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I've mentioned a couple of times that we give Roland NutriCal every day. We started using NutriCal years ago with a previous dog. He participated in flyball and lure coursing, but when we traveled he did not eat well. Someone suggested NutriCal. It looks like liquid fat mixed with molasses and comes in a tube. It supplies lots of calories in a small, very tasty, volume. It was great for keeping our earlier dog's energy level up for competition.
So, when we were reading that megaesophagus causes malnutrition, we immediately thought about getting some NutriCal. We buy it by the case from an on-line distributor so that it's about half the price of local stores. We started giving it to Roland in late March of 2008. There is no way to know how effective it is, but we're guessing that it doesn't hurt. Certainly, the blurped material does not appear to have NutriCal in it. Even when he blurps soon after eating, the matter that comes up is clear fluid with undigested kibble. Sometimes it's possible to see some of the canned food, but we've never seen a tetracycline capsule or a fat capsule (back when we were giving the capsules) and we've never seen the NutriCal.
When Roland was started on the sucralfate for his megaesophagus we had a choice of tablet or liquid, but the tablets were much less expensive for the dose needed. We were instructed to break up the tablet and mix it with water, then squirt it into his mouth. I tried this a couple of times with different volumes of water. He was a trooper, but I was a klutz. One time I actually squirted it out the other side of his mouth. I didn't want to mix the powder in his food, since the food is mostly dry and he doesn't lick out his bowl. After a couple of experiments, I discovered that the NutriCal picked up the sucralfate quite easily. Now I crush the tablet into a powder then squirt about 1.5 inches of NutriCal into the plastic cup and mix it around. Then this blob is dropped on top of Roland's food. He generally eats this second after the peanut butter covered pills, so it must not taste bad.
So, when we were reading that megaesophagus causes malnutrition, we immediately thought about getting some NutriCal. We buy it by the case from an on-line distributor so that it's about half the price of local stores. We started giving it to Roland in late March of 2008. There is no way to know how effective it is, but we're guessing that it doesn't hurt. Certainly, the blurped material does not appear to have NutriCal in it. Even when he blurps soon after eating, the matter that comes up is clear fluid with undigested kibble. Sometimes it's possible to see some of the canned food, but we've never seen a tetracycline capsule or a fat capsule (back when we were giving the capsules) and we've never seen the NutriCal.
When Roland was started on the sucralfate for his megaesophagus we had a choice of tablet or liquid, but the tablets were much less expensive for the dose needed. We were instructed to break up the tablet and mix it with water, then squirt it into his mouth. I tried this a couple of times with different volumes of water. He was a trooper, but I was a klutz. One time I actually squirted it out the other side of his mouth. I didn't want to mix the powder in his food, since the food is mostly dry and he doesn't lick out his bowl. After a couple of experiments, I discovered that the NutriCal picked up the sucralfate quite easily. Now I crush the tablet into a powder then squirt about 1.5 inches of NutriCal into the plastic cup and mix it around. Then this blob is dropped on top of Roland's food. He generally eats this second after the peanut butter covered pills, so it must not taste bad.
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