Gus has hit something of a cruising speed in his struggle with megaesophagus. He has some trouble with what seems to be acid reflux – coughing up his food and swallowing it, but little real regurgitation or vomiting. I’m continuing to tinker with his diet to see what moves quickly through the esophagus and what does.

He continues to have symptoms of what appear to me to be gastroenteritis, but the vet says isn’t. He actually has few symptoms of megaesophagus, but the X-rays are quite clear. His esophagus is swollen.

The fiddling with the diet has worked. He’s eating turkey/sweet potato canned food, some of the En gastroenteric food, and some Royal Canin high calorie recovery food. I took off of all of the medications that were prescribed, and that is not only easier, but he’s doing better.

I’m adding some chicken broth to this stew and that makes it more fluid, and hopefully, will move through the esophagus more easily. Our muzzle is a great success, he can go on walks, come out into the pasture and is not able to eat the poisoned candy out there.

In a couple of weeks, I hope to have him down to one kind of dog food, the turkey and potato and some kind of liquid mix – water, yoghurt or broth.

I’m feeding him small amounts three or four times a day. Compared to the turbulent weeks before the diagnosis, Gus is doing very well. We are handling it well too, this is manageable for us.