Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Regurgitation and Megaesophagus Life


So I got home for lunch to feed Sidney his afternoon meal and was greeted by a few piles of regurgitation. This isn't typical. Usually this doesn't happen while I'm not home for whatever reason. But I think that he may have got himself a little too excited when UPS delivered a package at the front door and they probably rang the doorbell. Lately when he has been regurgitating, it's not really been a whole meal of food, just a partial meal with gross stomach acid type of stuff.

I cleaned up after him and then fed him his afternoon meal with his Knox Blox and everything seemed like it was back to normal. I know we will never eliminate this from happening. But thinking back to when we first received the diagnosis, he regurgitated A LOT (multiple times a day for weeks at a time). So much that we thought it was never going to stop. But we worked out our routine, stayed diligent with his vertical feeding, and made sure to get a medicine that we felt worked for him (Bethanechol). With that, the regurgitation episodes decreased. We had gone through times where he didn't do it for over a month and you forget that it even was an issue. But it's going to happen and I always appreciate when he makes it to the tile instead of the carpet.

It isn't like regurgitation makes him suffer or anything. It happens fast and then that's it. DONE. Sure our floors suffer and paper towel budget is larger than normal, etc. But Sidney is just as good as any normal dog. I'm pretty sure normal dogs eat stuff and throw up too. All part of having a pet. We're lucky to have him!!

4 comments:

  1. Well said, Ryan! And he's lucky to have you and Tiffany - you are both very diligent in your care, which makes a huge difference in our ME dogs.

    Linda

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  2. I just want to thank you for creating this blog. We found out our 8 year old lab/shepherd mix, Maya, has ME and MG (myasthenia gravis) just a couple months ago. Your tips and experiences have been really useful in making the adjustments to accommodate our favorite canine girl. Keep up the good work!

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  3. Glad we could help Maya. We're all in this together!!!

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  4. My GSD also has Mega E. We use the cheap paper plates cut in half and scoop between the two pieces and place on another paper plate. We are still using paper towels but not half as much. Your blog is very helpful thanks for the taking the time to write it all out. We are new to this condition. It's all trial and error.

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