Congenital Megaoesophagus - be alert when choosing a breeder

[Mrs Pepper]

Not sure if this belongs in health or breeding but a heartbreaking story about a condition I'd never heard of

http://www.yourdog.co.uk/The-Your-Dog-Blog/a-tribute-to-monty-highlighting-the-importance-of-finding-a-reputable-breeder.html

[ejp]

Devastating.  I remember Many Tears had a dog with this condition.

[PennyB]

cockers aren't really prone to this though from what I can see as its more likely shar-peis, fox terriers, german shepherds, great danes, irish setters, labrador retrievers, miniature schnauzers, newfoundlands

[aljeana]

My Jodie had this condition & was a 2nd puppy i had from the same breeder who was small breeder with an occasional litter & used top show line breed stud dogs there was no reason to expect any of these puppies to have this dreadful condition.

I collected Jodie at 9 weeks of age she was the normal active puppy all but a bit small she had passed vet checks by breeder & my own very experienced vet, all was fine untill around 11 weeks of age when I started to noticed Jodie had a suffle sound & her puppy kibble seemed to be scattered about in her cage.  On the dreadful day we realised something was really wrong was when i had given Jodie her breakfast & I heard a cough & gasp to turn round & see her unable to breath i picked up up tipped her upside down & hit her bottom & out came all this food.

A rush to my vet for him to examiner Jodie and for him to say her chest was like a wind bag gurgling & wooshing he said straight away Jodie has a mechanical problem & very serious and in 30 years this is the first actual puppy he has seen with this dreadfull condition.

Jodie was referred that day to specialist she had endescope to see what was happening they explained that sometimes mostly these puppies are non operable & that they have to be vertical fed with balls of food & is not normally dtected until the puppy is 12 weeks old.  Jodie results that day showed that her ME was being caused by her swallowing action miss timing so her food was pooling at the back of her throat & not following through causing the ME.

They asked us to take her home feed her vertical hold in that position for 20 mins so that her food would go through with gravity & they would send the images to Liverpool vet hospital for them to analysise the images & see if there was anything they could do

They told us we had been unlucky
It is not always breed related so not genetic
A lot of puppies die before being diagnosied so no true figure
Sometimes it is kinder to PTS

We were lucky at 15 weeks of age we had a phone call that saved Jodie that Liverpool felt that by operating of her throat muscle they could hopefully correct her swallowing, Jodie was operated on & the same day she was able to eat fron a raised bowel & normal food.

Where are we now Jodie is 7 years old a little madam she is tiny but all so much of a typical Cocker, she does agility.  She still has problems hot weather she can get aspiration phemonia she has inflamed bowel disorder as her gut does not quite work well her food can ferment.

She eats normal food Millies Riverside as they suggested Duck base food & has her bowel raised and the only regular medication she has is Ranitidine syrup.

All in all she is a little myrical 😄

[Mrs Pepper]

That's amazing and I hadn't realised how rare it was. How lovely that Jodie is ok in spite of her issues, I guess you appreciate her every day. 

[aljeana]

We are so thankful we had a very experienced vet who did not hang about as Jodie just would not have survived as it is she may be small but has a big personality & adorable even if she is a massive digger buries all the toys we found some recently that she must have buried last year at least ago that had tree roots growing through them 😋

[elaine.e]

Just wanting to point out that a congenital condition is one that an animal or person is born with. It doesn't automatically mean hereditary. It's usually due to an abnormality in the foetus. So the article about Monty, while very sad, possibly doesn't give an accurate picture. If Monty's breeder knew that Monty had the condition and sold him in that knowledge then he/she would be a bad breeder. But as neither the breeder, the breeder's vet or the owner's vet picked up on the condition initially I doubt this was anything to do with bad breeding practices.

I'm glad your Jodie is doing well aljeana.

[aljeana]

I agree Elaine as this is what happened with Jodie this condition does not come to light until puppy is around 12weeks of age so will have passed vet checks.

I went to see Jodie at 4, 6 & 9 weeks to collect nothing was obvious my breeders felt dreadful offered to have Jodie back we said no so they refunded the purchase price.

But as you say this article is not very acurate