My 11.5 year old Brittany has started to cough a lot more. I suspect it may be heart issues. I have a vet appointment scheduled for tommorow.

Has anybody found medicine or supplements that have helped their dog. ?

Watching this thread. In looking into the coughing of one of our senior dogs discovered her heart murmur has gotten more pronounced and her heart is “rounded”. Likely unrelated to the cough, which appears to be kennel cough and is responding to treatment, but one more thing to track down…

There are some specific medications that your vet can prescribe. As for supplements, not a good idea.

This is a tough row to hoe, BTDT and then end eventually came.

Good Luck,

RMD

We have had two dogs that had heart murmurs that progressed into heart failure.

If the vet suspects any heart issues I highly recommend finding a cardiologist. We did with both of our dogs and they had bi-yearly echos. I know that extended their lives.

Both were put on Vetmedin and a diuretics. Problem with diuretics is they can cause kidney failure.

If you pup is coughing it can be an enlarged heart pressing on the trachea.

I also downloaded the Cardalis app on my iPhone. It measures the respiratory rate of your dog, really helpful to keep track of it

Hopefully it is something else.

Please keep us updated.

My dog was tested with very high probnp, should be less than 900 but his was 3900. Took him to a vet cardiologist at Ohio State University. He is in the very early stages of heart failure, presently only a slight murmur but no enlarging or rounding of the heart. There are medicines and supplements that were prescribed to him by my local vet that found the problem prior to the OSU visit.

Vet said his heart murmur is a little worse and heart is enlarged.He was put on pimobendan 10 mg a day. We will try him on this med for amonth and see if it helps him!! also gave him a antibiotic.

The other half is going through this with her mini pincher (plus it happened with her Dachshund. Well she got the dogs when her mom passed away).

We have taken her to a cardiologist, and they have put her on the following meds.

Furmosemide
Aldactone
Lotensin
Vetmedin

The last couple of days her coughing has gotten pronounced so we have to take her in for a blood panel.

The vetmedin is expensive, so we started getting it at either sams club or Costco.

One of my cats (one of three left from the original crew from Virginia) maybe starting to go through this.

The best thing we ever did was get pet insurance.

We are getting back over 70% of the money from an emergency visit last weekend for the cat mentioned above.

I wish we would have had insurance back when my huskie mix and shepherd mixes got sick. With the money I spent on Panzer, I could have bought a bass boat and new F150.

We had a beagle with heart failure and she lived almost 7 years past her diagnosis with medication. The standard cocktail is Vetmedin, Lasix, and Enalapril. Monitor kidney function with routine labs. It’s a common issue for dogs and if properly treated, they can live a long time, depending on severity.

Our dachshund, who we rescued in 2020, is now 14. He had been doing well and then he began to experience issues. At first we thought it was diet as he was not eating his normal amount of food. Ollie was just not his normal self, and his new brother Schnickelfritz, who we rescued a few months ago, was somewhat the same.

Our vet figured they both probably ate something in our fenced in courtyard and so that was the first approach to help. Schnick responded quickly but Ollie did not.

Fast forward to this past week-end and on walks Ollie would go 10', sit down, another 10' etc. He was eating a bit more, but, still not his normal amount. Then he started heavy breathing. We got him to the vet yet again and he found a heart murmur. Yikes!

Our vet put him on a 2.5 mg tablet of Enalapril two times a day & ordered a full blood test.

Miraculously, Ollie started getting better after only 3 doses. He has returned to eating his normal full meal 2x/day and is walking much better.

The blood test came back completely normal so we don't need to take any further steps for the time being.

My hope for you is you have the same luck!