A night with Hobbes

We had an eventful night with Hobbes on Sunday, so I thought I would share it with you.  When Hobbes eats something he shouldn't, or when enough esophageal fluid builds up, we all get very little sleep.  This is because Hobbes' regurgitation is always worse at night, and these two factors exacerbate the situation.  If Hobbes eats something (he is partial to grass, dirt, hair) when he is not in his box, it usually gets stuck in one of the pockets in his esophagus.  One blade of grass can bring on a blurping episode--it is really amazing.  When his esophagus becomes irritated, it tries to get rid of this foreign matter. 

Initially, Hobbes will sound like he is having a hair ball--hacking, but not expelling anything.  Then, after about 20 minutes, he will finally spew something up.  Along with the grass/dirt/fur will come a volume of slimey, cloudy liquid, usually with some foam.  That is esophageal fluid.  Most of us just swallow the stuff without thought--Hobbes' get stuck, and then comes out the top. 

This process can continue for up to an hour, or until Hobbes' gets everything out.  As he is blurping, my husband and I are armed with paper towels, sponge, and squeegee and dust pan (yes, squeegee--you ever try to wipe slime up with a paper towel?  It just doesn't work!)  We wipe up the area inside Hobbes' x-pen; change his pillow if we need to (he has two long pillows so he can sleep with his head up, if he so desires), and try to go back to sleep.  Inevitably this will happen at around 3 in the morning.

The goal of any owner with a mega-e dog is to prevent this regurgitation from occurring, because this is what causes aspiration pneumonia.  Unfortunately, because Hobbes has acid reflux, there is little we can do to stop it entirely.  All we can do is try to prevent them by getting his food and jello down to his tummy, giving him his antacid, and trying to prevent him from ingesting weird things.