Buck is a 17 month-old Labrador who suffers from a very rare medical condition called megaesophagus. This condition makes it so that he is sick when eating unless held in an upright position.

Thankfully, university engineers and an animal charity have just teamed up to design a chair that has given Buck a new lease on life!

When Buck twas taken in by the Team Edward Labrador Rescue in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, he weighed just 38.4 pounds, which is half of what a dog his age should weigh. Thanks to this high chair, Buck can now gain the weight he needs to survive!

Emma Drinkall, a University of Nottingham vet and teaching associate, and her partner Nick Rowan, a senior lecturer in product design and engineering at De Montford University, designed the chair together.

“We saw the Buck’s story on social media, and I knew we just had to do something if he was going to have a chance,” Emma said. “Luckily Nick and I have the combined expertise and experience to build the chair quickly. There is currently no surgery available for dogs with this condition, and as Buck is already receiving the medications that can help, the one thing other thing that could help him keep his food down is gravity itself.”

Being upright while feeding will help the food drip through the sphincter that controls access to his stomach,” Emma continued. “Dogs with mega-oesophagus are at risk of developing very serious chest infections which can prove fatal, because they can accidentally breathe in food particles when they regurgitate their food.”

“We hope that by feeding Buck this way and stopping him from regurgitating we will minimize the risk of this additional complication developing,” she explained. “Wendy, Team Edward Labrador Rescue, David Bucks’ foster Dad, and Laura Buck’s Vet have all done an amazing job with Buck so far.”

“I’m just so pleased with how it fits, how comfortably he sits in it and how happy he is to be fed like this,” Nick added. “He is the same width in his shoulders as our own 5 kilo Jack Russell, so without meeting Buck ourselves, we had to double check his measurements during the build – it just didn’t seem right for a big dog like a Labrador.”

“It was just the most fabulous sight to see Buck eating in the chair and happy to be in it,” said Wendy Hopewell, the founder of Team Edward. “To see how he sat in it straight away and get stuck in was incredible, it just pulls at your heartstrings.”

It’s so heartwarming to see this dog get a second chance at life!