megaesophagus
 

Hi! I am new here and I have a 3 year old female Yorkie named Isabelle. Izzy has just started to yak up a foamy/mucus-like liquid. It has been mostly at night or first thing in the am. We spent the first weekend in April at the vet with pneumonia.(It was not my regular vet's office) After an overnight stay with lots of IV meds and fluids she was great! I did a follow up with my regular vet and all was good. This past Monday, she had another episode and I took her back to our vet. He kept her all day and did additional x-rays and has reached the conclusion that Izzy has megaesophagus. He is doing lots of research on this condition in Yorkies (He has two of his own) but I wanted to see if anyone has had this experience and what things worked best as far as treatments, meds, foods etc... Right now she is doing great but we are on an antibiotic to prevent any additional lung infections. I would greatly appreciate any advice or tips.

Thank you in advance,
Melissa

I am no help Melissa but i am sure someone will come along who does. Welcome to Yorkie Talk:)

Sorry to hear about your baby. I do not now anything about it but hopefully someone who does will post.

I'm sorry your baby isn't feeling well. Hopefully someone will come on with answers. I just want to say hello and welcome to YT.

just wanted to bump this up

I don't have any first-hand knowledge ... but this is a great start ... it says that it can elicit pneumonia, so it sounds like your baby has already had that once.

There's a link from this page that goes to a canine resource site:

Megaesophagus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sorry to hear about your baby, don't have any knowledge of though. Welcome to YT. Hope someone can help.:)

Thank you; Our Vet found an internet group today that deals with this condition in all types of dogs. Izzy has been well for 4 days now so we are staying positive.

Need prayers for Izzy
 

Hi everyone!
Just an update on my Izzy with ME. She has started breathing funny again tonight so we have started the Bronchial meds and will be going to our vet in the am. Please keep us in your prayers and hopefully she will have a good night and not have pneumonia again.
M~

I'm so sorry about your baby. I hope she gets better soon.

Can you tell us a little more about what the breathing sounds like? Is it labored? Is it fast breaths?
Does she hack up white foamy stuff?
Does it happen mostly at night or in the morning or during the day?
I'm really curious about this condition and pneumonia. Can you elaborate so that we know what to look for?

Megaesophagus - 3 Yr Old Male Yorkie
 

Gunner has regurgitated his food (and water) since he was a puppy. That includes spitting up yellow bile and foam. We have tried many things including special prescription food thinking it was allergies. He became very ill this last weekend and ended up in the ER Vet's office because he was laboring when he breathed and would not eat (and his nickname is little goat - he eats everything!). He was diagnosed with megaesophagus and aspirated pneumonia. He is getting better now but we know he will need special care for weeks to get totally over the pneumonia, and feeding him vertically (water too) to avoid the regurgitation and getting pneaumonia again is indefinite. The good thing is he's alive and as loveable as ever and we are so glad.. What we now believe is a lot of the spitting up was his food not making it too his stomach - which caused the bile to build up. He now is on medicine for the pneumonia but also will be taking pepsid for the stomach acid and another prescription for coating his esophogus to heal any ulcers. The thing we learned most is if they aren't eating and breathing appears difficult - immediately take them to an ER Vet or your vet.

Welcome to YT, Melissa! :)

You might want to try this support group:

Canine Megaesophagus, Aspiration Pneumonia & Myasthenia Gravis - Support Page

Do hope you will also stick with YT! :)

Melissa,

I had a Yorkie, Josie, that had megaesophagus. The key thing is...regurgitation, NOT vomit. The food and/or liquid sits in the esophagus, because it's more or less flaccid and will not push the food down to the tummy. Therefore, it's not digested and comes back up looking and smelling like exactly what it is...chewed up food. No retching or straining when she regurgitated, she'd just kind of burp and there it would be...her dinner. NOT barf. Usually on me or the sofa, lol. My other Yorkie, Charlie, quit sleeping with her because he kept wearing her food and didn't like it much, lol.

I could actually feel the swelling in Josie's throat where the food was sitting in a bulge in her esophagus. No foamy bile ever appeared because she wasn't sick...just couldn't get food to her tummy. Your Izzy sure doesn't sound like a megaesophagus dog to me, but I'm no vet. Perhaps it presents differently sometimes.

I'll tell you what I did so she could get her food down...sounds obvious and silly in hindsight, but the vet was so pleased he wrote an article about it. This was back in the dark days when they were putting dogs with megaesophagus in centrifuges to force the food down....!!!

Anyway. After she ate, I would pick her up and pat her back vigorously...somewhat harder than you would if burping a baby. Sometimes I'd stroke her throat gently, if I could actually feel a bulge there. Eventually, with luck, I'd hear a big glurping sound when her food finally went down. Pretty much all at once.

She was diagnosed at Angel Memorial in Boston at around 4 or 5 months and they told me she was a goner. Well, she lived to be four, and it wasn't the megaesophagus that killed her. Turned out she had several seriously undersized organs and was a mess internally. You never would have known...she had a happy, active life until her final illness.

All this is to say, if Izzy indeed has megaesophagus...you can deal with it. :) Truly you can. :)

My very best to you and your sweet Izzy. (Sorry, I really didn't mean to write a book.)

Good grief. I just noticed how old this thread was. :rolleyes: I wonder whatever happened to little Izzy........

kmwillis,

Try the whacking on the back technique I mentioned in my exceedingly long post, if gravity doesn't do the trick...it really works. You can hear it go down. It couldn't hurt to do it after every meal, regardless, IMO. I swear they practically smile at you when they get that full tummy they deserve. I know Gunner will be pleased. :)

Hahahah it got me!

Megaesophagus - Gunner 3 Yr Old Male Yorkie
 

Gunner was just diagnosed with Megaesophagus (9/17/2010), unfortunately as a result of him getting Aspirated Pneumonia. He was very sick and the xray taken to determine if he had pneumonia showed a dialated esophagus. He was in the ER Vet for 2 days and is being treated with medicine and steam in the bathroom for the pneumonia; and Sucralate and Pepsid for acid reflux along with feeding him more, smaller meals vertically. We are feeding him canned Hills prescription ZD. He has regurgitated his food since he was a puppy - we thought he had allergies because of the regurgitating and spitting up mucus - but it was megaesophagus. It is amazing that feeding him vertically (standing on a stool with his front paws on the counter and me or my husband behind him and feeding him by spoon) has stopped the regurgitating with only a few exceptions. He only recently regurgitated but we tried to mix dry food with the canned - didn't work. There is a Yahoo Megaesophagus group that provides a lot of information. There is another Yorkie on the group website - so I know of at least 3 Yorkies that have been diagnosed with Megaesophagus although it is usually found in large dogs; although it is genetic in Miniature Schnauzers and Wire Haired Terriers Gunner is larger than most Yorkies (but gorgeous) - so I am wonder if somewhere in his line there is a wire terrier. Hope this helps!

I just found this thread with the help of another Yorkie Talker.
I know the thread is old but thought I would give it a try.
Am wondering if someone that has a yorkie with megaesophagus can tell me if their dog regurgitates everytime after eating.
I'm thinking Abby may have this issue but doesn't regurgitate everytime she eats.
Am planning on calling the vet tomorrow.