Esophagitis

teri wrote:
Does anyone have any experience treating esophagitis? My 6 1/2 year
old cat who had previously been (mis)diagnosed as having pancreatitis,
just had an endoscopic exam and was found to have esophagitis, and his
belly was full of food even though he had not eaten for over 10 hours.
His pain began three months ago, his esophagus was red, but not
ulcerated so I greatly hope it is not severe enough that it can't be
treated. He has never missed a meal (other than when I have had him
NPO for all his Dr. visits lately) so I am glad for that. For now he
is on Reglan to prevent reflux and get the stomach and small intestine
moving food out, Carafate to coat the esophagus and allow it to heal
(but the first dose did not go too well and he vomited up some
afterwards which is exactly what we DON'T want to happen, I hope he
gets used to it quickly), and Pepcid to reduce the stomach acid. I am
going to give him three feedings a day instead of two, and change him
to all soft food Science Diet ID. He currently is on half soft, half
canned, but I think the canned will be less abrasive. Any other
suggestions, or encouragement will be appreciated.
Teri

I hope you cat will be okay. I had a cat who died in February due to
doxycycline-induced esophagitis which was the vet's fault to begin with
and then the vet mistakenly told me he probably had cancer after the
endoscopy so I had him euthanized as he was unable to keep any food at
all down. I only found out after the fact that what he had was not
cancer but due to vet negligence. Was your cat ever on doxycycline or
any other med which could have abraded his esophagus to begin with?

At any rate, something I also found out after my cat was dead, was that
esophagitis can be treated by balloon dilation of the esophagus. Maybe
if the carafate, etc. doesn't work, your cat can have this procedure.
It often takes more than once to cure the cat, though. I wish the best
for your poor kitty. It doesn't sound as severe as my cat's
esophagitis was as, like I said, he could not even keep a slurry down;
he would immediately regurgitate anything and was to the point where he
was gagging on his saliva. It was very sad to see and sadder to know
it was preventable. If your cat needs balloon dilation, have a
specialist do it.

Candace