Congestive heart failure - how does it end? (poodle, vets, barking)

[oprah467]

my long hair chiuaha, and half cockerspaniel mix passed about 4 weeks ago. I ma devestated and dont know where to turn. I feel like it was my fault. He was 13 and a half when he passed. A couple years ago the vets would always mention that he had a heart murmur and I should take him to a cardiologist. I never did because he hated the vets and was always so nervous around them, I didnt want to cause it would cause him more fear. I just would take him on walks, play with him. I loved him very much, he was my best friend . He was normal until this year. Around end of october, begiining november 2009 he started to cough a lot. He would cough in the morning, afternoon, night. Thats when I knew I had to start taking him to the vet even though I really didnt want to, cause he hated vets . He would cough like he was trying to get something out, but nothing came out. Around november his vet thought maybe it was kennel cough, she gave us antibiotcs for him, cough suppresants..but it still got worse. He still ate, ran, played the same.

Around the begiinging of january 2010, I was referred to a specialist for him. They did exrays, ultra sound, blood work. They said he had heart valvular disease, and they suspected cancer in his stomach, from masses growing in his stomach, near his lungs. I was in denial, but he was put on meds enalpril, furemoside. I tried giving him the meds once in the morning and night 12 hours a part, but sometimes i would give it at dif times, but always 12 hours apart. He got MUCH better, didnt cough, ate alot, i fed him a lot..bad decision. He gained weight, and i thought thatw as a good thing cause the vet was happy when he gained weight. for about 5 months he was doing so good. He was doing wonderfully until the dreaded weak of may 16,1010. It was a cold day, i went to school, came back and he looked a little sad. I had terriyaki chicken for dinner, I never give him my food but he eats chicken from my parents all the time. He was begging for it, so not thinking i looked at his cute face and gave him terriyaki chicken and beef. I gave him a good amount of a couple peices, i wasnt keeping track He looked so happy eating it. My dad would always give him chicken and bones and he was fine. A couple hours later my mom gave him more steamed white chicken. At that time was about 10 pm. I gave him terriyaki chicken at like 6:30 pm that day.

Around 11 he started looking very sick. He was just lying down breathing really hard. I never heard him breathe like taht before. I was going to take him to the vet but i was in denial. I took him on a walk, we came back he fell asleep. the next morning tues, i was so worried so i took him to the vet. she took blood tests to test his kidenys from the meds. he was coughing when he was with her. she did exrays. she said his kidneys were a little high from the meds but it was ok. a TECHNICIAN WHO BROUGHT HIM BACK TO the xray room was so mean to him in front of me. He was yanking his leash hurting his neck, forcing my dog to backlash and hit his poor head on the bench. i wanted to just take him and leave but was afraid that he really needed their help. We went home, now its wed. gave him 1/4 furemoside wed mornin around 11 am. he took his last dose or 1/4 furemoside and 1 and half enalpril at 2 am the night before. Now this is the part that kills me, and i feel like it is my fault hes gone. I was so angry with how the vets treated my dog,and the attitude they gave me that i went to another vet. I brought all his info. the new vet was aware of his prexisting conditions. He had a fever of 105, the vet said he needed antibiotics, 250 miligram. he was only 21 pounds. the new vet said he prob only had 2 weeks to 2 months to live. I went home, checked with his original vets if he can take the enalpril, furemoside, and antibiotics together they said ya. so i gave it to him around 7:30 pm. The next day my ma gave him the same doses around 7:30 am. By then his original vet called me and said that antibiotics was not a good idea because 250 miligram is too much for him, but it shouldnt hurt him. those were the last doses he would take, he wouldnt eat for the rest of the day, this is on thur. at that time his vet said i feel like the end is near. i sadi he keeps coughing, she talked to me about euthanasia. she said i can give him some cough suppresant. so thur night he had enalpril, furemoside, and antibiotcs. at night he only took the enalpril, furemoside,and cough suprresant. he was so sick all thurs. he was breathing hard, and couldnt even walk past my house, when a week before he was so happy to run out the door. How can this happen so fast, he got so sick so fast, i feel it was my fault for giving him to much meds. fri he didnt want to eat anything all day. i couldnt see him like he was, breathing so hard, very fast lying on my couch. as a defense mechanism i left, i couldnt see him in pain. he was my baby, i had him half my life, i was in denial. i thought if i left and came back he would be to normal..he wasnt. i left him alone all day in pain cause i was to stupid to deal with my baby. he was in pain all day and i left him.about 8:30 pm i came home and saw him. i cried so much, i said he can go, and i loved him so much. i ahd him for 13 and a half years, ive had him half my life, im 23 . my bro and parents came home and said it was his time, and he was in pain. i picked him up and went to the emergency vet. he was breathing so hard, and looked so tired. they put him oxyegen for 2 hours, and the doc was giving him injections of furemoside and the cough supressant. she had givin him a dose fo furemoside 2 hours apart??isnt that overdose??? they wanted to keep him in the oxyegn but i couldnt leave him there. i was dumb and in denial and i just wanted to take him home. they said..take him home, if he gets worse well be here, if its his time we can euthansia. i picked him up, he was so happy to get out of the cage with oxyegn being blown into it. i picked him up, went to my car. immediatley he looked so bad. he just looked so tired, and was searching for air. i ran to get tech to bring him to oxyegn, by then i layed him on the passenegr seat and he stopped breathing. the tech said he was passing. i said okay euathize him, after i gave him one kiss goodbye. my bro and the tech ran to the room. i couldnt go in. a couple mins later my bro said hes gone, he had a heart attack,. the tech said it was it was like he was drowing. tehy said he didnt even need euthanasia, cause he was already gone. god i miss him so much. i feel like it was my fault, i should of let him go peacefully with euathnasia but i was to stubborn to do what was best for him. i miss him so much, he was by my side everyday everywhere for 13 and a half years. i dont really know what to do, cause i keep blaming myslef. im writing this becfause im having trouble forgigiving myself. i just want to seem him again. his funeral was so hard. he was my baby, and i just dont want him to be mad at me. before he passed on the way to the vet i took him to the doorsteps of church he was having so much trouble breathing . please someone help me figure my feelings out...did i do something wrong? please help me im so depressed, and i miss my doggy so much. thankyou for taking the time to read this, ive been dealingw ith these thoughts for about a month now, everyone keeps teling me its not my fault but i cant help but feel like i induced his heart attack. his poor baby heart.

[barndog]

oprah467 -- first, let me say, i am so sorry for your loss. it is terrible when they leave us, and we feel that we've done everything we can... and even more terrible when they leave us, and we feel we've failed them.

unfortunately, i can't answer your questions about the medications b/c i'm not a vet... but what i can tell you is this: i have a dog who has mitral valve disease, and he's about the same size as your dog probably, 18 pounds... and he takes A LOT of medication, enalapril among them. some days, he takes as many as 6 meds twice a day in one day. i cannot say for certain, but i don't think that the medications hurt your dog. i also don't think you feeding him scraps of food in his last few days hurt him either.

dogs need a good quality life, and some people will tell you good quality means NO HUMAN FOOD, but i don't think this is true. i think a bite here and there of something from the table is not hurtful and it makes them happy, happy... although i admit i lick the salt and spices off anything i give barnaby, my shih tzu.

also, let me tell you this: barnaby has been seeing a cardiologist since 2006 for the mitral valve disease that he suffers from. originally, he saw one specialist and now he sees another. this second one recently told me that studies have shown that the enapril may or may NOT actually have an affect on dogs who have mitral valve disease... she actually said i could take barnaby off this med. of course, i haven't b/c i'm not taking any chances, but my point is i know you feel guilt for waiting those years and not taking your dog to the cardiologist. assuming that my cardiologist is correct, i am not sure what your vet could even have done for your dog aside from give him a med that might or might not work.

i'll tell you what i take from your post: it seems like your dog came to the natural end of his lifespan, a terrible, terrible time, but a natural time with the heart disease and with the possible cancer... and it sounds like you did everything you could but, in the end, we can't fight it when it's time to let our doggy friends go... and i hate that more than i could ever tell you here... and i am so sorry for you... and, no, i don't think you did anything wrong. i think you loved your dog so much over the years and did an amazing and wonderful job of being his person.

again, i am so sorry for your loss!

[debtmonger]

We decided to put our dog to sleep last summer after suffering from CHF. After talking it over with our Vet, the decision which is never easy, was the best decision for our dog. When I was a kid, I saw our dog suffer needlessly, because my father could not put the dog to sleep. I swore I would never make that mistake. Good luck with your dog and stay strong.

[claud605]

Dusty was coughing constantly, I kept telling her to make it CLEAR to me when she was ready to go. I didn't want her to be so far gone that it was painful to die naturally. So one morning (after not eating for four days) she started coughing up this white foamy stuff that looked like marshmallow fluff. I knew it was time. And we took her in to be put down and the vet said, yes, when they do that there is nothing more to be done and it would only get worse. And that I did the right thing at the right time. Sniff...still miss her. But the new doggies make it less painful!! And isn't that the lesson in dogs dying so young? I think so.

[cmarsh4]

We were one of the lucky ones. My lab/chow mix named Blackie didnt suffer very much at all. The first signs came as he was kind of falling over when he walked and then the vet diagnosed CHF and then one morning it looked like he was just sleeping but I knew better but he didnt suffer much at all and went peacefully in his sleep. I also always worried that if we had caught it earlier maybe his life would have been prolonged but he was one of those dogs who always acted happy and never complained.

We are all thinking about you in this tough time.

[bunky919]

I too have a 9 pound chihauhau with Chf and an enlarged heart. I feel like I am on a roller coaster on minute he is coughing like a kid with croup the next minute he is outside trying to catch the squrarel. My dog is on enalaprel,lasix, vetmiden, spiraldactone. I have spent about 2,500.00 dollars in the last month and am not sure where this will end, but I love my dog and this is all very painful. Wish I had some good sound advice about these meds! Help

[foxywench]

most chf animals go very peacefully in their sleep, MOST chf animals are fine one day, often just a little tired, mabe a little more cough than usual, then the next morning, gone.

most chf dogs dont suffer from pain (at least that they show), they simply go to sleep, and often, if it wasnt for the coughing...youd never know the dog was sick.

[lisa65]

My 11 year old Chihuahua, Riley, was diagnosed with CHF 2 days after his 11th birthday on August 14, 2010, the same day he was having his second surgery for bladder stones. Just a couple of weeks prior to that he was diagnosed with a heart murmur. We had been giving him Lasix, along with the other noraml meds for CHF and the amounts of Lasix he was having to take were ridiculous for a 9 lb baby.
The last week of his precious life were a roller coaster. He would run around and play with his baby, bow up to his best friend, Summer, our 120 pound chocolate lab, make the cats behave and then he would cough and cough and cough for what seemed like an hour.
The past 4 days I had a problem with him taking his medicine, I would put it in pill pockets and he loved it, cheese was actually his favorite, but with his kidney stones and the sodium in cheese, I hated to give it to him, but the past few days, he wouldn't even eat the cheese.
We came in about 11:00 Friday night and he wasn't good at all. I put him in the bed and he layed on my pillow and his breathing wasn't right and he wasn't right. I cried and told him how much I loved him and that I was going to miss him, the crying made him more upset, he was very sensitive and always knew when something wasn't quite right. We got up yesterday morning and I knew something was definiteley wrong, he couldn't lay down, I was cooking breakfast and made him some scrambled eggs with just a few slivers of cheese, I had a feeling this would be his last meal. It was so cute, I gave it to him on a paper plate and once he was finished he picked up the plate and took it into the living room.
My husband was getting ready to leave to go run in a marathon today and called me once he left and told me that it was time and we had no choice any longer, so to spend my time with him this weekend because he was taking him for one last ride in the car to see the cows. I was doing things around the house all day and he seemed like he was feeling better, he was actually able to bark without coughing, he hasn't been able to do that in probably a month. He went outside with Summer and he didn't like to do that anymore either. But once it got dark out and he was unable to see the neighbors outside, he got very quiet. He wouldn't take his medicine at all and he wouldn't eat his dinner. I watched him and I could see his pain. He couldn't lay down, he would try and get right back up and was reaching higher and higher trying to breath, his breathing was very labored. He was on the couch and I sat down in front of him and told him it was ok to go, I loved him very much, he gave us alot of happiness and it was ok to leave Mommy. Oh my, how hard was that. He couldn't get comfortable and there was absoloutely nothing I could do for him and I prayed to God to please just take him. I figured if I went to bed and turned out the lights, he would try to relax. I tried picking him up and he bit me, so I left him alone. A few minutes after I went to bed, he came in the room and let me put him on the bed. The gasping and reaching was horrible, so I got in front of him once more and looked into those precious sincere eyes and told him "Baby boy, it's time for you to go see Cricket, Rocky, (his brother & sister from other litters), Grandpa Jack and Paw Paw" and I saw somewhat of peace come over him. I turned out the light and he laid down beside me like he has done since the day we got him at 5 weeks old. I fell asleep and I woke up at 4:30 am, and he was laying on side like he always slept and looked so peaceful, he was finally...finally not hurting anymore. I have never loved a pet like I loved him. He wasn't a pet, he was my kid and now he's gone to Heaven. It sure is quiet here without the sound of his little toe nails on the wood floor.
My husband doesn't know yet. He is running in the Dallas WhiteRock Marathon and I can't ruin his day by telling him this until he gets home from there. I am hurting so bad, but I am so glad he finally went to sleep and he's not hurting anymore.
My suggestion to anyone whose precious little fur baby has CHF, don't wait too long, don't let them suffer like Riley did. Had I been able to get in contact with my vet last evening, I would have taken him them, but they send you to the emergency clinic and that's a nightmare.
I attached a picture of him taken in September of this year. He got the cat's food bowl and came in the bathroom with it while I was getting ready for work. Gosh, I loved that little boy so so much!!!

[AustinB]

I'm so sorry for you. It never gets easier.

[Kele]

My Papillion, Lisa was diagnosed with CHF. She died peacefully in her sleep about six months later. I made her last months as comfortable and pleasant as possible and kept her in the bed with me at night because she loved to sleep curled up next to me.

You just do the best you can with the time you have left.