6/29/21 – Please welcome Jack Picklesworth! He was turned over to us by his owner so we determine out what is causing him to regurgitate his food. For the past eight months before coming to rescue he has not been able to keep food down. His family has tried numerous foods and feeding techniques as well as an abdominal exploratory surgery with no success. The next step for him is a scope and maybe a CT scan if the scope does not provide answers.
6/30/21 – Jack had surgery today and all went well. He was neutered, had his palate shortened and had his nares widened. We ruled out mega E with a barium swallow test but do not know exactly what’s going on with him causing the regurgitation. We have a scope scheduled with the specialist in a few weeks but until we are hand feeding him one piece of food at a time slowly over a half hour period three times a day while he is standing up on a step. This approach has been working over the last few days. Hopefully the scope will give us a definitive answer and a surgical fix.
7/20/21 – We had a specialist do a scope today to see if we can determine what is causing him to regurgitate his food a and if there is a surgical fix. The esophagus showed mild dilation in the cranial thoracic esophagus. There
were linear erosions in the caudal esophagus. The stomach was mildly edematous. There is there is no surgical fix. It is going to be a matter of experimenting with consistency of food, feeding him slowly, feeding him while elevated, keeping him elevated after eating, limiting his excitement after eating and not leaving him in a crate or behind closed doors right after eating (this seems to get him worked up causing him to regurgitate).
At the moment we are feeding him ½ cup of food three times a day, once piece of food at a time while he has his front paws up on a small table. We give him once piece of food, let him swallow it, then give him the next. This seems to work well for him as long he stays calm afterwards. We are looking into getting him a bailey chair so that he can stay in one stop after eating so that his food can make it to his stomach and stay there.
An ideal adopter for him would be someone that can stay home with him, is retired, works part time or works from home with a flexible schedule. There is no magic fix for this, it is a matter of finding a good feeding schedule that works for him to keep the food down. He will also be on omeprazole (probably for life) to help with any stomach and throat irritation. He is currently using a Bailey Chair; he eats in this chair and sits in it for 15-20 minutes after eating.
11/27/21 – Jack has been battling a hematoma in his ear flap. We attempted to place a tub in the flab and drain it two weeks ago but two days after it was removed the flab filled up with blood again. He had another procedure today to attempt to correct this.
6/27/22 – Jack has been adopted. Congrats Jack, Nicole and Mike!
approximate age: 2
approximate weight: 19 when he came into rescue, 25 now but still a little underweight
likes dogs: yes
likes cats: n/a
likes kids: he has been around children over the age of 10
food: hydrolyzed protein prescription food
lifelong medications: omeperzole
Bully Bag Sponsors:
Carol Robertelli, The Foy Family