First, his treatment for Megaesophagus. He gets 3 meals a day. That's the most we could handle with our schedule. My family helped me build a feeding chair named a "Bailey" Chair. This is an invention by a family of a ME dog named, you guessed it, Bailey. They are kind enough to send you an instruction DVD on how to build the chair and what they do to manage their dog's condition. What this does is keep Sidney in the vertical begging position for feeding and his 30 minutes of wait time after his feeding to allow gravity to get the food down into his tummy.
Thirty minutes is a long time, I agree. It took quite a while having to sit with him while he was in the chair and keep him calm. We would smear some honey on the side of the chair for him to lick to get him to always associate good things with his chair. He is pretty good at just chilling out in the chair now without constant supervision, which is a huge burden lifted.
We created a meal that crams as many calories into it as possible. So we add instant oatmeal, fish oil and puppy weaning formula to his food and blend it in our Magic Bullet to milkshake consistency. Looks like barf, but he loves it.
To keep him hydrated, we make Knox Blox - which are basically Jell-O cubes we feed him in his chair after he eats. For treats, we made the Frosty Paws recipe we also let him lick in his chair. Plus there is about a cup or so of water in his food to blend it, which also keeps him hydrated. He cannot drink water like a non-ME dog.
We decided to use a few meds to help him out. First is Metachlopromide, which is to help him digest his food much faster than normal to avoid it sliding back up into his esophagus and eventually onto our carpet or couch. He gets this in liquid form - 2.5ml 30 minutes before every meal. We let him sit next to us on the couch for 5 minutes after he gets it so it finds it's way into his tummy. He's used to sitting upright like a person I guess.
Second is something called Sucralfate, which we use to "coat" his esophagus and kind of act as a coated Band-Aid to help when it is irritated to possibly avoid more RG episodes. We use 1/2 a pill diluted in 6ml of water and feed it to him in a little squeeze syringe. He HATES this one - and I find myself chasing him around the house for 10 minutes before I catch him to deliver the meds.
Then at night with his evening meal he gets a tablet of Prilosec OTC to try and help avoid his stomach acid irritating his esophagus and more RG while he's sleeping at night.
Don't get me wrong - there is no perfect way to avoid RG episodes - in fact it happens more often than not. We have good days and bad days, but most of what he RG's is crap he ate off the ground or stomach acid - most of his food, if not all gets digested!!!
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Here is his daily schedule:
7am - MORNING MEDICINE: Gets 2.5ml of liquid Metachlopromide 30 minutes before his meal – He needs to be held vertical for 5 minutes after he gets it
7:30am - MORNING MEAL: Bailey Chair for 30 minutes
• ½ Cup of Dried Eukanuba Kibble Soaked in ½ cup of HOT water and 1 TBSP of Olive Oil (I soak it in HOT WATER right after he gets his medicine and sometimes you need to add more water – HOT WATER so is softens food)
• ½ Cup of Eukanuba Canned Food – Chicken and Gravy Puppy Food
• 1 TBSP of Oatmeal and 1 TBSP of Eukanuba Puppy Weaning Formula
• ½ - 1 cup of additional water
12pm - AFTERNOON MEDICINE: Gets a half tab of Sucralfate diluted in 6cc of water – shake vigorously and give him small bursts so he swallows without choking
• NEEDS it 2 hours after eating or 1 hour before anything else to ensure it coats the esophagus – only needs held up for 1 – 2 minutes after
5pm - AFTERNOON MEDICINE: Gets 2.5ml of liquid Metachlopromide 30 minutes before his meal – He needs to be held vertical for 5 minutes after he gets it
5:30pm - AFTERNOON MEAL: Bailey Chair for 30 minutes
• ½ Cup of Dried Eukanuba Kibble Soaked in ½ cup of HOT water and 1 TBSP of Olive Oil (I soak it in HOT WATER right after he gets his medicine and sometimes you need to add more water – HOT WATER so is softens food)
• ½ Cup of Eukanuba Canned Food – Chicken and Gravy Puppy Food
• 1 TBSP of Oatmeal and 1 TBSP of Eukanuba Puppy Weaning Formula
• ½ - 1 cup of additional water
7:30pm - EVENING MEDICINE (as needed): Gets a half tab of Sucralfate diluted in 6cc of water – shake vigorously and give him small bursts so he swallows without choking
• NEEDS it 2 hours after eating or 1 hour before anything else to ensure it coats the esophagus – only needs held up for 1 – 2 minutes after
9pm - EVENING MEDICINE: Gets 2.5ml of liquid Metachlopromide 30 minutes before his meal – He needs to be held vertical for 5 minutes after he gets it
9:30pm - EVENING MEAL: Bailey Chair for 30 minutes
• ½ Cup of Dried Eukanuba Kibble Soaked in ½ cup of HOT water and 1 TBSP of Olive Oil (I soak it in HOT WATER right after he gets his medicine and sometimes you need to add more water – HOT WATER so is softens food)
• ½ Cup of Eukanuba Canned Food – Chicken and Gravy Puppy Food
• 1 TBSP of Oatmeal and 1 TBSP of Eukanuba Puppy Weaning Formula
• ½ - 1 cup of additional water
• 1 tablet of Prilosec with food
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