Tag Archives: Megaesophagus - Page 2

Animal Communicator?

Posted by on February 22, 2010 1 comment

Lucy

So, I’m thinking about calling a local Animal Communicator (aka Pet Physic) to come and see what our pack has to say. Mainly I want to know if Lucy is hurting or not. She regurgitates a lot, still, and I wonder if her throat is hurting her. It’s so hard to know. She eats just fine but her throat has got to be too raw.

And maybe if Patty the Pet Psychic comes, she can talk to our whole pack and see how they are. I emailed her, and she’s fine with having 7 dogs and 2 cats here to talk to her all at the same time! So I might give her a call… it’d be fun, I think!

Maybe she can tell me how to lose weight, LOL but if that was the case then she’d be super rich and wouldn’t live in Utah anymore!

I hate that Lucy has the megaesophagus, but she’s doing really well, I think.  I just don’t want her to be in any pain. Poor dear.  She’s still my baby girl even if she is 11 years old. Wow… I can’t believe it’s been 11 years since she came to live with us.

My Dogs Don’t Act Guilty

Posted by on October 22, 2009 7 comments
Chase Little Bed

Chase Little Bed

I am one of those odd people who think that dogs don’t feel guilt. I think guilt is a human emotion. I am more of the mind that the dogs know Safe and Dangerous. And when you come home and your dog has gotten into the garbage and scattered it around, and he cowers… it’s not guilt. He just knows that you coming home with garbage scattered around is dangerous because you might explode for no reason that he can understand.

(oh and this is Chase trying to fit in the teeny dog bed I got for Jet. LOL)

Jet is in his chewing age now… he’s six months old and that’s to be expected. We do not, ever, get mad or punish him for chewing. Ever. We don’t do that with any of our dogs. We just direct him to something more productive. I do want him to know that some things are off limits, like cardboard displays or chairs or furniture, but I just push him away, tell him Leave It, and give him a bone that is a good thing for him to chew.

Lucy has Mega-esophagus and often regurgitates quite a bit. She is also pretty incontinent and will pee accidentally while she is laying down if we don’t take her out frequently.  But Lucy never, ever acts guilty for either of these acts.  I believe it’s because we have never punished the dogs for there being pee on the floor, or poop, or throw up… or the act of any of these.  So none of the dogs think these things are dangerous in any way and don’t show the ‘guilt’ signs that people interpret as guilt… but I interpret that the dog is afraid of something dangerous might happen.

I’m very proud of this.  I don’t want my dogs to think there are things dangerous in the world… mainly me or my husband.  I want them to feel safe at home. We train in other ways. We encourage success. We DO set boundaries and limits and the dogs have good manners.  But a growing puppy needs to chew, an incontinent dog is going to have accidents.  These are not reasons to punish… actually, there are not really any good reasons to punish. :)   Redirect, encourage, and set up for success. I love positive training!

A Year of Megaesophagus

Posted by on June 23, 2009 5 comments

megaesophagus chair

Megaesophagus Chair

Well it’s been almost a year since Lucy was diagnosed with Megaesophagus. For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s a disease where her esophagus doesn’t work anymore and is enlarged. So it won’t push her food down into her stomach anymore.

Well I have to just tell you all that Lucy is doing wonderfully! I think she’s a bit skinny but my husband and the vet say she is fine. :) She eats a liquid diet at least four times a day. We put her kibble in a blender with water and blend it up, after letting it soak for an hour or so.

Lucy is in great spirits, she plays and my husband takes her to the dog park about 3 or 4 days a week. She’s 10 and a half years old, so she’s getting older too, but she’s happy and healthy now and doing well on her diet. The worst part is not being able to give her treats. But sometimes we do before we feed her to push the treat down. And sometimes she gets bully sticks, which she loves to chew, for an hour or so before we feed her again so that the food pushes down any bits that she has chewed off.

So we don’t have any POS systems in our house…. but then what would that have to do with Lucy anyway? LOL I dunno. We are just thrilled that Lucy is doing so well. A year ago we were putting her through all kinds of tests trying to figure out what was wrong with her, why she would regurgitate all the food she ate. Now we are certain she’s got some good years left. She’s my baby girl after all. I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since Lucy puppy landed on a plane and came out of her crate bouncy and happy. Dogs just don’t live long enough. She is my sweet smooth collie girl!

There’s no H in Lucy

Posted by on March 2, 2009 5 comments
Silly Lucy

Silly Lucy

We have a soft-tile floor in our basement and we often have to tear it up if one of the dogs has a peeing accident on them.  So quite often the tiles are up and being washed, some of them are scattered around drying.  The tiles have our dogs’ names spelled in them, and our cats. Though we don’t have Muffit and Tatum’s names because they came after the floor.

So Lucy is feeling better!  When she feels good and she wants dinner she brings me toys. With her megaesophagus she hasn’t been bringing me many toys in the recent past. But last night she was bringing me the H out of one of the floor tiles. I kept telling here there is no H in Lucy but she didn’t want to listen! I had to hide the H under the tv stands and then go and get her some dinner.

Oh but before I hid the H, I threw it for her a couple of times and she went and fetched it. She had fun and was prancing around like she used to. I’m so glad she is feeling better. We have been feeding her smaller meals, too, and she’s not throwing up quite as much.

She is still quite incontenent though and so can’t sleep on the bed with me. I really want to find some good diapers for her but I haven’t seen any that I really liked online yet. Anyone have any recommendations?

Lucy and her Megaesophagus

Posted by on February 22, 2009 13 comments

lucycouchAnd as the days go on, we continue to deal with Lucy’s Megaesophagus. It’s not fun.. and each time we have to sit her up in the chair to feed her, I am saddened that she has this awful disease. And each time she regurgitates on the bed frames, I feel bad for her.

Her weight is holding steady at about 61 pounds, which is good for her. We don’t want her to get below about 58 or so.  She has been up to 65 in the past, but 61 is better for her anyway.  My Husband has been taking her for walks to the local park about three times a week, which is great for her muscle tone and strength. Plus, she loves getting out!

She usually still regurgitates on a regular basis though. Mostly after she sneaks a drink of water that we don’t know about.  Sometimes her food doesn’t seem to go down, though, and she’ll regurge the food too.  But for the most part it stays down.

She just turned 10 on February 15. And we realize that once a dog is 10, they are considered getting old.  I can’t believe it’s been 10 years since little puppy Lucy came to live with us.  I wish she would live as long as us.

We are managing the megaesophagus okay, I think. I wish she wouldn’t ever regurgitate, I need to look it up and see if it’s normal for dogs to continue to do so, or if there are ways to prevent it entirely.  All in all, our Lucy girl is doing pretty good, all things considered.

Lucy Made It To 10

Posted by on February 15, 2009 10 comments
Lucy Is 10

Lucy Is 10

Yay! Lucy is 10 years old today!  I’m so happy… last year this time when we were trying to figure out why she wasn’t keeping food down, and she lost so much weight, I was so worried she wasn’t going to live to 10 years old.  We found her megaesophagus though and she’s doing so much better now!  She’s still a bit skinny and she has bad days where she regurgitates a lot of her food. But for the most part, she’s doing well.

She loves to eat, and we feel bad that we can’t give her solid treats anymore. We do give her some, sometimes, just before we feed her a liquid meal. Kibble blended with water, mostly.

Sometimes she plays with the other dogs, and my Husband has been taking her to the dog park on a regular basis so she gets too exercise. So she is doing well, and we are happy for her.  Hopefully she’ll have a few more years with us.  Though we realize 10 is getting up there for a big dog.  She seems healthy otherwise. Well, she does have calcification of the lungs, still, but that doesn’t seem to be bothering her.

Yay for Lucy! Happy Birthday Funny Faced Baby Girl Lulu.

Feeding Healthy Food

Posted by on February 13, 2009 8 comments

When I feed my dogs, I feel very good about the food they are getting. A couple of years ago I finally took the plunge and read up about feeding dogs, what food is good, and what is not. I also read about feeding a raw diet and after that I was hooked.

After a few months of actually grinding my dogs food (anyone want to buy a meat grinder?), and feeding raw bones, I finally figured out what was best for me and my dogs.

Levi With A Bone

Levi With A Bone

I like the idea of feeding raw bones, but it scares me. I’m afraid that the bones will get stuck or otherwise harm the dogs. So I no longer feed them bones. Well, I do feed them bones like Levi has in this picture, occasionally, but no longer do they get raw chicken or chicken necks. They get ground. I found a local game processing place that grinds wild game (with turkey and bones or without) and that is what they get for their raw meal.  They also get Honest Kitchen dehydrated along with their raw ground meat, as I feel like it has the necessary supplements that they need.

Chase With a Bone

Chase With a Bone

In the mornings the dogs get a kibble meal.  Usually they get Blue Buffalo dog food.  Lucy, with her megaesophagus, sometimes gets Canidae, because it grinds up a bit better. They were eating Avoderm, but we switched recently to Blue Buffalo. I have been adding some Evo into their food too, mainly for Lucy and Angel, since they are the older two, and I want to increase their protein intake.

Lucy doesn’t eat raw at all. With her megaesophagus, we worry about her aspirating her food. If she does, and gets bacteria into her lungs, she could develop pneumonia. And that’s too big of a risk. And Angel doesn’t seem to tolerate raw very well so she is also on kibble. But even the kibble we feed is the best we can get, and afford. :)

The dogs also occasionally get Keifer, raw eggs, cottage cheese, and green tripe. When I feed them these things I’m happy they are getting variety, natural foods that are best for them, and I like to see how much they enjoy it. So I’m happy with the food our dogs eat!

What do you feed your dogs?

Lucy and the Muffin Tin Game

Posted by on December 19, 2008 7 comments

We read about this game from our friend Marie, who heard about it from Astrid’s blog.. and we thought we’d give it a try! As you can see, Lucy is doing pretty good. She’s eating better again and I do want to keep her engaged and give her things to do. So here, there are treats in the muffin tin under every tennis ball. And she has to figure out how to get the balls out to get to the treat!

Lucy is a very smart girl! She gets them out in just over two minutes. With her megaesophagus we don’t give her many treats, as we are afraid they will get stuck in her throat. So after she plays this game she gets to go eat her liquid diet so it all gets washed down!

I have videos of the other dogs playing the game too, they are uploading to youtube and I’ll post them later!