dog heart murmur
How long can my dog live with a heart murmur?
I took him to the vet and he said, most live in 3 months with medication. We started to medicines and are not getting better. I live in Spain on a military base and I can have another opinion on his health. What should I do? O He is a beagle of 11 years. I'm trying to make as comfortable as possible, and encourage eating, but it looks miserable. He did not establish the "degree" of breath, but said it is very, very bad. There is a problem when it began to lose a lot of weight and get lagthargic. He refuses to eat or anything.
Your dog has what is known as congestive heart failure. The mumur is the sound heard when the mitral (more likely) the valve does not close properly and blood escapes to the left atrium (blood that is going backwards instead of forewards). Excess blood in the left atrium is returned to the pulmonary vessels (lungs) and leakage of fluid in the air sacs, resulting in water in the lungs. The heart muscle will eventually fail because it can not pump enough blood to the rest of the body. Your dog is probably the furosemide, enalapril and spirinolactone. These medicines are extremely useful in manageing heart failure, but occasionally can cause side effects such as anorexia and nausea (not to electrolyte abnormalities, most likely). However, anorexia can also be caused by worsening of his condition. My advice is to call your veterinarian or bring your dog to him / her to discuss your concerns and your veterinarian can watch it again and perhaps change their therapy based on what they see. mitral insufficiancy hounds (and other dogs) may be caused by valvular degeneration (most likely in case that dogs) or may be congenital. Either way, there is one thing that could have done to prevent it, so do not beat yourself for not having noticed before. I feel for you and your dog
Canine Heart Murmur Illness & Symptoms
