Ben is a 14 year old Dachshund that has a condition called Megaesophagus. This condition increases the risk of aspiration pneumonia especially during anesthesia. Ben had severe dental disease and a chronic, painful abscess that had to be treated for his quality of life. Read about how we managed this case for a very successful outcome.
Success story! We are pleased to introduce our patient Ben. Ben is a 14 year old, wonderful Dachshund that, unfortunately, suffers from megaesophagus. Megaesophagus is a condition where the esophagus becomes dilated and does not move food into the stomach normally and food can pool in it. This can lead to aspiration pneumonia as food can be accidently aspirated into the trachea and lungs.
Fortunately for Ben, his owner and referring veterinarian manage his disease diligently and he does quite well. However, for the past 6 or more months, Ben has been dealing with a severe tooth root abscess that has been treated with antibiotics several times. While tooth abscesses can be reduced with antibiotics, they never truly go away since the offending diseased tooth is still there.
Ben’s owner and referring veterinarian were rightfully concerned about anesthesia with his medical condition, but the owner decided that his quality of life was more important. Ben’s owner, Debra, sought treatment with us upon the recommendation of her regular veterinarian at Limerick Mills Animal Hospital . We read Ben’s full medical history and even contacted his specialty hospital, Maine Veterinary Medical Center , for preventive recommendations for his megaesophagus. We also sent out full bloodwork and checked his blood pressure which came back great! We fully agreed with Ben’s owner that something needed to be done about his dental disease as it was definitely having an impact on his quality of life.
With all the information in hand, we made a full plan to keep Ben as safe as possible. The first critical piece of the plan was our tilt table. We have a table that we usually use to keep the head a little lower than the body to allow the fluid we use in the mouth to drain out of the mouth. For Ben, it was more critical that his stomach contents stayed in his stomach so we turned our dental table around and tilted it to max capacity to keep his body titled toward his stomach. Secondly, while all of our patients get an anti-nausea medication called cerenia, we also gave Ben additional medications to help prevent vomiting and nausea. Thirdly, we made sure we were fully set up and prepared and were as efficient as possible during the COHAT and oral surgery to try to get Ben up and out of anesthesia as quickly and as safely as possible. We also suctioned and swabbed his throat very thoroughly before waking him up and protected his airway with the endotracheal tube until he was very awake. Pictured above is Dr. Keaten with Ben in his custom table set up at his recheck appointment.
We are happy to say that we were able to not only deal with Ben’s very large, chronic abscess, but we were also able to remove all of the other severely diseased teeth that were also infected. Ben recovered very well from anesthesia and went home with his owner to recover shortly after waking up. Pictured above is Ben in recovery.
Ben came in for his two week recheck and was doing very well! He had gained over a pound and his mouth was pain free. All of his extraction sites looked great and his owner was very happy. We are so glad we were able to help this sweet little dog and his owner. Pictured to the right is Ben hanging out with his favorite kitty friends at home.
Mainely Veterinary Dentistry’s mission is to improve and maintain the overall health and well-being of pets and the human-animal bond by addressing the oral health of dogs and cats. This case certainly demonstrated that mission and confirmed why we are here. Thank you to Limerick Mills Animal Hospital for your referral and Maine Veterinary Medical Center for your collaboration. We are so thankful to be a member of this community!
If you would like to refer a case or have questions about our services, please do not hesitate to reach out via referral form or give us a call at (207) 481-8232.
