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!!

Monday, March 12, 2012

Late-Night Regurgitation


This photo is from when Sidney and I attended the Lake Erie Monsters hockey game together. They have a day where they allow dogs in the arena. He behaved very well and it was fun.

So last night Sidney woke me up at about 4am. He was having some regurgitation episodes. He threw up on the couch, the carpet, the kitchen and by the front door. It's been a while since we have had one of these. But it happens. But this morning he wasn't too into having his Knox Blox or his food. Hopefully he just has an irritated esophagus, but if he is still a bit "off" at lunch I'm going to take him in to get checked out in case he has Aspiration Pneumonia just to be safe.

UPDATE: 3/16/12:
Sid started eating again the next day. I gave him Sucralfate and maybe that helped. But he has been regurgitating a bunch this week - sometimes in the middle of the night and sometimes in the afternoon/morning etc. But overall he seems OK. We hit these patches every so often. My carpet is getting dirty, but when this rough patch is over we'll steam clean it. No worries. Just keeping a closer eye on him so we know he doesn't aspirate during this patch.