Could it be Mega-E - Page 3

Ok, I got it.....honestly. I just never heard of deworming a 2 week old puppy before today. Now I know . Thanks for the education.

Vet confirmed mega and i was going to put him to sleep because i work full time i felt that would be the best, and then one of the vet techs asked if she could take him that way he would be with her at work everyday and she knew what to do as she had a mega dog before, so rather than put him down i chose to let her take him, he will get all the help he needs to hopefully survive. and blitzen i don't know what my ? last year had to do with this ? or how i worm his puppy. Thanks to everyone for your advice

and for the record i am not a breeder.

Thought i might be missing something, so my future pup i will look elsewhere for

Well in the future i wanted to start breeding(to better the breed of course) and i am just trying to learn about pedigree and titles, and things to look for. and i dont want to buy a dog just because someone says the parents have good hips(without ofa) and east and west german without knowing what i am looking at so i dont end up with just a very high priced pet, i would like to get into working dogs, and i ran across this kennel on facebook, so i checked out the web sight. but having a German Shepherd that is a pet i like to think i know enough about his pedigree that when i see a pedigree that looks no different than my dog to stay away, i just didn't know if i was overlooking something, i mean she offers a hip gaurntee on her puppies but the parents dont seem to be ofa. I mean does that matter? and i sure dont want a working dog who's dad is 140 lbs. so i am going to keep looking, there is a kennel near me and she has titled parents and she is always working her dogs.so i think i will visit them, but for future refference what do i need to look for in a pedigree to know i am getting breed quality, what would it look like if it were east or west? i do know enough that the parents need to have all there health test with the paper to back that up.

^^^^^That's what you said a year ago and that's why I asked if you got another dog/s to breed.

Good that you found a suitable home for the pup. It 's sad when a young pup has to be put down.

FYI, I have known more than one GSD puppy who presented with these exact symptoms- Painful cries and then vomiting (NOT REGURGITATING)    On xray, the esophagus was enlarged (which can be a symptom or a medical diagnosis) sometimes the muscles of the esophagus are delayed in development. I have seen metaclopramide administered daily until about 12 weeks or longer as a successful treatment.  Metaclopramide stimulates the esophagus muscles and strengthens them over time... Puppies have come up with normal xrays after this treatment.....    

Mega-esophagus as a diagnosis such as in conjunction with PRAA, is another situation and is only ever helped by surgery and is often not successful.

Regardless of whether the condition can be reversed with treatment or not in immature pups, it is still a developmental abnormality that it would be wise not to perpetuate, IMO, as I question whether it's muscular or neurological at its base in those instances. That the pup can be normalized via medication saves one from having to euthanize a baby dog--which is never an easy decision to make--and that is certainly a good thing, so long as the person who ultimately receives that pup is made aware of the situation prior to them even seeing the animal, and it is placed on non-breeding terms only.

It would be interesting, though, to follow such pups through their lifetime, and observe what developments take place when/if the dog goes through its senior years.

i had a litter once with a ME pup and same thing as soon as she started to eat solid food same thing throwing up and very unconforable, i felt so sorry for her, i am glad to report that this puppy is doing great and is ME free at 6 months so not sure  if it was a true ME ,  she is with GSD rescue and doing great, now 2 years old, i would never wish for another, this also was the first time  i ever had one , the mom was older i wonder if that had anything to do with it.

i will also say i worm at  2 weeks and every 2 weeks untill 8 weeks , never had a problem and yes the pups sometime  have the worms and the mom is also worm at 2 weeks and since i  have had coccidia i  give my pups a dose of meds around 5 weeks too, its been awhile since i  had a litter as i dont do litters much anymore, but thats what  i have done in the past.

i am glad you found your pup the right home,   good luck.

I think it is important that people understand that the term "Mega Esophagus"  is a physical condition, (a symptom) like "swelling" or "bloated" and it literally means LARGE ESOPHAGUS.   There are many factors that can contribute to this condition.  The term is used broadly and is sometimes used as a diagnosis (like Epilepsy or Addisons would be used) I think this is misleading-    It is important that people understand what is causing the Mega Esophagus.  Sometimes it is a genetic condition of the dog that it will never outgrow, sometimes it is a symptom of other medical problems like PRAA or a improperly functioning valve/ or prolapsing intestine.  In nature, when puppies are not being offered kibble (soaked or not) they would be nursing off their mother much longer than we allow them to in our homes... They would be getting frequent, regurgitated meats from their mother's kills and would be supplemented with milk for much longer than 8 weeks. 

Specifically addressing the developmental contributor    It is not as uncommon as many people think for the esophagus muscles to develop more slowly- Not all puppies have this discomfort as there are varying degrees of development and developmental delay..   Often the breeder is unaware of the problem and the puppy outgrows it without ever showing symptoms....   

Sure, using motility agents speed things up and help the puppy to be more comfortable, but many of them would outgrow the problem without any medication.

If the puppy is eating and maintaining weight, is not spontaneously spitting up food but is showing discomfort from eating too much and actually wretching and then vomiting- it needs smaller meals more frequently.

Metaclopramide--most people would know it by the trade name, Reglan, doesn't stimulate and eventually strengthen the esophageal muscles, it stimulates stomach and intestinal contractions. It can also have some wickedly nasty side effects.  

Excerpted from the National Library of Medicine:

• Metoclopramide is used to treat the symptoms of a certain type of stomach problem called gastroparesis in patients with diabetes. It works by increasing the movements or contractions of the stomach and intestines. It relieves symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, heartburn, a feeling of fullness after meals, and loss of appetite. Metoclopramide is also used to treat heartburn for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). GERD is esophageal irritation from the backward flow of gastric acid into the esophagus.

• Once a medicine has been approved for marketing for a certain use, experience may show that it is also useful for other medical problems. Although these uses are not included in product labeling, metoclopramide is used in certain patients with the following medical conditions:

            Failure of the stomach to empty its contents.

            Nausea and vomiting caused by other medicines.

            Persistent hiccups.

            Prevention of aspirating fluid into the lungs during surgery.

            Vascular headaches.

• This medicine may cause tardive dyskinesia (a movement disorder). Check with your doctor right away if you have any of the following symptoms while taking this medicine: lip smacking or puckering, puffing of the cheeks, rapid or worm-like movements of the tongue, uncontrolled chewing movements, or uncontrolled movements of the arms and legs. The risk of tardive dyskinesia is higher if you take this medicine longer than 12 weeks. Treatment for longer than 12 weeks should be avoided in all but rare cases.

• Check with your doctor right away if you have any of the following symptoms while using this medicine: convulsions (seizures); difficulty with breathing; a fast heartbeat; a high fever; high or low blood pressure; increased sweating; loss of bladder control; severe muscle stiffness; unusually pale skin; or tiredness. These could be symptoms of a serious condition called neuroleptic malignant syndrome (NMS).

            [end of excerpts]

The OP said the pup was 'vomiting', but most people don't recognize that there's marked difference, medically, between vomiting and regurgitation. This article gives an excellent lessons on the differences, and WHY it's important to differentiate. Just as it's important to differentiate between a naturally-ocurring mega-esophagus condition, secondary to a physical defect that inhibits solids from being able to travel completely down the esophagus or as a primary condition created due to developmental issues or neurologic defect. I, too, have seen pups 'outgrow' the condition without any medication, in cases where the primary issue is a vascular ring anomaly and the breeder takes great care to feed in a manner that permits the ring itself to stretch over time and thus permit the solids to complete the trip to the stomach, and while I was always very happy to see that happen, the fact remained that the animal itself had a congenital defect that was STILL present--and with the tens of thousands of perfectly normal, healthy dogs of most breeds walking the earth, there is NO justification for using such a dog as a breeding animal when it matures...and if the combination of parents produces that defect in multiple litters, it would certainly suggest to most folk that these two dogs really weren't the most suitable breeding partner for each other.

Treating the condition doesn't make it go away or mean it was just a temporary 'glitch'. I don't have any reservations about going the extra mile for pups that can have a good quality of life with some  assistance, far from it. But--one of the saddest things I've ever seen was a horribly deformed Chihuahua that was rescued from a breeder/hoarder; defying nature and the odds, this little dog lived for three years before her insufficiently developed body could finally bear no more... Her birth defects were obvious from minute one out of the womb, but the breeder didn't have her euthanized, instead just leaving her with the rest of their Chihuahua pack where the dog managed to survive for an entire year.  And while I know that the woman who took her from the hoarding breeder loved this dog dearly, and for the next two years gave her as good a quality of life as was possible given her physical condition, I will always wonder if keeping her alive was an injustice to the dog's spirit. I'm grateful that I've never found myself in the position of having to determine the fate of an animal such as that Chihuahua, because I still don't know what I'd ultimately decide.

I'm glad the vet tech was able to take the pup in question, and hope he thrives and has a long and happy life, with nothing more than the usual bumps in the health road that any other dog risks experiencing. And hopefully this was a one-off thing, and the parents of this pup go on to produce nothing but completely normal, healthy puppies from this point forward. 

Some years ago we had a male gsd pup which was diagnosed with mega esophagus. While still a pup we used to hold him upright for a couple of minutes after eating/drinking. As he grew up we made a special stand and thaught him to eat and drink, while standing upright on his back legs. We just ajusted the height of the stand as he got bigger. No cibble, instead we fed him raw food with a high nutritiuos value so he needed less food. Other than this he had a happy dog life, running and playing with the rest of the pack as a normal dog.

At the respectabel age of 13.5 his back legs gave up so we had to let him go.

Imo Mega-E does not mean the end of the road, it is manageable with some dedication and creativity.

Not my post, but been following as I beleive this is what one of our babies has. She is adorable, smart and very active. She is a runt and I have always loved the runts, which actually means nothing as they normally grow to be just as large as the rest. We just had them to our vet to make sure her she didn't have any other ailments and with the health check she passed all, but when I explained about her eating and what sometimes happens, not every time and I feed them separately so no inhaling down. I was ready for the worst, but do not want to give up on her. After seeing the comment by Allan1995 I have hope as to helping her live a long happy life too. As a breeder I shouldn't be keeping her, but I will do what I need to do for my babies as always. Thank you Allan for your story. Here is a picture of my littlest Angel.