A community for special dogs... and their families and caregivers

Help!

I need some advice! My baby was diagnosed today with ME, and I feel like my heart is broken in two! We have had an incredibly rough two months with Lance. He was diagnosed with bloat/gastric torsion in February, and had to have gastroplexy. He never fully recovered, starting off with episode where he would bloat and vomit once or twice a week. Then, it became more frequent, then daily, then with each meal. At some point the vomitting turned into regurgitation (probably close to the beginning, and I didn't realize at first there was a difference). THe last two weeks have been horrible, with him losing 25 pounds. We've made a few visits to the vet, and today they referred us to an internal medicine vet, who made the ME diagnosis. He also has aspiration pneumonia. We declined further testing at this point (to confirm MG, addisons, or hypothyroidism), because frankly, he has lost so much weight I don't think he will make it another week if we don't figure out how to feed him. The vet suggested meatballs or big chunks of meat. We tried that tonight, and he is still regurgitating. I'm a nurse, so I started an IV last night before the diagnosis and gave him some fluids, so he is a little more perky tonight than yesterday (he wouldn't even get up yesterday), so that has given us some hope that he might get better, but if he doesn't start keeping food down, he is going to die within the week. I'm at a loss. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Leanna on April 11, 2009 at 6:44pm: Take a look at this website:
http://www.caninemegaesophagus.org/

And then go to yahoo.com and look for the megaesophagus yahoo group and join it asap.

Post the same thing there that you posted here. You will get responses and a lot of information on how to deal with ME.

Good Luck.

Leanna; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Cindy Taylor on May 5, 2009 at 3:54pm: How is Lance?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lara Kretler on May 21, 2009 at 8:15am: Angie, I added a new section on the main page of this site called "Read this first" - it has some really good resources you should definitely check out. How's everything going?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Angie Lacek on June 25, 2009 at 10:34pm: Sadly, Lance died in April. We were devastated--still are actually. We have 2 other danes, Blade is 2 1/2, and Zeus is 10 weeks old (he was born a few days after Lance died). We would like to bring awareness to this disease to possibly prevent another family to go through this with one of their beloved pets. If anyone has suggestions on how we can help, please let us know.

Thanks to you all for the information and support!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Michelle Wright on July 14, 2009 at 7:12pm: Our chocolate lab was just diagnosed two weeks ago and has lost 20 pounds over the past few months. He's lost 7 in the past week. We have an amazing vet as well as a wonderful internal medicine specialist that we started seeing last year when Chopper was diagnosed with IBD. He suggested that the next step could be a feeding tube that is surgically "installed" and we would feed him through that. We don't know yet how we feel about that, but at this point, our pup (he's 7) isn't holding down food for any meals. We've tried blending food, chunks of chicken, Recovery, etc. We are in the same boat as you at this point, and are searching for answers. Chopper just finished his last twice-daily trip to the vet for injections of antibiotics because he had pnemonia from aspirating as well. They've told us that if he doesn't turn a corner, then we have about 2 months. We are devastated and are searching for answers as well. We wish you luck, good prognosis, and peace.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lara Kretler on July 23, 2009 at 9:48am: Angie, I am so sorry for your terrible loss. I know Lance is happy now on the Rainbow Bridge, but it is so hard to see them go. :(; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lara Kretler on July 23, 2009 at 9:50am: Michelle, I hope Chopper is doing better! Jack had AP too and it was a rough road back to recovery. Jack is managing his ME well now and I hope Chopper is too. On the ME Yahoogroups list I have read many success stories about feeding tubes and dogs doing really well with them! I am hoping and praying that Chopper will turn around and start gaining some weight back. I know how hard that is - Jack was down 15 lbs at his lowest and has put it almost all back on. Sending hope your way...; ▶ Reply to This