Megaesophagus in a puppy.

Dr. Marie replied:

Aw, I'm sorry to hear that your new little dog is having these problems.

It sounds like the problem the vet was concerned about is something called megaesophagus. There are a few possible reasons for this but some dogs can be born with a problem where one of the veins that is in the heart of the dog as a fetus does not grow properly. The vein can end up wrapping around the esophagus (the feeding tube from the mouth to the stomach). When this happens we see that food has a hard time getting to, and staying in the stomach, and most food comes up again.

If it is megaesophagus, some dogs can be cured with surgery, but this would be an expensive surgery as it would involve going into her chest.

Have they advised you to try feeding her from a raised platform? If I'm suspecting megaesophagus I recommend that my clients feed their dog from a chair so that the dog has to stand upright in order to eat. Often gravity can help the food get into the stomach. Additionally, watering down the food can help as well.

The blockage is likely further down than her throat (i.e. closer to her stomach) so it may appear like the food has gone down, but then it comes up again.

There are a number of other things that can cause puppies to vomit, but the symptoms really do fit with megaesophagus. If Macey had a foreign object in her stomach (i.e. something she ate) then this could cause her to vomit. But, this really should have shown up on the barium xrays.

A virus such as parvo virus could make her vomit but she would also have explosive watery diarrhea and be very sick. It doesn't sound like this is the case.

Some parasites can cause vomiting, but again, we should expect some diarrhea. And to be honest, I've never seen a parasite cause this kind of vomiting pattern.

I wish I had more answers for you. If the vet suspects megaesophagus this is really likely to be the cause. (Usually on the xrays you can see that the esophagus is much bigger than on a normal dog.) I have had some dogs with megaesophagus that do extremely well by eating from a raised platform and eating watered down food as mentioned above. The other concern though is that dogs with megaesophagus can be more prone to getting lung infections because they can aspirate on food that is either sitting in the esophagus or being regurgitated up.

Let me know if you have more questions. I hope your little one improves soon!

Dr. Marie.




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