fish. Diagnosis of this is difficult due to the fact that it mimics other canine diseases like Parvovirus but it is easily treated with antibiotics once diagnosed. Please be very careful if you take your dogs anywhere where salmon might be.

[thugulike]

Hi lankeela, the salmon was always cooked. My vet said it was probably the best food Big Dog could eat and he certainly enjoyed it.