[3VTLabs]

Hello we were just informed by our vet that our little boy has dilated cardiomyopathy or congestive heart failure. Has anyone had any luck with their dogs coming out of this through the use or holistic medicine as the outlook with regular medication looks very grim. Thanks in advance ofr any info you can give.

 

[BigBrownDog]

I have no medical advice - but you have my sympathies and good thoughts for your boy. That is tragic.

 

[Bob Pr.]

Sorry to hear this. My beloved Bess had this during the last 6 months of her life when she was 13+ years old. Have no idea of what it means for a younger Lab.

Tufts (MA), Cornell (upstate NY), and UPenn (near Phila) are 3 of the world class veterinary treatment centers. You might consider getting a referral to one of them.

 

[brody]

I have never heard of recovery from congestive heart failure ... using any method ..

you can improve both quality and quantity of life through management and medication though ...

I have been astounded at how long some of my congestive heart failure critters have lived after diagnosis and how much joy they'[ve found in life

hang in there

 

[cinderbay]

I highly suggest you get a confirmed diagnosis from a heart doctor. Different treatments are used. CHF is normally seen in smaller breeds.
From what I understand CHF can be kept under controlled, cardiomyopathy normally cannot.

 

[3VTLabs]

So far he has seen a specialist in Orlando who did an ECG, ultrasound and xray's and sent some of the fluid the he has around his belly out to the lab and should be back monday or tuesday. She was kind of concerned because his heart wasn't enlarged as much as she expected it to be,but his heart rythem is all over the place.

They have put him on Atenolol beta blocker and Lasik to get rid of the fluid that he has.

We will have to wait and see what happens with the lab work.

Other than him being bloated we would have never known there was anything wrong with him. He doesn't act like a very sick dog.

Thanks for your replies.

 

[brody]

hopefully the drugs will help - he was actually bloated through his body because of fluid retention?
how very scary

had he had a heart murmur when a puppy?

 

[3VTLabs]

hopefully the drugs will help - he was actually bloated through his body because of fluid retention?
how very scary

had he had a heart murmur when a puppy?

He is a very skinny dog and always has been(usually around 60 pounds) and you can always see his ribs no matter how much he eats. But he was so bloated that my wife couldn't even see his ribs and was squisshy when she took him to the ER, But since he has been on the Lasik he has been ok.

He has never had any indication from our vet to have ever had a problem and was always checked out fine at his normal checkups.

We'll see what the lab work comes back and says and see if we need to take him to another specialist in Gainsville, Florida.

 

[brody]

I wonder what on earth could have brought that on so suddenly

please keep us posted - you'll be in my thoughts and prayers

 

[3VTLabs]

Well we finally found out what is wrong with Buddy!! He has a wall of tissue in his heart that is totally blocking his bloodflow from the rear portion of his body from flowing the correct path to the atrium and through his heart. So basically they said most of his bloodflow from the rear part of his body is flowing through his cranial artery and the rest is backing up in hs internal organs and causing the fluid buildup. It took them doing an angiography to find ou that the blood wasnt pumping through the caudal vien and entering the heart but rather going through his cranial vein instead. So it looks like the lil man is going under the knife sometime next week for heart surgury. They are not sure yet if they are just going through the vein to tear the tissue(angio) or if they will have to do the actual open heart repair or a mixture of both.

 

[jmac]

Wish you all good luck with the upcoming surgery. No matter what, it is always better to know what's happening and be able to take steps to correct it. Uncertainty is the worst. Hope your little man comes through with flying colors.

 

[rayluckgoo]

That's so tough...but at least there's hope! Wishing you the best.

 

[Buckyball]

All the Best with the surgery.

 

[MidwestGirl]

Wishing him luck.

 

[zoesmom]

Hope all is fine after surgery. Good luck for a successful surgery and 100% recovery.

 

[brody]

best of thoughts

 

[3VTLabs]

Well he hasn't had surgury yet but the doctor did get back to us to tell us what he is going to do. They ared going to puncture the wall of tissue, expand it with a balloon and place a stent in the opening to keep the tissue from growing back together. It looks like this friday will be the day. Luckily there is a program between the universtity and the hospital across the street where they donate outdated stents for veternarin use. $5000 per stent otherwise. They just have to send it out to be restairilized before use.

He wont be our first $9000 dollar dog.

 

[Wendy B.]

Thoughts and Prayers for a successful surgery

 

[RUGERSMOM]

I'll say prayers for your buddy too...

I just revisited the forum today looking for some info on dilated cardiomypathy, and I'm so glad to have read your thread........we took our 3 1/2 year old to the emergency vet Sunday night for what I thought was an abcessed tooth, and 3 hrs later we came out with the same diagnosis. You could have knocked me over with a feather.......I am so sorry for your pup, I know how we worry and you just don't expect this in young dogs. Our vet has ran the same tests and we are waiting for a mobile echo tech to come to our hospital, but the closest cardiologist is about 2 1/2 hrs away, so we are doing tele-med at this time.So glad the cath was able to diagnosis the problem, but I am astounded at the cost of the stent! Rugers heart is approx 3" larger than it should be, but we are lucky at this time there is no fluid, and his EKG is pretty much sinus tachycardia...... I just keep thinking about all he people who are walking around with CHF, cardiomypathy, stents and all the other heart disease you can have They are doing just fine .Please keep us updated on the intervention!

 

[3VTLabs]

Very sorry to hear about your pup too. You're right they are way to young to have this happening to them. The doctor said that he thinks our Buddy will come out of this fine. (Hopefully)

Save yourself some money and go straight to the cardiologist. We also have a 3 hour ride to the University of Florida in Gainsville but it is worth it in the long run. We spent $1200 in Orlando at one specialist only to have them send us to Gainsville for all of the same testing that they did minus the angiography and didn't find the root of the problem.