Kuma

Well, Kuma went back to the vet this morning. I wanted him to do an X-Ray of Kuma's chest to get an idea what's going on with his throat. He keeps eating and then coughing it up. The vet said it appears he has megaesophagus which means he has to eat at I higher elevation to get a little help from gravity to get food into his stomach. I set up a set of stairs in the house and put his bowl at the top so he has to stand at a 45 degree angle to eat. I also bought some canned dog food today to mix with his dry stuff. That's what seemed to do the trick so far. No coughing after that. For good measure, the doctor is going to run a blood test on him for a muscular disease that megaesophagus is associated with to rule it out. If it is that disease, there is medicine for it. If it's not, we'll at least know that home treatment is all I can do.

The danger is that food can go down the wrong pipe, get lodged in his lungs and cause pneumonia so that's what I have to watch for. The results from his test won't be back for 7 days but in the meantime, I think the canned dog food might be helping a lot.