Hi all,

I'm not sure if there are any Forum members with a dog who has megaesophagus? My sister's dog, a Lab, is two years old, and has just gotten over a parasite from eating rabbit feces. Anyways, right before that was diagnosed, he was regurgitating his food.

Flash forward to now and he has been fine since last week Friday. He regurgitated his food and tried to go back and eat it twice today. I have always suspected that it was this, but I can't exactly know if it is. He is eating normally and acting like he always has.

Hopefully someone could help us! Thanks.

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Caryn
Proud owner of: Miss Maddie Magoo CD NAP NJP RE CGC

It may not be megaesophagus, especially if there are no other clinical signs of it. I'd get a veterinary exam.

Our Toby sometimes regurgitates food after eating. Usually it's because he goes into full blown zoomies or attacks on his stuffies and it comes right back up. We split his daily kibble into 3 meals which seems to help as well.

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Meet Yogi! http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com/...tion-yogi.html

Remy has Cricopharyngeal Disynchrony - which is similiar to Megaesophagus. For a dog to get to be 2 years old, and the owners just begin to think it might be megaesophagus is suspicious.

Remy was eating his meals but not growing as expected, he was not getting the nutrition out of his food. He was very thin and appeared to have a failure to thrive, or chronic muscle wasting. In his case he also had chronic sinus infections. Ultimately he was diagnosed using a barium swallow.

The nature of Remy's disorder is that one muscle of the esophagus pushes the food down, and the other pushes it up. The food ends up coming back out his nose at which point he aspirates it. In the best situation he gets sinus infections, the worst case pneumonia and beyond.

Management of his condition is fairly easy. He eats from a very elevated bowl. Gravity helps the food get to where it needs to be. I also keep him on a regimen of week on/week off of antibiotics in an attempt to avoid an infection. The downside is that his nose is ALWAYS running and he sneezes all over my house. Hey he is more than worth it!

My limited understanding of megaesophagus is that it is often (but not always) manageable. I have seen people who build interesting contraptions for their dog to sit in for 10 minutes after eating to ensure that the food goes down to the tummy. I believe there is also a theory that in some cases an elevated bowl helps.

Good luck!!!!