dec 9 

It is imperative that I start this article with a statement than I have zero people medical training or veterinary training.  Basically what I have done is combined some experience I have had with megaesophagus in puppies...  with a quick look at the Internet..  where I stumbled onto some peculiar things I thought might be interesting..

For the uninitiated..  the esophagus.. is the pipe which is supposed to deposit the contents of the chewed up stuff in the mouth into the stomach...

 

Megaesophagus  in normal people terminology--  is that when a puppy swallows its food the food doesn't get  all the way down the esophagus Into the stomach.. for a lot of complicated medical reasons I'm sure----- However in my head it's purely a physical problem  of getting the chewed up contents to flow downhill into the stomach... this  can be helped by physically changing the angle of the esophagus in the first place.

 

This condition is considered genetic and happens in a lot of breed of dogs..   when I was younger if there was a puppy with milk coming out of its nose you just knew it wasn't going to do well and it would eventually wither and die.... however nowadays...  it has a name and several ways of trying to deal with the problem of getting food all the way down the pipe..  roto-rooter has not yet been designed for dogs .    It has been found that by changing the angle that the pup  eats its dinner does help get the food into the stomach... so the puppy can thrive and survive... At which time many pups will outgrow the problem.

 

In an effort to increase the angle,  some people try simply raising the dish by putting it on a small table..  unfortunately I'm told this does not change the angle  of  the pipe where the problem occurs----- namely beyond the neck. so the next best best effort has been to feed the dog on the stairs the third or fourth step up so that the entire dog's body is tipped upwards and this does work for some... then someone invented the Bailey chair...  which is a very effective somewhat comical situation of sitting the dog on its rear end and locking the body in the chair with the front paws up by the dish -----the Bailey chair has been responsible for saving many dogs and it comes in various sizes.  People  have made their own----I bought the 3 sizes  .  We have had  great success... I am happy to say that the two or three dogs out of the 450 puppies I have delivered. all outgrew the megaesophagus and lived happily ever after.    I also have to say that because this considered a genetic problem. any dog with that problem should be spayed or neutered... 

 

That is the end of my personal experience with dealing with megaesophagus in dogs..  but as I looked up how to spell the word I ran into the fact that they are now experimenting with the use of Viagra..  which seems to be an immediate cure for the regurgitation of food so common  in cases of Megaesophagus.  

 

Ok......... Now at the tender age of 86. There  is some sort of megaesophagus terminology for people as they age.... and I know that “older people”  have to consider  the “slippery factor”     when choosing their meals, because of simple chunk of New York sirloin could be deadly...  Combine all these facts and the situation just might develop where you might see me in CVS buying Viagra. . That story would be as good as the day I was in a CVS trying to buy a pregnancy test--- of course for the my Great Dane.