Lucy’s Bailey Chair
I have the best husband in the world. 
And Lucy has the best Dad. She has megaesophagus… as you might know from prior posts. If anyone has missed out… she no longer has muscles in her esophagus that can move her food into her stomach. So if she eats regular food, the food gets stuck in her enlarged esophagus and won’t go down. She ends up regurgitating it a couple hours later.
She lost six pounds before we figured out what was going on. Now she is gaining most of the weight back and you can’t feel her ribs so much. My husband built this Bailey’s Chair for our collie girl Lucy. The original design was for a dog named Bailey. We got the plans and my husband built it this week. Doesn’t it look great! He did an awesome job! And he even used leftover paint, wood, and soft tiles so he didn’t spend much money on it.
We were holding her up on the couch, but we wanted to get her more vertical. We also wanted to get a way that we didn’t have to sit with her for 20 minutes every feeding. And we feed her four times a day.
She gets 2/3 cup kibble, 1/2 can wet, and water blended together in a blender… she gets that mixture twice a day and we cut it into two meals each. So four meals a day. And so far, it’s working really well. She doesn’t like to stay in it for 20 minutes… but we are feeding her, and then we let her lick some honey out of a bowl when she is still.
I don’t want her to learn that struggling gets her out of the chair. So when she is still, she gets a lick of the honey, which she loves. And so far, so good. She struggles a little, but not really so bad.
She is our baby girl, we want her to live many years yet! She’s only nine and a half!
On this day..
- Jessi is a Doll - 2007
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That is a great chair!!! You guys did a great job on that thing and it will make it so much easier for her to eat. She is so lucky to have you guys!
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Thanks Lora! I think it makes it easier for all of us.
Poor Lucy! But what an awesome chair! Yay for Lucy’s new chair!
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Thanks Rebecca! We like this chair for sure!
OMD! That’s amazing! I’ve never seen or heard of anything like this. I’m so glad it’s working, and I would bet that soon, Lucy will love her chair and being in it. I’d do it for food, you bet! Nice hubby!!!!!
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Thanks Johann! She is getting used to it and loves to eat in it!
Awesome! The chair looks great! I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, Lucy couldn’t have a better mom and dad taking care of her!
Thanks Marie! Her food is staying down better when she’s in her chair!
Go, hubby! You’ve got a keeper, Cyn! And look at Lucy lovin’ that chair – bet she knows it was built specially for her…!
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Heya Pam! The husband is a great guy.
And Lucy is doing well!
[...] cute and the Mum says I’m like babydolls, too. Though the Mum did say I couldn’t bother Lucy in her Bailey’s Chair when Lucy is eating. Bah. Oh well, guess I don’t get to eat that food though I [...]
That’s amazing! She looks so comfortable. Lucy surely appreciates all your love and special care.
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Thanks Joanne! I think she is comfortable in there too!
Totally excellent – and I mean your pack, you and your husband, and your dedication to the pack members!
Thanks mare! Lucy is our baby girl.
Woohoo! That is awesome! She looks wonderful Cyn.. and great job Hubby!
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Thanks Jen.
Hubby is a good guy for sure!
YAY I can’t beleive how awesome this is!! What a great guy Aaron is!!!
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Thanks Christy! He is a great guy.
Wow! that is awesome. Terrific idea.
Thanks Karen!
What a great idea. It’s always wonderful to see human innovation making life easier for animals in need. Hopefully your solution will work for other dog owners having the same difficulty!
Thanks American Mastiff… but we can’t take original credit! We got the info to build the chair off the yahoo megaesophagus list!
Aww, she looks like she doesn’t mind her chair. I’m glad it is helping her. She looks like a little kid sitting in a high chair.
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She does look like a kid in a high chair Lindsay!
We’ve been putting honey on her feet so she stays in and doesnt struggle for 15 mins. She sure likes that!
What a great job your husband did on this chair! I can tell that Lucy is loving the chair and all that comes with it! Yeah Lucy! I’m so glad she’s handling this disease.
Margaret
Your husband did a great job on the chair! What a good idea too. Lucy looks like a very good girl sitting in her chair.. I bet it feels good to her to get the food down where it’s suppose to be.
Lucy is a lucky one to have such a caring family. Hope that she’ll gain all her weight back and will feel better.
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That’s so great that you are helping your baby like that. I have a dog that doesn’t have any medical issues, but sits up like that on a sofa…he would love a chair like that. Just glad he doesn’t “need” one.
[...] Lucy’s Bailey Chair – Tip Tail [...]
Lucy is very lucky that you have discovered her problems and have been able to make her a wonderful chair to help her eat.
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How clever! The inventiveness of people never ceases to amaze me. What a great way to treat the cause instead of medicating the symptom!
Thats a pretty good looking chair. My Golden was diagnosed with the same condition and we have also built him a chair. As you mentioned Lucy gets restless so does “Murphy” after he is finished eating. I noticed that after 10 minutes i let himout he runs like crazy to the door and hunches up like he has to go to the bathroom. He runs outside and assumes the position where he has a very small bowel movement but clearly something brings this on when he is in the chair. Have you had that happen?
Can you send me the plans for how to build the bailey chair because my dog has megaesophagus also and I am trying to get one somehow. However he is a great dane and needs a very large one. my email is mori0207@umn.edu
Hi Motox! We got the plans off the Yahoo Group for Megaesophagus..
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/megaesophagus/
I don’t know if my husband still has a copy or not, but I’ll check. If you join the group I think you can get a ton of info from there!
A friend of my father has asked for help building one of these for her German Shepherd. Just looking at the general design, I am wondering if it would be easier for the dog to learn to walk in from the back and have the back raised or closed like a cabinet door than to learn to back into it. Any thoughts on this would be welcome. alldraft@bellsouth.net
Herman Miller should invent an aeron chair for Lucy