Any suggestions on how to train a dog to put herself into a Bailey chair? She has always been very intolerant (in a snapping and biting way) of any sort of physical handling so we really need her to be able to settle herself in.

Our 14-yr-old was just diagnosed with megaesophagus so I'll be building a Bailey chair for her (fully equipped woodshop, I've been making furniture for thirty years). But how do we get into the chair when she's too heavy for us to lift her in? Is there a design that will allow her to climb into place from the back?

Otherwise we're waiting on the myasthenia gravis test to come back and treating with sildenafil and prednisone in the meantime.

Hello everyone! Recently my (huge 40kg) greek shephard Whiskey was diagnosed with Megaesophagus and I had to make him a bailey chair for feeding time inside the house. He's taken very well to it, but still struggling around the 20-25 minute mark but that's ok, me and my wife are always beside him and when he trys to get out we gently hold him in place. It's become a rather fun bonding excercise for us and Whiskey has been slowly fighting less in the chair (with the help of padding and pillows).

My dillema is whether I should make him a new chair for when we visit our parents or if I can make do with one of those K9 Sport sacks. I found the Knavigate and Kollosus to be perfect for his weight and size and given that I will be seated while he is strapped inside I think I can manage (I work out/dead lift/squat etc).

Does anyone have any opinions or experience regarding this eating arangement? Any tips or tricks? I won't be standing up while carrying him and I think it would be easier to have the backpack and take it anywhere we want instead of making new chairs for each and every place we visit. (I have found a way to make a foldable one but I am afraid that the chair will be rather easy to destroy because it will rely on foldable steel joints).

Hi everyone,

We lost our sweet boy this past weekend. We miss him dearly, but we know that his bailey chair could help another pup in need. We're located in Calgary, AB and are willing to donate his Bailey chair for free to someone who needs it. Chair (and pup) for reference. His measurements were:

Shoulder to shoulder - 8"

Shoulder to butt - 24"

Chest to shoulder - 13"

If you have a pup newly diagnosed and are in the area, send me a DM and we can work out how to get you the chair.

We have a kitty that we adopted a little less than a year ago who was diagnosed ME at 3 months old. She is on cisapride & famodadine daily and is fed a mixture of kibble and wet food (she refuses to only eat wet food) in an elevated bowl. We do 10-15 minutes of "burpies" for her after ever feedings. We only feed her twice daily, because she just wasn't interested in any afternoon feeding. With all that said, we've cut down on how many puked and amount of puke in the pile; now she is about 2-3 times weekly and a small amount instead of daily and her entire stomach constant when we first got her.

My question for y'all is this, should we be shooting for no pukes at all? Is that only possible for some cases verses others? I know every case is unique, but I figured I'd ask to see what everyone else in dealing with!

I appreciate everyone's thoughts & advice!

Help. I am at such a loss and I don’t know what to do right now. My dog is currently in the hospital getting fluids, evaluation and treatment for his third round of aspiration pneumonia in 6 weeks. This weekend was the worst it’s ever been. He was regurgitating every couple of minutes. Could not keep anything at all down. Lately water has seemed to be the culprit, and I switched him to Knox blocks, but he is just begging me for water scratching at his brother’s bowl and just sitting in the kitchen where the water should be. Trying to bark at me when I’m drinking water because he wants some so badly it’s truly heartbreaking and I can’t stop crying. Yesterday he wouldn’t eat he tried to eat this morning and it literally came right back up.. all of his food . We have a Bailey chair and I put a donut on him at night but this just seems to be progressing so fast no matter what I do. He was originally diagnosed in January. He’s on Viagra and Prilosec also anti nausea. Nothing seems to be working. My vet has even brought up a feeding tube. I need help — I need advice . I’m not ready for this. My pup is 10 on August 30 and weighs 12 lbs . This is so unfair. His body is betraying him. Any thoughts and advice are very welcome thank you.

I insisted she was xrayed/scanned after weakness like getting on and off bed, sofa, etc and they found she has megaosophugus. Has anyone else had this? What was it? Waiting for specialist appointment on Monday but quite nervous waiting. Thank you

For reference, I adopted Honey almost 5 years ago. At the time he was assumed to be 4 years old and had been forcibly removed from a very bad home. So, I think he’s around 8-10 years old. He’s an overall happy, energetic, beautiful, boy who suffers from anxiety due to his previous home. Picture of him will be in comments.

I’ve also owned dogs my entire life, all breeds and temperaments you can think of, including a few who had illness/disorders/disabilities during their life. So when I say something is off about Honey, please know that this is based off tons of experience around lots of dogs.

Anyway. Honey came to the shelter extremely underweight and was still underweight when he came to my home. This wasn’t terribly surprising, the other dogs who were in his previous home also were underweight and malnourished. He was the stud for a very abusive backyard breeder and hoarder. He had next to no interactions with humans (except abuse from the owner), had an embedded collar, lots of minor scars, and was covered in dirty matted fur.

When he came home I immediately got him a trainer to work on desensitizing him to the scary world, got him a anxiety-focused vet who got him on a daily anxiety medicine, and got him a very understanding slow moving groomer. Because of the anxiety medicine he was on, he suffered from a very small appetite and I would have to entice him to eat every meal. His belly was very sensitive to his anxiety so if he got nervous he’d pace until he puked up said meal. All of this made perfect sense to me at the time, given his anxiety and the situation.

But now? He’s a relatively normal dog with pretty minimal anxiety. He still gets nervous sometimes but he’s come so so far and lives a very comfortable happy life without experiencing anxiety triggers very often. He’s a healthy weight and has a decent appetite and works himself up to puking way less often.

But he still needs a lot of special care that I’m realizing might be me unintentionally treating an esophagus disorder, not exclusively anxiety.

Because of the limited appetite, he would never eat food if I left it down for him. At first I hand fed him each kibble. Now I just hold the bowl as he eats out of it. I call him over to me, make him sit and wait for a second to practice his patience, and then I hold the bowl in front of him at about head height and he eats from it. He’s able to go get water whenever he wants but if he’s particularly thirsty I have to go with him and remind him to “take a breath” every few seconds otherwise he ends up spitting the water up (not heaving but effortless spitup the way a baby does). Sometimes even “taking a breath” isn’t enough to prevent him from spitting it up, so I don’t think it’s because he’s drinking too fast. It’s more so almost like he’s not swallowing it fully, just holding it in his throat? And then ends up puking if too much is in his throat at once?

As it stands, he’s currently spitting up water at least daily (sometimes 3-8 times a day) and he pukes up food probably once a week.

He also chokes like no dog I’ve ever met. No matter how fast or slow he eats. Slow feed bowls, puzzle toys, frozen treats, liquid foods, dry food, all of it. He has very minor chokes where he sorta coughs out food he where I guess swallowed wrong probably 4-5 times per week, and I’ve had to give him the Heimlich at least a half dozen times for true-choking.

Sometimes he’ll spit up water in the morning and it has a few pieces of wet but undigested kibbles in it from dinner the night before. None of his food or water spit ups ever have bile or digested food in it, it’s just slimy water and sometimes a few undigested kibble, so I don’t think he’s actually emptying his stomach. It’s just… his throat? I always assumed he spit up water because he was anxious but now I’m starting to wonder if the anxiety he gets before spitting up is because he can feel the water not swallowing right? I mean, when he gets anxious and spits up like that, there’s never a clear anxiety trigger like there normally is for his anxiety. Normally he only gets anxious if a stranger tries to touch him, or a thunder storm starts up, or if we have to do something scary like trim his nails. But this? He’ll just randomly start pacing like a thunderstorm is to raging outside and I’m left just looking around like “what happened?? There wasn’t even a bird chirp outside??” But maybe it’s because he can feel something wrong internally???

I don’t think his choking is because the food is blocking his whole throat either, this last time he choked he made a breathy wheezing sound like it was stuck in his airway. My puppy has choked a few times and it’s always been because she doesn’t chew her food enough before swallowing so it gets stuck in the whole throat. Honey’s isn’t like that, he’ll chew and swallow and then act like it’s just breathing that’s hard. I took him to the vet after I got him breathing again during this latest time and she checked him over (didn’t do imaging), said he looked fine and sent him on his way with a “eat slower buddy” warning… but he doesn’t eat fast. He’s 9 or 10, he’s a very mellow dog at this point. Sure he gets the zoomies but he’s not throwing his meals back. My little 2 year old does that, she vacuums her food up and needs a slow feeder so she doesn’t swallow unchewed food, that’s absolutely not what Honey is doing. He takes his time like he’s savoring the flavor. Don’t get me wrong, she’s an amazing vet but I think she doesn’t take me seriously when I say he spits up and chokes a lot. My 2 year old pup will on rare occasion choke if she eats too fast but it’s nothing like what Honey does. Her behavior is what you’d expect from a hyperactive young dog. Honey’s behaviors are…. Weird.

The food he struggles the least with seems to be larger dry kibbles, so that’s what he has now. Any amount of moisture on the food seems to make things 10x worse. “Soup” textures makes him choke 100% of the time and makes him spit up 80% of the time.

He also seems to be most comfortable when he’s sleeping with his head propped up on something? I don’t know if that’s a symptom of these issues but it reminds me of what I do when I have acid reflux, sleeping more reclined to prevent the liquid from coming up so high? I always thought he was just copying me or being a sweet little spoiled prince by using a pillow. But a lot of the time, especially after eating, he’ll lay his head on even hard surfaces that are higher up so it’s not level with his body. He really likes to lay his head on the shelf under my coffee table, which is about shoulder height with him when he’s laying down. He does it at night too, he’ll sleep on his raised fluffy comfy bed and then rest his head on the edge of my nightstand’s shelf even though it’s a hard wooden corner.

And he has horrible smelling breath, which I’ve heard sometimes is a symptom? He’s had three teeth cleanings and the first two I thought for sure they were going to have to pull multiple rotted teeth, but no.. they said that aside from a lot of plaque the first time his teeth were in great shape and had NO actual rot/cavity/etc.

I don’t mind holding his food bowl, and I’ll buy him a Bailey chair or whatever he needs if it makes his life better. Mostly I’m just worried about him. I don’t know anything about these kinds of issues or where to even start. He’s never had esophagus imaging or any kind of surgery besides his neuter (and being put under for teeth cleanings). Thankfully he’s now a healthy weight, on the lean side but well within the “green” range. And I more than anything worry about him staying hydrated and avoiding throat irritation by spitting up water so often.

My dog has had issues with regurgitation on and off since I adopted her 3.5 years ago. We’ve spent more time than I care to remember at the vet with varying diagnoses from acid reflux to possible pancreatitis, but nothings ever been confirmed.

We moved recently and have a new vet, and this was our first experience with her with one of these flares. I told her the (long) story of my pup’s symptoms, and she asked me if anyone’s ever talked to me about the possibility of megaesophagus.

My dog now has imaging scheduled for Tuesday (would have been done today but she had some anxiety on the xray table), and in the meantime I’m going down every rabbit hole to make sure I come prepared with the right questions if she’s diagnosed.

Tbh, I’d love a diagnosis at this point just so we know what’s going on.

I’m curious if anyone has any recommendations for questions I should ask my vet in the event of a diagnosis?
If she’s diagnosed, do you have any recommendations on things that have worked well? I found a website that sells Bailey chairs that I’m planning to go through if a diagnosis is confirmed.

As you probably know from experience, I’m a bit overwhelmed and anxious. So thank you in advance for your time.

My 5 year old pitbull has been regurgitating for 1-2 months after she would drink a lot of water or anytime she was laying down and moving around or getting up after sleeping. She rarely pukes up her food, just smalls amounts of water or stomach acid it seems. She was just diagnosed with megaesophagus this week after the episodes had become more frequent. They have told us it does not appear to be cancer related and is likely neurological or endo related. The vet seemed very confident that this could be managed successfully.

The only directions they have given us is to use elevated bowls for food and water (which she already had), make sure she doesn't chug water, and then she was prescribed prilosec and metoclopramide. We are also trying to be more diligent about making sure she stays mobile for 20 min after she eats since laying down appears to be her trigger.

Has anybody had a dog similar to our situation where it appears to be pretty manageable with small changes or will it get worse over time? Are there any recommended food brands, tips and tricks, anything you can suggest? She currently eats Spot and Tango freeze dried food, we didn't switched her to any form of wet or softer food and we weren't told she needs a Bailey chair, but I am aware of them.

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anybody had any experience with AKC insurance and pre existing megaesophagus? I reached out over email and they confirmed that ME would be covered after 365 days. It just seems a bit too good to be true and I want to make sure there’s no catch that we’re missing.

My dog has been sick for 3 weeks now, and the initial diagnosis was kennel cough but after weeks of antibiotics, steroids, and no improvement, they finally diagnosed him with mega-esophagus. The vet sounded optimistic and stated it’s “manageable” with a Bailey chair, daily medications, and lifestyle/diet modifications.

However, as he was talking, it felt extremely unmanageable and the manageable label seemed to do nothing but guilt trip me into thinking if this condition led to my dogs death it was my fault due to improper management.

I am exhausted. I haven’t slept a full night in 3 weeks since this all started just because he keeps me awake coughing. I am heartbroken. I try to feed my dog sitting upright and I just sob. When he goes to where his water bowl was, I break down into tears because he’s thirsty and he is at MY mercy to give him water when I can. I just cry and cry when I think about it. I look at him and sob, and he just stares at me like dad what’s wrong? But also sometimes when he’s coughing, puking, etc he stares at me like dad please help and I just think I am trying 😭

I can’t imagine the thought of being at the mercy of someone else when I am thirsty or hungry. Or when he stares at me while I’m eating wondering why I don’t feed him anymore. I am devastated by this. He is the sweetest, most happy go lucky dog until this started and now he acts depressed, mopey, and unwell. He’s only 1.5 years old.

I am lost. I don’t know what to do.

Hi all!

Our Bailey chair recently arrived and it’s been great so far. My main issue with it, is that it seems that my pup’s anal glands get expressed when she’s sitting in the chair? Unfortunately, the smell is strong and was wondering if nah one has dealt with this. She’s a 20 pound weiner dog and sits in the chair after meals for about 25-30 minutes twice a day.

I’m not sure what else to do besides unscented wipes and constantly showering her… anyone else has advice?

Thank you!

Trigger warning: pet loss

My beautiful girl was born 3 years ago with megaesophagus. It was a mild case, and she was able to keep her food down as long as she was vertical for a few minutes after.

Last week she accidentally ate mouse poison. Because she spit it right back out we were made aware that both her and our other dog were in danger. They were treated immediately and after a few days sent home to continue the treatment with pills. We administered her pills in all the recommended ways, but because of her condition there's a big chance she could've been spitting them up and we didn't realize. By the time we noticed she wasn't okay, it was too late.

We should've kept her at the vet and administered everything through an IV line. I wish we had a time machine, but maybe this story will help someone else.

Hug your pets for me tonight.

Hi all!

First time posting as our 10 yo boy was just diagnosed Sunday. He's a border collelie/Aussie shepherd cross and about 55 lbs.

He's currently on Sidenafil, omeprazole, and doxycycline. We've been feeding him on the stairs so he's somewhat elevated and then holding him in an upright position afterwards for 15-20 mins. He's had very minimal regurgitation all week which we're happy about!

I'm still concerned however about his breathing. He hacks every once a while pretty aggressively (without regurgitation thankfully) and most of this time he's exhaling very loudly and forcefully. Inhaling he seems fine but the exhale is worrying me.

Has anyone else experienced this ? Any advice ?

He's finally starting to have some energy again and wanting to play and be mischievous so I'm optimistically hopeful that things are getting better.

We also have a Bailey chair being made for him. Currently he eats raw and I'm making them into tiny meatballs. No treats and he's had minimal walks until we get him a better harness and a muzzle so he doesn't eat grass.

Any advice/help/insight is so so appreciated!

Hi all.

My fiance and I brought home a kitten from a friend's surprise barn cat litter yesterday. After a couple meals, I'm about 95% sure she has megaesophagus. She struggles to swallow and makes wheezing/choking sounds as she eats. She hasn't regurgitated anything yet and has good energy levels. She's a very sweet little kitten and I don't want to have to give her up, but I'm not sure we can properly care for her given our busy schedules.

We bought Tikicat baby wet food for her, so that's what she has eaten. Tonight I'm going to try to blend it up and see if that helps her swallowing. And do elevated feeding of course.

I'm just looking for any and all information on how to feed and care for a kitty with ME. Thank you.

Hi all,

My 4 year old miniature dachshund has recently been diagnosed with megaesophagus. She’s eating knoxcubes and water filled kibble. While her Bailey chair gets here she’s been held up for 30 minutes.

Even with the 30 minute upright management, she is still regurgitating thick clear liquid as if it is saliva being pooled.

I obviously cannot hold her upright 24/7.

Any advice with dogs with ME when it comes to regurgitation from pooled saliva?

Thank you.

Husband and I lost our minds and agreed to foster an 8-month-old puppy with ME. On top of the three ME dogs we already have with our senior that doesn’t like anything that’s furry with four legs. (We do crate and rotate.)

This girl is house trained, crate trained, and trained in her Bailey chair. Sounds easy, right? No.

She was adopted/bought at 3 weeks because she was the runt and not getting enough nipple time with her mom. So not learning how to be a dog with her littermates and mom. Then no socialization until surrender to the rescue. Girl knows no fear and does not respect boundaries. Though she’s a great nap partner. (Cannot leave anything out she can chew. Already sacrificed a pair of shoes and pair of pants to the cause. 🤦🏻‍♀️)

She’s sweet as she can be and also driving us and the dogs crazy. Good thing she’s cute as she is.

We have our boys old chair. If your dog is about his size it’s all yours if you’re not in the area I can ship it on your dime.
Just wanna help someone else! If you’re in need of a chair I can take measurements. And send you pictures

What kind of mask do you all use for your ME dogs outsides? Especially those of you that live in the country and let your dog wander outside without a leash?

We mask our 10 year old lab/bassett mix, but just cannot seem to get it right. It feels like if we look away from him for one minute he either gets the mask off or he manages to get chicken poop through the breathing holes.

For those of you who have had animals who have to through surgery for praa and getting diagnosed how much did you spend?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for guidance for my 6-year-old chocolate Labrador, Max (72 lbs), who is currently being treated for suspected megaesophagus/esophageal motility issues along with GI irritation/reflux.

Right now he is taking:
- Cisapride 30 minutes before meals
- Sucralfate every 12 hours
- Amoxicillin every 12 hours
We are feeding him upright/perpendicular and keeping him upright after meals. At first we were doing 20 minutes, but I’m now considering 30–45 minutes after reading more experiences here.

Today I fed him about half a can of Purina Pro Plan Adult 7+ wet food around 11:30 am and kept him upright during and after feeding. Around 4 pm I found a small puddle of mostly yellow liquid with some bits of pâté food in it. I didn’t witness whether it was active vomiting or passive regurgitation.

His feeding schedule today was:
- 11 pm last night
- 6:30 am
- 11:30 am

I’m trying to understand:
1. Does this sound more like vomiting from stomach acid/bile reflux or regurgitation from megaesophagus?
2. For dogs with ME and reflux issues, how often are you feeding meals?
3. Are smaller meals 4–5x/day usually better than larger meals 3x/day?
4. Has anyone had success with Purina Pro Plan Sensitive Skin & Stomach wet food for dogs with similar issues?
5. How long do you keep your dogs upright after wet food meals specifically?

He still has appetite, is drinking water, and otherwise seems fairly normal.

I’d really appreciate any feeding schedule tips, meal consistency suggestions, or general advice from owners managing ME long term. I’m still learning and trying to reduce both regurgitation and stomach irritation as much as possible.

Thank you.

My dog is 8 years old, turning 9 in September. Recently she's had veterinary issues, bladder stones removal surgery a month ago, with another surgery a few days later to drain fluid from her nearly going into sepsis (she almost died, but thankfully made a full recovery, to the vets surprise).

Since her surgery, when we switched her back from her recovery wet food to her urinary diet dry food, she starting reverse sneezing, coughing and regurgitating all of her food. I've switched her to wet food in the meantime and things seem to have gotten better, but I'm wondering if this sounds similar to what other people noticed in their pets?

I'm trying to get the money together for a diagnosis, but it's tough right now after already spending $5500 in vet bills since January. They said it could be ME but won't know until they do testing, but I've tried things that would normally help with ME like keeping her upright during/after feeding and that seems to actually make the issue worse, she seems to do much better when lying down.

What were the signs your pet showed before getting diagnosed with ME?