My dog has megaesophagus. Does she need a special chair for infrequent regurgitation?

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I'm sorry to hear that Rooney has been diagnosed with megaesophagus. This means that the esophagus is abnormally enlarged/dilated, and does not move food down toward the stomach appropriately. This can make dogs more prone to regurgitating their food or water, meaning the food or water falls from their mouth after eating/drinking. Dogs with megaesophagus are more likely to develop aspiration pneumonia, which can be life-threatening. The type of food is not as important as how you feed Rooney. It will be important to feed Rooney in an upright position, and offer him meatballs of wet dog food one at a time. There are specific dog feeding chairs, called Bailey chairs, that you can purchase online, that help dogs with megaesophagus eat upright. I hope this is helpful!

Poor girl. She may have a condition that is causing this such as megaesophagus. I am not sure if your vet has ran any tests yet, but I would recommend starting with thoracic radiographs and perhaps even a barium series will need to be done to detect a possible megaesophagus. Form there the vet will prescribe medication if this conditon is confirmed. The main concern with a pet that regurgitates is aspiration pneumonia. This is why they suggest to elevate the food bowl to allow gravity to help keep the food down. However most owners have to make a gruel (water mixed with food and then puréed) and also give pro-motility drugs (i.e. Metoclopramide) in addition to help manage this condition. Here is more information on megaesophagus if this is confirmed to be the cause of your pet regurgitation episodes. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=3480 I hope this helps you with Cozy’s regurgitation episodes. Best wishes and take care.

Sadly his long term prognosis is probably not very good if he is regurgitating water in addition to food. Some dogs can be managed for awhile with elevated feedings, and at some point a low profile gastric feeding tube might be an option. If the megaesophagus is caused by a vascular ring anomaly then the prognosis could be good with surgery, but this is usually obvious on a chest x-ray.

It is not normal for dogs to regurgitate regularly. I would recommend bringing Kiwi to the veterinarian and potentially getting a chest x-ray on her to make sure her esophagus isn't dilated. If it is normal then I would discuss a potential antacid for her. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

I would recommend using wet food that you can roll into balls and feed individually. A canned food such as Royal Canin Low Fat GI or Science Diet I/D mixed with canned pumpkin is good to use so that you can roll them easily into balls. I also recommend a Bailey Chair for feeding dogs with megaesophagus in. This keeps the feedings elevated and helps prevent regurgitation and aspiration. I hope this helps! Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns!

Hello, I am so sorry Brandi has been struggling. Based on the information you provided, I suspect Brandi has megaesophagus which occurs secondary to neoplasia, myasthenia gravis, hypothyroidism or its idiopathic. Independent of the underlying cause, a permanently dilated esophagus carries a poor prognosis and often leads to pneumonia. Some medications such as metoclopramide, cerenia and sildenafil may be helpful. Additionally, you should research a Bailey’s chair which forces the pet to eat in an upright position to prevent choking. I hope this information helps.

There was a recent study that looked into the use of Sildenafil and megaesophagus. At a recent conference held by an internal medicine specialist, they are now using Sildenafil in these cases to reduce regurgitation and are finding great improvement and a decrease in the amount of regurgitation. Here is a link to the paper. There were no comments on weight gain when using Sildenafil and no mention of this in the study. I hope this helps! You can show your veterinarian this research paper as well. We have used Sildenafil in several cases of megaesophagus now and they have shown much improvement since starting. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns and I would be more than happy to help you further! ( http://caninemegaesophagusinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Sildenfil-CIM-Full-1.pdf )