Props to the user who mentioned this from his website. A little bit of Bar Rescue for my man cave. My lady was like, "Why did John Taffer send you something??" Now, I just need a frame for it.
I always get a smile from this sub, so I thought I'd share our girl and her story. We adopted her during Covid as I had always wanted a pit but never had a yard large enough for one. We bought our new place in June of 2020, which had a large yard suitable for a bigger dog. She suffers from a disease called Megaesophagus, which is just a huge word for an enlarged esophagus, that causes her not to digest food correctly and regurgitate anything she eats if it doesn't make it into her stomach. Unfortunately, regurgitation is normally what ends up killing animals with this condition as they aspirate, and there's normally no coming back from that. Malnutrition and dehydration are also a huge issue if they can not consistently keep food down.
The great news is that she's going on seven years strong with no major medical issues. When we first got her, she had to wear a cone of shame at all times and was on quite a few medications, including Sildenafil. The pharmacist at Kroger always laughed that we bought generic Viagra for our dog. He probably thought I was just putting on some front! Over the years, we've been able to wean her off of all meds, and the headgear is only worn in her highchair after feedings. Yes, she sits in a highchair after feedings to help her digest her food. She also drinks zero water, which normally freaks people out. Her diet is a specialized canned food with a ton of hydration it in so she doesn't get dehydrated. Other than the highchair, she pretty much lives a normal dog life along with her cat brother, Ferguson.
She's getting a little grey in her beak nowadays, but we've had her much longer than anyone expected, and we're grateful for that. She's a ton of work, but we wouldn't change a thing.