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I was contacted by a vet that did Summer's knee rehab. The SPCA near them sent a young male beagle with a megaesophagus to their hospital for care. The dog (currently nicknamed "Ralphie") came in very under weight (the term "bag of bones" was used) and has aspiration pneumonia. They are trying to save him. As of now, he is termed un-adoptable until they can stabilize him, get him to keep down his food and gain weight. They are currently running tests and and experimenting with different textures of food to see what he can keep down.
She contacted me to see if I knew anyone who would be interested in fostering (or possibly later) adopting a high risk, high maintenance beagle. When I asked my wife, she said "We don't foster, we adopt." and we are seriously considering it. We currently have two beagles who are high maintenance (Murphy, 11 yrs - partially paralyzed, epileptic, cancer survivor, with early stage leukemia, and Summer, 5 yrs - double rear ACL/miniscus repair). So hardship cases are nothing new to us. But this one truly concerns us. I contacted our regular vet. She said if anyone can deal with "Ralphie"'s issues, we can.
They will call me in a week to ten days to let me know where "Raphie" stands.
If he makes it and becomes adoptable, I have a number of issues I need to get around if we need do adopt him.
- How do you feed a megaesophagus dog when you have two others that eat normally (treats included)?
- How long after eating does he need to be monitored to prevent regurgitaion?
- Summer & Murphy are fed once a day (supper) and given treays 3x a day. How do you get around giving to two and not the one?
I will be taking some toys to him tomorrow since he has no family to speak of. I will not be seeing him. It will only make things harder it things take a turn for the worse.
What do you think? Are we crazy for even thinking about adopting him? We were not looking for another beagle, but we may be his last chance.
She contacted me to see if I knew anyone who would be interested in fostering (or possibly later) adopting a high risk, high maintenance beagle. When I asked my wife, she said "We don't foster, we adopt." and we are seriously considering it. We currently have two beagles who are high maintenance (Murphy, 11 yrs - partially paralyzed, epileptic, cancer survivor, with early stage leukemia, and Summer, 5 yrs - double rear ACL/miniscus repair). So hardship cases are nothing new to us. But this one truly concerns us. I contacted our regular vet. She said if anyone can deal with "Ralphie"'s issues, we can.
They will call me in a week to ten days to let me know where "Raphie" stands.
If he makes it and becomes adoptable, I have a number of issues I need to get around if we need do adopt him.
- How do you feed a megaesophagus dog when you have two others that eat normally (treats included)?
- How long after eating does he need to be monitored to prevent regurgitaion?
- Summer & Murphy are fed once a day (supper) and given treays 3x a day. How do you get around giving to two and not the one?
I will be taking some toys to him tomorrow since he has no family to speak of. I will not be seeing him. It will only make things harder it things take a turn for the worse.
What do you think? Are we crazy for even thinking about adopting him? We were not looking for another beagle, but we may be his last chance.