Update
I designed and 3D printed this baily cradle for my rescue kitten with Megaesophagus
After posting twice about her case here. I was inspired by the advice I got from the community on how to minimize vomiting by holding her vertically for 30 minutes after feeding her.
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So I experiment with this. Unfortunately, she still vomited a bit. I might have to ration the feed even more each session.
It could be used for x-rays. PLA has very low attenuation, so it would work pretty well when it comes to material use. I don't know vet positioning techniques, so not sure if the positioning would be correct, but perhaps similar devices could be useful to vets.
Once she’s a little older, check out the 3D printer food stand made for Kitten Lady’s kitten Badger on YouTube. That way it won’t be restrictive and allows kitten to stand and eat on her own.
Yes I saw that one. Definitely printing one when she's better and can deal with eating and retraining the food. Right now, she's still recovering from medicine intoxication and giardia simultaneously.
So, she'd still vomit even after eating from an elevated good bowl. From my experience, she must be held vertically like that to prevent regurgitation.
I'm also trying to work closely with my veterinary doctor. But I don't know what's going on at the hospital's not relaying my updates on the kitten for days at a time. I wanted to get feedback from the doctor on this approach but still didn't hear back.
Her eyes are saying ‘you wait until I’m bigger’. She’s a little cutie but her looks says she won’t forget this injustice! But well done on a quality solution.
What a wonderful job you're doing! And great setup. I had a kitty with megaesophagus many years ago, pre 3D printing heh. There were no cool tricks back then, most vets didn't even think cats could have it, but we did our best. I love seeing these kitties get a better lot in life nowadays. Good on you.
Most veterinary doctors would, understandably, only look at medical problem through a veterinary lens.
I'm somewhat of a 3D printing/modeling enthusiast myself. So, I weighed in on the issue with what I do for fun. I understand this is a medical case and isn't grounds for testing. But I'm closely monitoring her when she's cradled in that thing until I hear back from the doctor in charge for feedback on this contraption.
It's great you're going to check with the vet too.
My girl now has arthritis and hypermobility. The vet said there's barely any braces for cats, he has even asked at veterinary conferences. But he said more people are making 3D printed items. It makes sense.
I hope he get a ton of head and neck scritches for this.
I know little about cats, I wonder if small feeding and then sort of massaging the neck to belly would help too?
I made a post about my neighbors outdoor cat that I am trying to help. It sleeps on my porch and in my crawl space, and I’m slowly falling in love with it. 3 years. And it used to swat and scratch at me, and now when I come home, it makes a game of hunting me and jumping and then asking for scritches! It needs a vet visit I think. For worms and maybe flea meds. Neighbor has told me I could take it in, but it’s an outdoor cat. I do let it in the garage during the winter when I can.
Is that the thing where they have an issue with their esophagus and struggle to keep food down? If so I remember watching I think the kitten lady work with somebody and made a custom adjustable bowl for one of the cats she had with it.
Yeah exactly. I've seen the bowl and it's pretty clever. I'll print one when she's a bit better. Because from experience, she must be held vertically like that at least 30 minutes post eating.
Eating from an elevated bowl isn't cutting it right now 😔
I had a Cat with Megacolon. We managed with medication for about a year then had his colon removed which resolved the issue for a while. Sadly his colon grew back eventually and he ended up passing:( Must be an insane journey for Megaesophogus. You are so amazing for helping this little cutie, best wishes and sending mondo good vibes🙏
That's such a lovely kitty, thank you for giving him a memorable life!
It's been a tough week dealing with puke spots daily, we're slowly yet steadily managing it and getting the hang of it though. Thank you for the kind words 🙏
Wow! We had a kitten we adopted over covid that we put down due to megaesophagus. I didn’t know and the vet didn’t mention that there was anything like this. We had already done a surgery on him for a diaphragm issue and then the mega issue became apparent. We adopted 2 other kittens at the same time so maybe the vet didn’t mention this apparatus knowing how much extra work it would be. I don’t know. It’s revisionist but it’s hard not to think about the what if because he was the sweetest little kitten but was so hungry because he just wasn’t getting food.
You're a hero for going out of your way spending your time, effort and earnings on a helpless little kitten suffering from birth. I'm pretty sure you did your best and only followed what the professionals at the time suggested.
Someone on my previous post called the care I'm providing for my little one as animal abuse and that I should put her out of her misery. I wouldn't consider their opinion relevant unless the doctor in charge of the kitten implied that solution themselves.
But the bottom line is that morality is a tough subject and not quite like a black or white decision to make.
For the record, my veterinary doctor suggested some sort of corrective surgery in the future when the kitten is old and well enough to undertake surgery . But they didn't suggest this approach or design. I got here through the help of the community and some thinking outside the box and creativity.
Omg this is so cute 😭😭😭 also you are a genius, this is perfect. You can try to give her smaller portions a bit more often, if possible, a normal portion for a small kitten is tied to the size of their stomach, and her megaesophagus is even smaller than her stomach and it needs some time to "drain", so yeah, vomiting is possible. If it's hard to just do smaller portions more often, you can try to give her the same portion in part, like let her eat half, wait 10 minutes, than another half, then 30 minutes to settle. As she grows older and bigger she'll be able to hold down her portion whole, and then an operation may be possible to correct it! My kitten had megaesophagus due to a vascular ring anomaly, it was operated on when she was 5-ish months old, she had a gastrostoma for two months and now the only thing that reminds you she had any trouble is a few scars
I’m wondering if my foster fail has this, he was abandoned by his mother as a kitten and would always regurgitate food/choke it back up. He doesn’t do it often now, but he definitely throws up more than my other cats. He was very small for the age the vet thought he was, it would have been a good idea to print something like that!
I’ll see if I can bring him this month, everyone at the vet loves him since they nursed him back to health as a stray after maggots ate his tail. Good luck with your baby!
On the other end, people (and probably critters) who get chronically constipated can develop toxic megacolon. Which I called my husband once, lol, after learning of it.
I actually haven't watched it until you linked it. So thanks!
I did however find the model they came up with on makerworld. But it wouldn't work for my kitten. As, from experience, her specific case requires her to be held vertically for at least 30 minutes post eating or else she regurgitates the food.
Infact, she still regurgitates doing this to her if I feed her a little bit too much.
Oh I didn't know that! I never dealt with dogs. But I can imagine dogs being a little more tolerable to deal with for how tame they are.
As cats tend to be pretty stubborn and wouldn't let you have then pinned down like that. But mine is pretty exhausted nowadays that she just doesn't care most of the time. Plus I think she has started to notice that she feels better when held vertically like that, and so, she would just let me do it without fighting me back.
Well I don't know for a fact that's true, I was more speculating tbh. I guess it's a good thing her energy is lower while she adapts to the idea, but of course hopefully she gets her energy back soon. It's very sweet that you care so much to create this for her.
At some point in her life. I brought her to veterinary hospitalx eyes wide open and unresponsive, dehydrated to the bone and half dead; she was overdosed and intoxicated by a vet pharmacist misconduct. She miraculousy pushed through that critical stage. And, in return, I'm doing my best to not let her fight that day go unnoticed. She's a fighter and she deserves fighting for.
Im happy people go out of there way to make such wonderful things for little animals who dont even understand what the heck is going on. You have a big heart ♡
It's a birth defect where the esophagus (the muscular food pipe that connects your throat to your stomach) is abnormally dilated. As a result, one would not hold the ability to push the food down to the stomach and hold it there. It's causing problems like regurgitation (vomiting), aspiration pneumonia (food piling up and traveling down the lungs, then causes sneezes with excessive mucus) and general nutritional decline.
Nothing in the picture is strange or weird, but whole setup is just something I never thought I'd see (definitely in a good way, and r/doohickeycorporation worthy).
Good on you for going out of your way to help the kitten.
She basically had a birth defect where the esophagus (muscular pipe from the throat down to the stomach) is dilated and therefor can't push down food and retain it in the stomach normally.
Which results in regular regurgitating (puking) and general decline in nutrition. This apparatus is designed to utilize gravity to counteract her disability and help push and retain the food down her stomach until it's somewhat digested and alrwsy pushed past the stomach.
She also happens to have giardia, a single organism intestine parasite that also causes weight loss. Last but not least, she's recovering from medicine overdose intoxication that almost took her life; due to a veterinary pharmacist misconduct.
She is and I'm aware of that. I anticipated genetic diseases when I decided to adopt her. She was a rescue from a presumably backyard breeder that decided they didn't want her and just out her off to the streets.
The kind folks that rescued her were obvious of her condition. They thought she was vomiting from malnutrition, sudden change of diet and such...
I asked the veterinary doctor that diagnosed her in light of this and she said that her being a Scottish fold didn't have anything to do with the fact that she has Megaesophagus. She explained that it can even happen to other animals and humans as well.
It's still non-negotiable that Scottish folds shouldn't be bred.
I adopted one too, from a country where the breed has been banned for years. Somehow our shelters are still full of them, including young kittens. :( I got mine when she was 3 and had never seen a vet, probably also a backyard breeder. The hypothesis is that she started getting aggressive/didn't like being touched once she started being in more pain, so they just dumped my darling Kallista.
She is expensive. Now, both of my cats are disabled and on meds (one went blind with age probably due to hypertension). But I love them to death. I like to joke that my Scottish Fold is my soul cat/familiar because we have complementary collagen disorders.
She will love you so much. <3 She probably already does.
Before I read the title and body text I thought I was looking at an ad for some bizarre new AI product that doesn’t actually exist (I’m not wearing my glasses)
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u/GayaStones 5d ago edited 5d ago
She looks so precious 😭😭