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No, not an old update... an update about the old dog. :-)
Took Chase to see Dr. R yesterday for a followup visit to see how well he's recovered from the pre-Christmas pneumonia. Xrays looked great and she's really happy with how he's progressed. He's off the antibiotics for now (yay!), and the only concern is a slight line showing up on the xrays along the edges of the esophagus, so she's worried that he's developed megaesophagus.
The megaesophagus could have any number of causes, including age (he's almost 14) or auto-immune (not terribly surprising, given that he's had some auto-immune problems in the past, and they're not uncommon in the breed). So for now I'm just managing it with a raised feeder and looking for the type of food that seems to cause the lowest incidence of "urping". So far, that seems to be anything that's not pasty, so his Eagle Pack kibble dry, instead of putting water on it, and supplemented with a chunks-and-gravy style canned food (current favorite is Merrick's Cowboy Cookout, which I discovered when I was desperately trying to tempt him to eat when he was sick. It's good stuff, and Dr. R and I both had the reaction that it looked and smelled as good as regular made-for-people beef stew (the picture on Merrick's site doesn't do it justice).
Of course, the youngsters don't think it's fair that Chase gets the yummy-smelling stuff and they just get kibble, so now the daily drill is to fix the bowls of crunchy food, scoop a spoonful or so of the canned stuff onto Drummer and Thunder's bowls, then put the rest on Chase's. This seems to be keeping everybody happy... we'll see how it goes in the long run.
So far, the only time Chase has coughed up his food since I got back from the west coast was the first night I was back. The pet sitter had had to tempt him to eat, and in his happiness at having me back, he apparently ate too much too fast that first night (and it was Eagle Pack with water on, which turns into slush). Now I have to track how much he's eating and when and we may have to resort to (a) many small meals, or (b) hand-feeding to ensure that he eats slowly if just the changes in consistency of food don't help.
Took Chase to see Dr. R yesterday for a followup visit to see how well he's recovered from the pre-Christmas pneumonia. Xrays looked great and she's really happy with how he's progressed. He's off the antibiotics for now (yay!), and the only concern is a slight line showing up on the xrays along the edges of the esophagus, so she's worried that he's developed megaesophagus.
The megaesophagus could have any number of causes, including age (he's almost 14) or auto-immune (not terribly surprising, given that he's had some auto-immune problems in the past, and they're not uncommon in the breed). So for now I'm just managing it with a raised feeder and looking for the type of food that seems to cause the lowest incidence of "urping". So far, that seems to be anything that's not pasty, so his Eagle Pack kibble dry, instead of putting water on it, and supplemented with a chunks-and-gravy style canned food (current favorite is Merrick's Cowboy Cookout, which I discovered when I was desperately trying to tempt him to eat when he was sick. It's good stuff, and Dr. R and I both had the reaction that it looked and smelled as good as regular made-for-people beef stew (the picture on Merrick's site doesn't do it justice).
Of course, the youngsters don't think it's fair that Chase gets the yummy-smelling stuff and they just get kibble, so now the daily drill is to fix the bowls of crunchy food, scoop a spoonful or so of the canned stuff onto Drummer and Thunder's bowls, then put the rest on Chase's. This seems to be keeping everybody happy... we'll see how it goes in the long run.
So far, the only time Chase has coughed up his food since I got back from the west coast was the first night I was back. The pet sitter had had to tempt him to eat, and in his happiness at having me back, he apparently ate too much too fast that first night (and it was Eagle Pack with water on, which turns into slush). Now I have to track how much he's eating and when and we may have to resort to (a) many small meals, or (b) hand-feeding to ensure that he eats slowly if just the changes in consistency of food don't help.
