It has been a while since I have updated Meg’s tripawds blog, I suppose it is a case of no news is good news.
Since Meg’s ampuversary we’ve moved houses to a place with a giant yard and no stairs, which is great for Meg. We’ve fostered a cheeky greyhound over the Christmas period which both Meg and Dotti have loved. And finally we got up to Meg’s annual check up.
I’ve been anxiously approaching the day. I spent the day feeling pretty sick about it actually, planning for something terrible. Its not as if Meg has any obvious health issues, a bit of coughing that seemed to be an annual occurrence throughout summer, but when a dog who has a collapsing trachea, a heart murmur and a cancer history has her check up, you know something won’t be right. So the vet went through each step of the check up – dental (needed), preventative heart worm tablets (needed), temperature okay, diet okay, squeezing of the organs to look for tumours okay, heart – issues.
Since we’ve had Meg (two years) she has had a grade 3-4 heart murmur, but now there is crackling in the lungs indicating theres fluid, and it is a definite grade 4. I swear our old vets always said there was a bit of crackling, and really we should’ve taken her back to her old vets (difficult to do out of work hours), but nevertheless, the new vets think she should start on diuretics and another heart drug. They said they now start them on drugs when they have a grade 3 murmur, so I suppose its much of a muchness. It wasn’t as if I wasn’t expecting that Meg would have to start on heart meds at this check up, but the reality of it happening has me a bit sad. I know she can live for years with medication and treating her is better than ignorance, but reminders of her inevitable trip to the rainbow bridge is never easy.
Anyhoo, she is going to start her diuretics in the next few days, and maybe the other, apparently expensive, heart medications if they don’t clear up the fluid quickly. So we probably need to invest in a lot of pee pads and a few more water bowls. I feel awful that Meg is going to have to go through peeing so much, the vet didn’t exactly sum it up in nice way, “she’ll be up every half hour during the night” etc but I guess it is for the greater good.
Anyway, I was feeling like I needed to explain all this to people who got it, and it hit me that was all of you on tripawds! I hope all your pups are doing well, and if you know of any supplements/natural extras that we can give Meglet to help her lil old heart I’d love to hear it.
Maybe we should invest in some dog diapers?
Awww look at that pretty girl! I love her eyes, they speak volumes about her courage even when things get ruff.
I’m sorry you’re dealing with the heart murmur situation, but I hope with all my heart that the medication clears up the fluid (and that you’ll be able to get some sleep as she copes with it). Since I’ve never been in this kind of health situation with our own doggies, I’m going to make sure our Tripawds community sees your post. I think most of us missed it because it was published on a busier than usual day in the blogs. Stay tuned and meanwhile I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed for good news from your superstar!
Thank you! We decided to post pone putting her on the medications until we see the vet that did her amputation and is more familiar with her heart history. I think I remembered Meg’s breathing rate wrong and made them think her symptoms are worse than they are, and it just seemed too cruel to make poor little Meggy moo need to wee so much when she isn’t showing any symptoms. If our old vet says to put her on the meds we will, but I think we just need that second opinion to be sure.
I’d still love any advice from other people who have had dogs (or cats) with heart issues – its an inevitable issue down the road.
Hi Katie,
So sorry to hear about Meg’s heart murmur. The only thing I can say is if your vet recommends that Meg be put on a diuretic to remove fluid, then seriously consider it. She may not have obviously signs right now; however, she will. I’ve taken care of patients with Congestive Heart failure, yes I know Meg has a murmur, but when the fluid builds trust me, breathing becomes extremely difficult and they are drowning as fluid builds. It seems to me that it is similar for animals. The heart is and will continue to work much harder than a healthy heart. I really don’t want to sound like doom and gloom, so talk to you vet and get all your questions and concerns answered. Meg is such a doll.
Don’t worry, we know she is going to have to start the diuretics in a matter of weeks or months (along with the other heart medications). We just want to clarify with our old vet who has seen Meg regularly and that we trust that the crackling in her chest is more severe than it was at her last check up and that she is ready for the medications. Both my partner and I felt a bit pressured and bullied at the new vets, who we probably won’t be taking Meg to anymore, so we just wanted a quick second opinion so we both felt reassured and confident in the treatment plan! We’re keeping an eye on her breathing rate every night and its been steadily around 20 beats per minute so it doesn’t seem too bad or near the problematic 30 beats per minute yet.
Hi Katie,
Is your other doctor appointment soon? If she has fluid building up in her chest you might want to just go ahead and start the diuretics. I’m not a vet, but I used to be a tech and I lost a dear beloved furbaby to congenital heart failure. Getting rid of the fluid will help her heart to not have to work so hard. She’s not going to just turn into an immediate incontinent peeing machine, but she will need to go out more often and she will drink more so it’s important to make sure they have fresh water available. Your other doctor can always tweak or change meds and dosages if they deem it appropriate. I wish you luck and hope you can get this under control quickly. I do not know of any supplements to speak of, but then again I haven’t had a need to look so there may be something out there.
Hugs,
Jackie
Hi Jackie! Yeh we will take her in in the next week or so, we just have to wait until the next pay day unfortunately. The new vet (closer to our home) said he could hear some crackling in her chest, but that is what our old vet said as well at her check up last year but it wasn’t severe enough to warrant medications yet. The only symptom she is showing of the heart murmur/CHF is a cough but she also has a collapsing trachea cough which flares up every summer so we just want to be certain we’re treating the right thing at the right time!
Will keep you all in my thoughts. Good luck and I hope your regular doc has better news for you!
Thank you!
Hey not sure if you saw this from Dr. Pam:
http://tripawds.com/forums/anything-goes/meg-has-a-heart-murmur-could-use-some-ideas-and-support/#p204467
Oh I didn’t see this! Thank you will reply in the thread ☺️