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Butters is 7 months old now and we've worked out our feeding schedule for both dogs. The one thing that I think we may be extremely lucky about is that Sidney has been eating Knox Blox for so long (his whole life) in place of water, that if we leave a bowl of water down for Butters, he will completely ignore it. Our main concern for introducing a new puppy to the house was keeping her hydrated while everything is on Sidney's schedule.Also, we crate Butters and we give her a frozen puppy Kong™ with peanut butter when she goes in the crate. So Sidney didn't feel left out, we put a small smear of honey inside a frozen Kong™ for him as well. There isn't anything really to eat - just taste. Some dogs can't even do this with MegaE, we are lucky it works with Sidney.
MORNING MEDICINE: 5mg Bethanechol and about 5 Knox Blox - sit time is 10 minutes.
We feed Butters in the morning while Sidney is in his Bailey Chair for his morning 5mg Bethanechol medicine and Knox Blox. Butters eats REALLY fast, so Sidney will have no chance to eat leftovers!
MORNING FEEDING: 1 cup of Eukanuba Large Breed Dog Food soaked in 2 cups of water and blended with 5 Knox Blox- sit time 30 minutes.
Then - we feed Sidney his blended food 30 minutes after that and then he sits in his Bailey Chair for another 30 minutes. Butters usually waits for Sidney to get done and lays by him.
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LUNCH FEEDING: Sidney gets about 10 Knox Blox - equivalent to about 1 cup of water - sit time 10 minutes.At lunch, Sidney gets in his chair for Knox Blox and Butters gets her water refilled. Sidney sits in his Bailey Chair for about 10 minutes.
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EVENING MEDICINE: 5mg Bethanechol and 2 Prilosec OTC pills - served to him hidden in Knox Blox. He ends up getting 5-10 Knox Blox - sit time 10 minutes. We changed our routine for Prilosec OTC - we give it to him separate from his food now. We used to put it in his evening meal, but he was still kind of drooly and seemed uncomfortable - so we changed and give it to him when we give him his evening Bethanechol. It seems to have worked. We feed Butters her second cup of food while Sidney is in his Bailey Chair, same as the morning medicine routine.
EVENING FEEDING: 1 cup of Eukanuba Large Breed Dog Food soaked in 2 cups of water and blended with 5 Knox Blox - sit time 30 minutes.
Sidney gets his last meal of the day 30 minutes after the Prilosec OTC and the Bethanechol. Butters is done eating already. She only eats 2 cups a day just like Sidney does now.
This is our schedule - fairly routine and seems quite effective for us. Both dogs are doing well - so we will keep at it like this unless something needs to change! Both dogs are at a great weight and look healthy to me!
Butters is getting so big...and beautiful! You and Tiff do a great job with them. Linda and Chelsea say hi!!!
ReplyDeleteI have a dog who has had megaE for 6 months and we are still trying to manage it. Your blog has been so helpful and so inspirational. Seeing Sidney happy in most of the photos tells me that we can manage our dog's MegaE too. Please keep posting and keep writing about Sidney. This is the most helpful blog we have come across. Thank you for taking the time to take care of Sidney and for taking the time to write this for others who are feeling down and hopeless about this disease.
ReplyDeleteHi Ryan. Today' we found out that our new puppy has MegaE and she is about 7 weeks old. The vet told us that he could do a correctional surgery to fix the problem but was unsure of what the outcome would be. I wanted to know if Sidney had this operation and what you opinion was about it. I also wanted to know why you use Knox Blox, bethanechol and Prilosec.
ReplyDeleteHello - there are some corrective surgeries that could help if that was the primary cause of the MegaE. Our dog was born with it, so there isn't a surgery to correct it, just a routine we created to manage it. As for the meds - Prilosec is to combat nightime acid reflux that can lead to increased regurgitation. The Bethanechol is supposed to help with the condition - I have some info in the blog that details it. Whether it works or not I can't say - but I feel it helps, so we use it. As for Knox Blox - Sidney usually has trouble keeping water in his stomach from falling back into his esophagus. So the Knox Blox are used to keep the water down more to digest.
ReplyDeleteHope this helps - all of your questions are addressed somewhere in the blog - as well as ones you may not have even thought of yet!