megaesophagus in pup. - Page 2

I am surprised to see no answer to the message above dated January 2007 ! Does this mean that no one is moderating this forum, or that no one can answer this question? I also have a pup of 5 months old diagnosed PRAA and ME. Apparently he is the only one of the litter to have this problem. However, one of his brother also living with us seems to be difficult concerning food and from time to time does vomit (not regurgitate). Should I be concerned and have him Xrd with baryte to verify he has not dilatation of his esophagus? Thank you for your reply.

I used a male out of a Lierburg female and bred him to one of my bitches who never ever had any offsprings with this and she had one out of the litter..noticed it at three weeks old....THe pup was put to sleep and I never sought that male again..I only used him because he was a  Bastin gr grand son....and my partner wanted a Bi color but we didnt get.one of those....all the other pups are healthy .

I too was very surprised that no one responded to my post of January 17 2007. With so many knowledgable people that are on this site and no replies, does no one care about this problem or is it too difficult and they would rather sweep it under the carpet.? Does it run in certain lines, How many breeders have had puppies with it and say nothing ?

This puppy of mine would eat  then he would start to cry & whine and simply regurgitate the food straight up he would then   eat it a second time and then it always stayed down . At first I thought maybe it was diet related, so I changed the food that I was giving him but that didn't help.The first visit to the vet he was given something to settle his stomach but of course there was no change, I had seen a dog before that had Megaesophagas that was late onset (a 2 year old) so I did know of it. So on his next vet visit I asked about the possibility of that being his problem, which of course  after a barium swallow x-ray PRAA was diagnosed and treated.

All other siblings are fine. And so is this puppy  who is now almost 2 years old.

Catimini, good luck with your puppy, in order to diagnose your puppy's problem you would need for him to have a barium swallow x-ray.

There seems to be some thinking in the posts above that the sudden appearance of MegE in a litter  out of a bitch who never expressed it before can be laid at the door of the stud dog.  Folks this is like any other genetic recessive - it takes two to tango. Both parents are carriers of the gene(s). If they never produced one before you were just lucky that you were breeding to a non-carrier.  Moving on and breeding to another stud does not negate the fact that your bitch is a carrier and probably passing on the genes to a percentage of her pups.

Kellyt(are you also dogshome9?) yes there is a concern keeping a littermate of a known MegE because there is always the possiblity she is a carrier. Now this is not my style but I do know of some breeders who view this as a fault that can be tolerated/managed (as opposed to things like heart, autoimmune,JRD, epilepsy etc etc)  because they can xray the whole litter at 8 weeks and determine if any have it. They then PTS or limit reg the affected ones and continue on their way.

I do know it used to be fairly common in American showlines but have no idea the status of those these days. Yes it is genetic and seems to follow certain families.

I have not had one(thank goodness) but in talking to breeders who have and in reading about it my understanding is that there are varying expressions/degrees of it even within one litter- I'm presuming based on the size and elasticity of the eosophagus. This also suggests as Preston pointed out a more complex inheritance than a single gene recessive- perhaps the presence of some modifiers. I do know some dogs do get better with time and as adults have little or no problems. They seem to "outgrow" it.

I hope this information helps.  I would be curious in the dogs mentioned above what lines have expressed it. You do not have to name the sire and dam if you do not want to but even knowing their prime linebreeding would be helpful.