Poorly Labrador Buck gains weight thanks to high-chair feeds

A dog that weighed half of what he should do because of a health condition is improving thanks to a specialist feeding chair.

Buck, an 18-month-old Labrador, has a condition called megaoesophagus which means he struggles to swallow food.

He has put on about two kilograms since he started using the chair from mid-November, making him 19.6kg (43 lbs).

After a Nottinghamshire charity appealed for help, a vet and a designer built a bespoke chair within days.

Buck is having regular weigh-ins at Lawrence Veterinary Centre, in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire

Wendy Hopewell, founder of Team Edward Labrador Rescue, said even though Buck was still underweight, he was now "lively" and wanting to go for walks.

She said: "Before he was very quiet and subdued. It is only a couple of kilos, but he is a totally totally different dog.

"He is not [as] stable as we would like him yet."

She said they ideally wanted him to weigh 28 to 30kg, but when he arrived he was 17kg and could not walk.

Buck is underweight as his condition makes it hard for him to swallow food

After he was diagnosed with megaoesophagus, Miss Hopewell read that he needed to eat upright to allow the food to drop down with gravity.

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Following a plea on Facebook, Emma Drinkall, from Nottingham's Vet School, and partner Nick Rowan, a senior lecturer at De Montfort University in product design and engineering, came forward offering to make a chair.

Several people have donated towards Buck's treatment, which costs between £80 to £100 per week

Miss Hopewell said Buck was living with a foster couple in Nottingham who had been hand feeding him in the chair, then keeping him there for 10 to 15 minutes afterwards while he digested the food.

She said: "The chair seems to be helping a lot. He is fed in the chair two or three times per day.

"It is only through determination he is where he is today."