My Canine Companion is Sick

By / heart disease, max

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This post will be used to accumulate my notes for Max’s treatment (near the end of the post)  so it will be updated as new info is found.

I didn’t take diabetes “laying down” … so don’t think that I am going to take Max’s illness laying down either.

Having said that… I am fully aware that my efforts may be fruitless. However, I know from personal experience… HOPE and ACTION are the best medications you can have.

Diagnosis

1) Enlarged Heart, 13 x 17 cm. A formula was used to properly evaluate his condition which involves counting vertebrae gave Max a number of “13”.  A dog with a normal sized heart should be about an 11. So he does indeed have an enlarged heart.

2) Fluid in his chest cavity, around his heart.

3) Arrhythmia – an irregular heart beat. Every 3rd heart beat was irregular.

The picture to the right was taken a few days earlier, he was not feeling his best but with the sun shining through the trees… I just had to take the picture.

Max spread light and sunshine everywhere he went. Everyone that meets Max… loves Max.

Prognosis :

Under favorable conditions, if the drugs do help Max’s condition (slows his heart down and relieves the fluid) I was told that Max could live for months.

If the drugs do not positively affect his condition, Max could only have weeks to live.

The doctor told me that, given his recent decline in health… his life expectancy may be more towards the shorter end of the timeframe.

* Note:  I highly recommend both of the DVMs (Doctors of Veterinarian Medicine) … they were both professional, knowledgeable and caring.

Can You Help?

If you have any information, links, tips … any information at all that may help me help Max… I would SINCERELY APPRECIATE IT.

* If you have information on treatments or patient care, please leave as a comment or email me  cooksey.steve@gmail.com , thank you.

** I will of course pass the information on anonymously if you prefer but your feedback could possibly help others in the future.

Notes:

– Ok, to walk Max for short periods but he should not run for long periods of time.  Let him do as much as he feels like doing.

– Try to keep him calm and comfortable.

– Food – given his situation, often times ‘bland’ foods are tolerated better. Suggested baby food.  Both of the DVMs were fully “on board” with a primal meal plan for Canines BTW.

Treatments

DVMs Prescribed two drugs:

Mexiletine 250 mg – 3 times per day.  (check out this link to Mexiletine… scary stuff coming from NIH) This drug’s purpose is to correct the irregular/abnormal heart beat.

Furosamide 20 mg – diuretic , to remove fluid from his chest.

Alternative Treatments?

*** In this section I will post comment/suggestions for alternative or additional treatments.

1) Arrhythmia

– Arrhythmia & Magnesium ~ “The Heart Scan Blog”

2) Enlarged Heart

3) Fluid Around Heart/In the chest.


18 thoughts on “My Canine Companion is Sick”

  1. Tiffany

    I’m so so sorry to hear about Max! I know nothing to help in your fight, but hope you find some answers and some help.

  2. Cheryl M

    I don’t have medical remedies, but my friend’s dog had similar condition. She got a puppy for her older dog’s companionship, and it helped. Didn’t change prognosis though. Her vet said in her 20+ years she’d never seen the condition reverse, I’m sorry to tell you.

    2. Steve Cooksey

      Thanks Cheryl and my info agrees with yours, this condition is not reversible but I’m hopeful to treat successfully to give him more time to love and cuddle him. :)

  3. AndreAnna (Life As A Plate)

    I wish I had some help but I just wanted to offer my thoughts and sympathy. Dealing with an ailing loved one is so hard, furry or not. I hope you still have many months of love and slobber from Max. He’s lucky to have you.

  4. Amanda

    I am so sorry to hear this. He is a beautiful canine companion, and I am terribly sorry for how this has to feel. I don’t have any dogs so I don’t know much about the condition, but I know how it feels to have a fur baby that is sick. I will be thinking about you and Max.

  5. Andre Chimene

    Get out your turkey baster, syringe lookin thing, and start in a base of chicken or turkey broth, mix in magnesium glycinate, turmeric, ginger, black pepper, hawthorn berries, creatine 2.5 grams, tinctures of corn silk (diuretic) garlic, Red Cover, cayenne (in caps if not he will wince but get it in him). Pump this intto him 4-5 x day. He doesn’t need to eat for a while. Let him catch up on healing. You can turkey baste a liver mash if need be. Good luck, do everything you can, no regrets.

  6. Willa Jean

    The only downside to loving a dog is that eventually we lose them. I’m praying for you and for him. Blessings.

    1. Steve Cooksey

      Hi Willa and thanks. I agree… dogs should live at least 40 yrs… it should be a law. I’m a “lab guy” … two have lived 9+ years of age and one lived 13 years. Compared to how attached I become, that is NOT nearly long enough.

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