MegaesophagusTag Archives

Oh my, yes it’s true, and I guess in a way I think it’s kinda sudden, and in a way it’s not. Lucy has been on the decline for a while now. Years, in fact. She’s had this awful limp for going on 5 years or more, that the vets could never figure out… yup, I just looked at her Rally Advanced title, that she got in 2006, and I think she barely squeaked by just starting to limp back then.

Anyway, then she was diagnosed with Megaesophagus back in 2009. At that time the vet told us that her organs would probably start breaking down. But she has hung in there and done okay since then. My husband made her a Bailey’s Chair and she’s done good with it, keeping her food down and keeping her weight up.

But she’s been losing muscle strength for a long time, now. Muscle mass, yes, and just strength too. When I woke up, I think it was Wednesday morning, her elbow was sticking out at a weird angle. So we took her into the vet on Friday. They said she probably pulled a muscle or something and she doesn’t have the strength to stand much anymore, nor does she really have the capacity to heal. She’s 12.5 years old now. I was really thinking, just a couple of weeks ago, that maybe she really would make 13… but now we are thinking we are going to have to say goodbye to her this week already.

She can’t hardly walk now. She tries to put her weight on legs that will support her, but there really aren’t any legs left that will. She still likes to eat, and her mind seems okay. But her body is failing her. So it’s such a grey zone now. She’s not really healthy enough to be alive, but she’s not really unhealthy enough to be dead… so we really are not sure what to do. But the more I watch her, the more I’m leaning toward letting her go this week.

Of course I’ve been crying off and on for the last couple of days. We can’t do anything until next week, of course. But it’s so sad. Lucy is a link to my past that none of the other dogs have. My old house, my old life before my husband and I were married. When she goes, that link will be completely gone. And I’ve always considered her the cornerstone of our pack. Though she’s very weak now and doesn’t exert much of an influence anymore. Tatum will definitely take over as pack leader. Tatum will be our only girl left….

And we only put Angel down a year ago last May. So that is still fresh too. Ugh. The roughest part of sharing life with a dog I love so much. I letting them go. I love Lucy with all my heart, and I really don’t want her to go away.

Well so far, so good, on the Meatball diet for Lucy. The first day, I gave her a liquid meal in the morning… her regular soaked and blended dog food. I want to make sure she gets enough water and so wanted to give her at least one liquid meal. Then the rest of the day I gave her a couple of meatball meals, and also some water mixed with gelatin. I think I still gave her too much gelatin… Continue reading »

We’ve been feeding Lucy a liquid diet for about three years now. Ever since she was diagnosed with Megaesophagus. She’s our collie girl dog and she’s been doing pretty good, keeping her weight on her and staying as healthy as we can hope for. However, she regurgitates a lot. She does so mostly at night and when we wake up there’s lots of throwup stains on the floor of the basement. She, of course, eats it again which is a… Continue reading »

Yup we are painting… but not the walls, or the ceiling, we are actually painting the floor in the basement. It’s concrete and it was awful! An ugly icky red color that was hard to clean. And with Lucy having Megaesophagus, she regurgitates a lot at night, so we need floors that we can easily clean. The icky red was hard to clean. The new lighter color is much easier to clean! However, it’s easier to see the dirt and… Continue reading »

A few days ago I decided to take some new pictures of Lucy in her chair. She is such a good girl. She eats three or four times a day. She sits in her chair for 20 minutes after she eats each time. She’s actually our best dog to have Megesophagus… because she’s the most patient, and she puts up with the chair. I accidentally tried to put Levi’s but in the chair a while back. LOL. He was confused.… Continue reading »