Esophageal Stricture

Question: is there any correlation between chronic coughing/bronchitis and esophageal strictures? i have chronic sinusitis and bronchitis, i cough all the time...I am now having difficulty swallowing. Is there any correlation between chronic coughing/bronchitis and esophageal strictures?

Answer: You may feel like you have the esophageal stricture because the chronic coughing etc. is causing irritation to your throat and esophagus. The stricture would not be caused by the bronchitis,but the inflammation could cause stricture like symptoms. With true esophageal stricture, it will not go away when your upper respiratory symptoms go away. It is a chronic condition.

Question: esophageal stricture in my cat?!?!? my vet sucks....since he's not a "specialist" he can't really tell me whats wrong with my cat. basically, my cat weighed 16lbs...in a matter of three weeks ive noticed he lost a lot of weight and after he ate he would grind his teeth and hack up white foam. so i took him to the vet and he weighed 10lbs. upon physical examination the doc says he has an enlarged left kidney...he kept him overnite and did a barium swallow and the xrays showed that after he ate...the semisoft food would "pool" in his esophagus where it meets the stomach. my cat has had a history of vomiting or regurgitating of undigestive food at times. could this cause scarring in his esophagus? ive had him on a semisoft to liquid diet for the past month and he has not gained any weight back. he's awful bony and no muscle tone whatsoever. his behavior is the same however and he does drink and when he eats he'll eat a lil bit at a time..sometimes he scrapes the floor around his food bowl...what does that mean?? or is this enlarged kidney possibly a tumor that is causing a narrowin of the esophagus?? or is my cat just dying?

Answer: It's possible your cat has some scarring in his esophagus (but I'm not sure scarring is what your major concern should be.). The problem here is, your vet doesn't feel confident in pursuing the matter and probably has suggested a specialist. Another problem is, this could get expensive. So there are some decisions you must make and these decisions have to be based on some facts, like; how old is your cat? What is it's quality of life? Can you afford to have your cat seen by a specialist. Do you think you want to put your cat thru the tests it will need to find out what is going on? What type of quality of life will your kitty have once it's been diagnosed and is being treated? What's the prognosis? These questions can only be answered by your Vet. You can do some treatment at home if your only worry is his weight, there are vitamins and supplements you can purchase at pet stores. There are specialty foods for cats who have bad kidneys (Hills prescription diets) this food should be fed only on the advice of the veterinarian. All of your questions should be answered by a veterinarian. You may want to make an appointment at an emergency clinic because these clinics have many veterinarians and some of them specialize in different problems. Also, they usually have more equipment with which to diagnose. So you need to find out if the stricture is a chronic problem and if that's the reason for the weight lose or is it the kidney. And depending on which is the biggest problem, what can be done, again finding out the outcome, and quality of life for your kitty. Your cat probably isn't gaining weight because it's not getting the calories it needs, it probably needs a high calorie diet. But you need to be careful what you feed him, so that's another question to ask the Vet. Unfortunatley, your questions are not easily answered on this type of venue. It's all very involved and you must enlist someone who is trained in Veterinary Medicine. Please be careful of the advice you will get from people here on Yahoo Answers, this is something that should be addressed by a professional. BTW, usually when a cat scratches around it's food, it just means they are done eating. In the wild, cats cover their food to try and hide it and save it for later.