Megaesophagus?

[bnwalker2]

I was curious how common is it for cats to have megaesophagus. My 14 week old boy, Oliver Felix, has seemed to have trouble eating since I've had him. He would eat and then cough a lot and then usually the food would come right back up. So I started giving him canned food and/or moistening the dry kibble and the same thing was happening. It reminded me a lot of a dog I fostered that had mega-e. If I feed the kitten very very very soft food (almost liquid), he is alright. I'm in the process of trying to find a good vet (all the vets in my area tend to misdiagnose animals on a regular baisis), which is why he hasn't seen a vet about it yet.
Oliver Felix isn't thin at all, because I do soften the food a lot before he eats, so he is able to keep it down if I make him eat very slowly.
Any ideas?

 

[les0304]

The first thing that I would recommend is taking him to a vet that you trust or receive good referrals for. In a kitten his age, with the inability to keep anything down makes me suspicious of possibly a heavy worm burded.

If the stool sample turns up negative, he still needs to be dewormed, and then they can go from there to find out the cause of the chronic vomiting.

 

[alisha]

My name is Alisha and I just joined your community. Thank you for having me!

I realize this topic is several years old, but I often do megaesophagus Google searches to see if anyone needs advice about this condition and this thread popped up.

My kitten, Olive, was diagnosed with congenital (hereditary) megaesophagus at 2 months old. My vet's best advice was to euthanize her because she didn't think Olive would have a good quality of life with the disease. However, I did some research, found a way to feed Olive and she has thrived ever since.

At the time I did my research, there was very little about mega-e on the internet. This inspired me to create http://www.littlemissolive.com which is a website dedicated to Olive's life with megaesophagus. Through this site and Olive's story, I hope to increase awareness about mega-e and help inform and educate other pet owners whose cats are struggling with this condition.

Any help in spreading the word about littlemissolive.com would be amazing.
Hopefully, just posting this message will increase my chances of helping other mega-e cat owners find a little inspiration and light.

Thanks for reading!

Alisha

ps - i also JUST started this Yahoo! group for megaesophagus cat owners:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/f...megaesophagus/

 

[mnjulz]

I have one with mega e. She is now approximately 3. You are right bkwalker2, liquidify the food and feed smalls meals, that will help the food get and stay down. I would be feeding all canned and the best quality you can get. If possible, after eating hold the kitten in your arms upright for a few minutes almost like your gona burp a baby to help the food go down. It can be a struggle but well worth the struggle. It is not a death sentence. It just takes a little patience and trial and error. Good luck.


Here is Sedona's story.

http://www.bestfriends.org/guardiana...5FD941EDF91217