Bruno Shegon

Bruno Shegon is almost 10 years old, and if you are familiar with English Mastiffs, you know how awesome that is! Giant breed dogs generally have a much shorter life expectancy, but not Bruno. Bruno's story begins on his parent's honeymoon almost ten years ago. After their planned honeymoon in the British Virgin Islands was derailed by a hurricane, they changed their plans and headed to Florida. Once there, they read an ad in the newspaper for English Mastiff puppies, and after already thinking about adding a Mastiff to their family, it was a done deal.

We initially met Bruno when his parents noticed excessive burping, vomiting and flatulence. During his first visit to our hospital, everyone who met him fell pretty hard for him. He is a gentle giant, with a great personality. His mom told us about a time he decided to meet his new neighbor, without an invitation. He wandered down to her yard, and when she saw him, she was immediately alarmed, so she thought squirting him with her garden hose would send him home. Little did she know Bruno loves water (Mastiffs don't generally like to swim, but Bruno loves it!), and thinks drinking from the water hose is a treat.

After examining Bruno, and learning about his symptoms, radiographs were scheduled for the following day. After being dropped off, Bruno was xrayed, and Dr. Allen and Dr. Williamson's suspicions were confirmed. Bruno suffers from a condition known as megaespophagus, which means his esophagus doesn't contact properly, leading to regurgitation and often pneumonia. The esophagus is the tube that carries the food from the mouth to the stomach. Megaesophagus means "large esophagus", and it's large because the muscle tone is poor. The nerves or muscles that control the movement of food from the mouth to his stomach are not working properly causing him to regurgitate shortly after eating or drinking.

While he was here for the day, we tried feeding Bruno with his head turned upward. We literally held a wet food meatball (we used J/D- a special food from Hill's designed to aid arthritic dogs) up so he had to turn his snout toward the ceiling, and when he opened his mouth, we dropped the meatball in. With him in a seated position, and the food essentially shootong toward his stomach, along with gravity, he kept his food down. Success!

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