when my bitches litter was born, i noticed one was a lot smaller than the others, but i put it down to him being the "runt" of the litter. i took him to the vet quite a few times as i was worried about him, but they gave him antibiotics and weren`t concerned unduly.

i started to feed him via syringe with whelpi milk to try and feed him up a bit and then noticed that he would be sick very soon after.

when he got onto solids he would also be sick but he actually looked quite well and was full of energy, and i would feed him every couple of hours in order to keep his weight up.

it became obvious that he had something wrong with him, so he wasn`t sold, and then the vets started to talk about megaesophagus, and that he would not live beyond a couple of months.

it was becoming more difficult to keep weight on him as he was growing, and he was very skinny although he was still charging about, but this was just the puppy in him, and he got tired very quickly.

when he got to 6 months, one vet suggested reffering him to the teaching hospital in bristol to see if they could do anything, which i did, and they did some tests, and said his condition was as bad as it gets, but they suggested operating, and putting a tube into his flank and feeding him via tube. in theory this should have by passed his throat and the food went directly into his stomach.

the operation was a success, but sadly he didn`t respond to the feeding regime and lost more weight and he had to be put to sleep 2 weeks later. the vet said that because he was malnourished his digestive system couldn`t cope with the food.

my advice is if anyone has a puppy who has a suspected megaesophagus, euthanasia is the only answer, the alternative is a massive vet bill and a lot of heartbreak, for the same outcome.