Congestive heart failure

susanken · Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 10:07 am Post subject: Congestive heart failure

Just found your area and I think it's great. My older Weim(11) has congestive heart failure and is on many drugs. After the last bout(3 days ago) she is having terrible trouble walking- front legs. Cardiologist says they had to manipulate her legs for tests and she thinks they aggravated her arthritis( another problem). I think it's the increased drugs. Anyone have this problem with their Weim?
Sad

Fiona's Mom

wildlifecr13 · Posted: Fri Oct 26, 2007 11:38 am Post subject:

oh, the poor thing! i do not have any experience with congestive heart failure, but it sounds terrible. we will be thinking of you and we wish you the best.

Tonia · Posted: Fri Nov 23, 2007 9:29 pm Post subject:

My min-pin had congestive heart failure and was on several meds to help her, the mainstay was Lasix, it really helped her. There is a new drug called Vet-Medin that she was on the last year of her life and it made a tremendous difference, it has been used in Canada for a while and has just gotten approval in the U.S. about three or four months ago. It really was a miracle drug for her, we were able to decrease the lasix to a fourth of what she had been taking. We lost her in August, she was 16, but it was kidney failure that got her, not the congestive heart disease.

shawn · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 5:59 pm Post subject:

yeah my blue is goin through it right now. he has always had a really bad murmur, and was the runt of his litter. then about a month ago he had swelling of his abdomen, so i thought it was bloat. turns out his heart is failing and there is fluid building up in his tummy. hes on lasik for the fluid (man does it make him pee) and a drug called anacard(i think) for the heart function. hes doin really good so far. but the Dr's say its only a matter of time. they said the heart is too damaged for surgery to help. (not that i could afford it). all we can do is enjoy the time we still have.

good luck

weimdawgs · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 10:31 pm Post subject:

Poor baby....

GailB · Posted: Sat Dec 01, 2007 11:05 am Post subject:

Awww...that just breaks my heart.We never have enough time with our babies. Sob / cry

mazzywest · Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2008 3:22 pm Post subject:

bumpity bump...

just wanted to post our experience with dilated cardiomyopathy, which caused congestive heart failure in our dog, Gus, who was just three weeks shy of 12 when he died two weeks ago. About 6 months ago, we noticed a soft non-productive cough. We took him to a heart specialist in Oakland, and the specialist told us that it was not a heart condition. As we learned later, he was wrong. The cough would come and go, and over the next 4 months, it started to get progressively worse. However, Gus was also diabetic and had other health issues, so we weren't sure if the coughing was a result of a heart condition or something else.

He had pretty bad hind leg weakness and we were carrying him the last few weeks of his life. Our vet ran tests in May and determined he had dilated cardiomyopathy - his heart was very enlarged and he had fluid in his lungs. We had him on Lasix and a few other medications, but in the last week, he was only able to lay upright like a sphinx and couldn't lay on his side because of all the fluid in his lungs. He would cough and retch violently if he tried to lay down on his side, and it was clear he was uncomfortable. The nights were the worst - he usually slept about an hour or so because he coughing was so bad. Sad

We set him free when it was clear that no amount of medication was going to make his situation any better.