Heart Meds For Dogs With Enlarged Hearts

With this condition the heart muscle becomes weaker thinner and can t function like a normal heart allowing the muscle to swell and struggle to contract and pump blood like it normally would.

Heart meds for dogs with enlarged hearts. Heart failure in dogs and cats may occur because of a defect in heart contractility due to a weakness in the heart muscle or in other cases because of the inability of the. Heart enlargement is generally uncommon in small breed dogs. They antagonize the effects of the sympathetic nervous system and thereby slow the heart rate reduce the heart s oxygen demand and help control certain heart rhythm disturbances. Learn to recognize the signs of heart problems in dogs various causes diagnostic and treatment options and how to manage your heart patient dog at home.

Heart disease in dogs is common. Over time the heart becomes enlarged and unable to supply the body with enough blood which is known as heart failure. Editor suggestion dog heart medication hi lori the correct medications for your dog depend on why her heart is enlarged and what her symptoms are. In most cases of dcm in dogs the ventricles lower chambers of the heart become enlarged though some cases also involve enlargement of the atria upper heart chambers.

With dcm the muscle wall of the heart becomes thinner causing it to lose the ability to pump blood to the rest of the body. Enlarged hearts pump the blood less efficiently and the condition of the heart deteriorates. Vhd is the most common form of heart disease in dogs and tends to be most common in small dogs over the age of 5. A beta blocker may be used with digoxin to slow the heartbeat in dogs with atrial fibrillation.

These drugs among others are called beta blockers. Thankfully that has changed but. This results in retention of fluid in the lungs or other parts of the body. Congestive heart failure in dogs is a terrible thing to have to deal with.

I ve seen many dogs with congestive heart failure chf over the years and until recently the only options i had to treat them were prescription drugs something i don t like to do. An enlarged canine heart condition is referred to by dog tors as dilated cardiomyopathy which is also called dcm. For the sake of this discussion i ll assume that she has valvular disease probably the most common cause of a canine enlarged heart and a murmur in an older chihuahua. One study shows the average survival time of dogs with enlarged heart is anywhere from 6 months to 12 months with very few cases where a dog survives 1 5 years.