Congestive heart failure - how does it end? (prescription, treatment, coughing)

[Tim042]

I am so scared to see my 10 year old Shih Tzu Domino pass. He is the best companion a person could have asked for. He is my best friend. I am a retired cop and can see anything except for him having any issue. I panic but I do what's necessary to do. The only problem he has ever had was with his lower back. Which when he is in pain I have medicine for, but after a day or so he doesn't need it anymore for a long time. I hope he stays around until he is 18. But I wo let him live in pain for my sake. Even though I kno that I will be in a long depressed state with a broken heart. My prayers are with all those that feel the same way with there best friend. Tim

[jmarkey]

Our experience with CHF....

My Cairn terrier cross was diagnosed a year and a half ago, at 11 years old. He had developed a funny cough that acted up during walks. He was immediately put on Lasix, Enalapril, and Vetmedin. The medications worked very well for him, though the Lasix will cause frequent urination. His day to day life stayed pretty much the same, though we had to shorten our walks.

We monitored his condition with xrays and were able to keep his lungs free of fluid, though his heart was enlarging. Last week he developed a terrible cough and was having a lot of trouble breathing. We rushed him in and xrays showed his heart had enlarged to the point that it was crushing his trachea. It was time and losing him has been devastating. However, medication and some lifestyle changes gave us a good year and a half.

[coastercrazy13]

Hi to all of you, so much info here and so much heartbreak. I hope it's ok I chime in here, I'm looking for info, but will also share. I have a cat, my world, she's 14 and was diagnosed officially with CHF this past June. One year prior, she has a strange episode, ended up in Oxygen, only to come home and show nothing else for a year. Not sure still what that was, paid 600 for them to say, she might have this or that. Anyway I now have an amazing vet who shoots straight and is so good to us.
Cinder is doing well at this current moment, she did cough and took a medicine that began with "theo", I'm sorry, at work and do not have the info here. She stopped coughing, ultrasound looked good, and we took her off them. She is now on Furosemide twice a day, amplodipine 1/8th a day, and vetmedin twice a day. I know that is for dogs but there are studies and she is doing amazingly well.
Back in Oct, the 22nd to be exact, she had rough breathing, took her in right away, 3 days of oxygen and she got tapped for fluid. Since then her breathing is between 28-36 daily. (I check 2-3 times a day). Appetite is good most days, some a little less but maintaining weight at 10.59 lbs. She started around 12. She has a lot of energy and I give that to vetmedin which really turned us around.
I guess I came here because I am looking for info to watch for. Other than what I already know which is the heavy hard breathing and coughing. I am scared for the end and am holding back tears as I type. Her spirits are great, and she loves her turkey lunch meat (low sodium, ) and cat snacks.
Any advice here is so welcome, or your stories. Most of your stories here had me holding more tears back.

I did ask for one Christmas present and that is for her to be with me. She loves laying under the tree and I am spoiling her with a new heated cat bed. I don't know what I will do without her.
Wow, it feels good yet odd to be so frank here when I have troubles sharing this in real every day life.

I am sorry to all of you who went through this, some more heartbreaking but none more painful than the next.

I'm glad I found this, somehow I feel better just typing this out.

[edp71u528]

I lost my poodle, Machi, that I had for 13 ½ years just 4 days ago now
Here is what my experience has been.
Hope the story helps some of you.
I also have some questions at the end, please help me answer them if you can.
I took Machi to the park one night so he could pee on some things. The next few days after going to the park he had a little cough and his abdomen started to swell. Looking back his abdomen swelled every once in a while but never like it did this time. In the past I attributed the swelling to getting older and gaining a little bit of weight. The cough he has had before too, I thought it was asthma in the past. It always cleared up with a few days time in the past. This time I thought it was kennel cough from being at the park. So we weren’t too concerned but we kept an eye on him. He swelled up so large that we knew something new was going on but we didn’t know what. About 4 days after the park when my girl friend came home, he ran upstairs to greet her. He turned around to go back downstairs ran face first into the door, bounced of the door and passed out on the floor sprawled out. The next day, sometime near the end of October he was diagnosed with CHF. He was put on Furosemide, Enalaprill, and Vetmidin that we fed him inside hotdogs. It took a few days but he did drop a lot of water weight and his cough disappeared. As time went on he seemed to lose a lot of girth in his abdomen but I noticed once it hit a certain point the swelling started to come back slowly even while on the meds. He also stopped wanting to eat the hotdogs with the pills inside of them. It seemed like his appatite dropped at this point. Then I missed a dose of Furosomide on November 9th. That seemed to coincide with worsening conditions, his energy was low and he stayed in his kennel most of the day and just looked down and out. I would try to get him to go pee by taking him outside but he was unstable on his feet. I would set him down and he would just stand there and look at me. If he really needed to pee he would but he didn’t like to walk and when he did it was very slowly. He was drinking water when he got thirsty though. We took him back to the vet. They told me he had water around his heart and offered to put him out and draw the fluid from his heart with a syringe. I declined since I was told it was only a short term fix and putting him under for the surgery could kill him. Spirolactonate and enrofloxacin were added to his meds. Again it took a while but he got better, he had more energy and come out of his kennel to greet us as time went on but this time his appetite was next to nothing. When walking his stability was much better but his legs shaked a little. He no longer would take his pills with hotdogs though.
Then around Thanksgiving he was letting me know he hurt. He would hold up his front paw to show me he hurt. When he exercised and over did it his leg would hurt. I think at this time he was trying to get through to me that physically he was hurting from CHF by holding up his paw to show me he was hurting. About this same time I missed another Furosemide. There were no noticeable changes until the next night. He was laying under the bed, we heard him gagging, he came out from under the bed and vomited bial.
He did vomit bile again the next day, not excessively but enough to worry me. He was pretty consistently vomiting even when he did not have food in his stomach. During this time he was really good about drinking water still. He was very unstable on his feet though again. At this point I realized he was not eating much at all and we could feel his spine was very prominent. So I force fed him. He held the food down for a while but then would vomit it back up. This happened through the night. Even when I wouldn’t force feed him he would throw up or at least dry heave. Even though he wasn’t eating on his own he was drinking water and I was able to get him to urinate a few times.
The next day he slept all day basically and started to improve again. He did really well for about 2 weeks again. He still never gained back his appetite. The entire time I would force feed him 2x a day or more (puppy milk, pate, ect). He gained some weight back but never his appetite. He would eat very very small portions but the same thing never worked 2 days in a row. We would try pepperoni then that didn’t work, then hamburger, then chicken breasts, then chicken skins. He would eat like 2 bites and then turn his nose up to it. He would drink water, we saw him pee but very rarely saw him poop. He was feeling good for the most part it seemed here. When we would take him on walks he would get tired after walking about 100-150 yards.
Then I missed another dose of Furosemide. He was tired but that night, the next morning he was good. I force fed him like normal. Gave him all other pills on schedule. We went to work, when we came back we noticed he had vomited quite a few times. I gave him his pills, he gagged and tried to vomit about an hour later. I gave him some water realizing he probably wasn’t drinking at all. He got another Furosemide, at his scheduled time and couldn’t hold that down for very long. Then he was given another Furosemide at his normal time. At this time he was having labored breathing. Before this time his breathing never seemed difficult for him. These last 3 times he got his meds he was able to hold them down less and less time. It started at about an hour that he could keep his pills down then the last time was only about 30 minutes. I had been giving him a little bit of food with the pills just to help his stomach but the last 2 times it was just the pills. I also gave him some water in-between his 2 last Furosemide doses.
At this point he couldn’t keep his pills down, he refused to drink water I gave him from a syringe. He wasn’t eating on his own, if I tried to forced feed him that would come back up an hour later so we took him to the vet.
On the drive he was limp in my arms. I put him on the examination table and the vet tech took his temperature and then I took him off the table again. Then the doctor came in, and I put him back on the table. This time he did not put his feet out underneath him. The doctor checked his gums, told us his temperature was low. At that point Machi put his head down on the table in a way I had never seen before. The doctor said she was going to take him to the back and put him in the oxygen cage. Very shortly after another Vet Tech came in to let us know Machi was in arrest and they were performing CPR. I knew that was it, he was very tired ever since being put on the medication.
So I have done some research on the internet and I did see another story where about every 2 weeks there would be an “episode”. This seems to have happened with Machi as well. I did miss Furosemide doses about the same time but from what I understand is Furosemide will only help with the water retention.
If anyone has any other questions about circumstance or what I learned feel free to ask.
So my questions are:
Has anyone else missed a dose of Furosemide and had the same consequences ?
Has anyone never missed a dose of Furosemide and conditions got worse?
Can anyone tell me what was causing the vomiting? Or the instability in walking?

[Barneydoodles]

My 15 year old beagle-springer mix, Barney, has suffered with CHF for 6 months. Is it a good idea to take him out side in the 25 degree temperature often. he is on anti-biotics, & water pills Hie meds are:
Furocemide 50 MG 1 & 1/2 tablets per day
Enacard 10 mg 1 pill every 12 hours

[Broo2]

Originally Posted by edp71u528

Has anyone else missed a dose of Furosemide and had the same consequences ?
Has anyone never missed a dose of Furosemide and conditions got worse?
Can anyone tell me what was causing the vomiting? Or the instability in walking?

I have a small Chihuahua named Chalupa. We think he is around 11 years old (rescued stray) and he is in the later stages of CHF. Early in his diagnosis, the vet and I were working together to figure out his dosages of Furosemide. We initially were giving him 25mg in three does split into 10mg/5mg/10mg- with the last dose falling at midnight. The Furosemide did its work and Chupie was constantly thirsty/drinking and needing to urinate thereafter- and for this he would wake me several times to take him downstairs to go outside. I asked my vet if it would be possible to switch the last two does- the 5mg and the 10mg- so Chupie might take care of most of his drinking/urinating before I go to bed and the vet said that would be Ok, so long as he got the full dosage of 25mg during the day.

I guess Chupie's body had acclimated to the higher dosage of Furosemide while sedentary at night; at 4:30am on the night I had switched the dosages, Chalupa was up and at the edge of my bed, hacking and wheezing with a look of extreme duress on his face. I noticed he was shaking, taking short, rapid breath and couldn't get comfortable in any position if I tried to put him back in bed. I took him outside to see if he needed to use the bathroom and he would not leave my side; I tried to give him his favorite treats (The Beneful baked delights- and yes, they are very bad for him) and he showed zero interest- and I realized he was not well. I immediately took him to my vet's 24 hour hospital. The on-staff vets confirmed he had a mild heart 'attack' (they actually used a different word I cannot remember- but same idea) from fluid build up. They put him in an oxygen tent, administered an injection of Lasix and he was Ok; they kept him overnight for observations and my vet adjusted his dosage up to 30mg the next day.

Before the event I had found dog vomit on the floor on three times over a few weeks- but we have four small dogs and I was unsure of which one(s) of them may have done it (and I was in denial to think that Chupie was worsening)- but my vet later confirmed that vomiting can be a sign of his particular condition.

My vet explained a bit to be about CHF, and (if I can remember all of this stuff correctly) it a situation where fluid builds up around the heart and lungs and can inhibit/halt their function. In Chupie's situation, he has a (degenerative) valve problem that lets blood flow the wrong way when the heart beats- creating a fluid build up in/around the lungs. As this happens, it creates pressure on the the heart and/or lungs, making it difficult for them to operate. The heart then cannot supply enough oxygen to the body- cascading down into problems with organ function, digestion, cognitive ability, etc.

We had a smaller scary incident just last night; He was acting very odd and I had him bundled up and was ready to head out -and I must assume his medications kicked as his breathing returned to normal and he calmed down (it took a lot longer for me to do the same). I kept an eye on him for he next few hours, made sure he took is 12am dosage and he seemed to be Ok this morning. I contacted my vet and he has increased his dosage by another 5mg/day. Tonight he is down to 38 bpms (breaths-per-minute) at rest; last night he was up to 55 bpms.

I apologize for making my response so lengthy; I think I just wanted to talk a bit about my little Chupie...

[gouligann]

So many heart breaking stories on here. (hugs to all of you!) I know we will also be going through losing our beloved old sweetheart too, but hopefully she has a long time yet.


For those of you who have dogs that cough from heart disease or collapsed tracheas, please PLEASE try this product. Dog Cough Medicine - Throat Gold - Cough & Throat Soother


While it doesn't stop the coughing 100% for our 15 year old yorkie-poo, it makes a HUGE difference for her and gives her about 80% relief. She doesn't hack and choke all day and night like she was.

It isn't cheap, but we decided to try it based on the rave reviews (read them on that url). We bought our first bottle last June 2014, she gets it 2x daily and we still have some left. It goes a long way! We just ordered our second bottle this week.

[cammyukcake]

My 12 year old spaniel x breed has been helped a lot with human codeine he has 30 mg a day split in to 2 doses .

[Rebecca Skelnik]

I am in deep grief for my 16 year old Shih Tzu that was diagnosed with heart failure last Saturday. He had also been diagnosed two months before with a Cancer tumor in his upper jaw under his nose. He was always a fussy eater but had quit eating anything two months before and I was force- feeding him some special food since then. I did not know he had HF; his symptoms came on suddenly, the gagging cough but he only did that 4 times in a day, where I immediately took him to the Vet. On examination at the Vet's office, she determined that he had HF and his lungs were full of fluid. I asked about heart meds but she advised that it was only going to prolong his suffering and judging his poor health the past few months, she felt he only had a few days left to live. She warned that death from HF would be a suffocating death. With tears welled up in my eyes, we made the plans for her to come to our home and put Beantoo to sleep in two days. And so the deed was done, but now I wonder if he might have been able to buy some time with heart meds. She had given Beantoo a shot and given me meds to give at home to keep him going until she could come and put him to sleep and Beantoo seemed to be better with the med. Any wisdom of the above. Thank you.

[Rebecca Skelnik]

Thanks for sharing about your dog Chalupa. It's uplifting to know so many sick dogs have owners who are taking such good care of them.