Hi All. 

I am hoping someone will be able to help with some management info.  My brother and sister-in-law live in France, and adopted a French pointer (braque) about 1 year ago.  He is around 7 or 8 years, and has most likely been kept purely for hunting, and on a chain outside when not hunting.  We don't think he has really had much of life at all.  He can't be let off-lead as he will chase obsessively, not surprisingly.  He was diagnosed recently with heart problems, and is currently on medications as follows: Prilenal, Prilactone and Vetmed and because his heart condition also causes fluid in his lungs, he has another medication (my sister-in-law can't read the vet's handwriting so she is not entirely sure what it is called) which is to be given to him when he starts coughing too much.  Ben (the dog) is normally taken for gentle walks on a harness, and otherwise mooches about their house and garden.  Unfortunately he slipped his harness about 10 days ago, and went after a deer.  He came back after about 4 hours, but starting coughing and was taken to the vet:  she advised his chasing episode has exacerbated his heart, and that SIL should not expect him to live for more than a few months now.  She is, understandably, upset, especially as they lost their beloved Malinois after 15 years shortly before adopting Ben. 

My question is whether any of you guys have had to cope with a dog with such a condition, and is there anything SIL can do in addition to the medication to help Ben?  Also, in your opinion, is the medication he is on good, or is there something else SIL could ask to try (bearing in mind she is in France)?

Anything anyone can advise will be hugely appreciated. 

My last dog was diagnosed with an enlarged heart when she was about eleven and a half years and she had a good three years before she succumbed. My vet prescribed initially Fortecor for her heart and furosemide to reduce excess fluids. After two years she began to go into kidney failure and Vetmedin was added, which is a heart drug but has been shown to help dogs showing signs of kidney failure. She lived about another nine to ten months before taking a downturn and we made the decision to have her pts. She was fourteen and a half. The vet commented that he in all honesty didn't expect her to last more then six months from diagnosis, don't let your brother and his wife despair too much as their dog may surprise the vets in France too. I saw the X-ray of the chest and her heart was grossly enlarged and filled much of the chest cavity so I understand his thoughts.
She didn't have much of a cough, just a bit of huffing when she was excited and that went away with the meds she was given. The vet said not to mollycoddle her too much as she would do as much or as little as she wanted, but given your brothers dog is likely not to restrict himself then obviously he needs to be restrained for his own good. My old girl improved so much on the meds and was bouncing around like a mad thing at times, we noticed that she suffered in the heat so we bought a cool coat for her to wear on the warm days and that worked a treat. I didn't add any supplements apart from things like Glucosmine for mobility and kept her weight down keeping her on the light side of her normal weight.
I hope this has been of some help.

Jodi:  thanks so much.  I will pass on your comments, and I know they will be appreciated by bruv and SIL.

IrishRuby

Tell your brother & SIL to take each day as they come, their dogs doesn't know he is ill & they should enjoy him for whatever time he has left with them, a friend's BC was diagnosed with leaking heart valves & an enlarged heart-vet gave her 6 months, she lived for another 6 years going to the Bridge aged 15 1/2 years old after a stroke.

He obviously has a very strong will to chase after the deer & hopefully that will allow him to keep going no matter what the vet says

Thanks, Tommee, I've already let SIL know (I am sure she knows this in her heart).  It's always good, too, to have examples of other dogs with similar conditions who've lived a good and fulfilled life. 

IrishRuby

My last dobe was diagnosed with an enlarged heart in July 2010.  That October she was retested and bloods done etc and I was told that the vet (an international expert on her disease) expected her to go into heart failure "any day now".  Her heart was huge, and all indicators were that she didn't have long.

She died of a heart attack on Oct 29, 2011, having never gone into heart failure, with no medical support (she was on a study into the use of vetmedin with pre-symptomatic DCM, was only on vetmedin and some months after her death I learned that she had actually been on the placebo).  All the vets and vet nurses involved were gobsmacked at how long she'd gone on for post-diagnosis.  And I never slowed her down - she was running around and barking up until the moment she died (literally).  The day before, she ran non-stop for 90 minutes in the woods.  Much better to do what they love for the time they have left :-)

I lost my darling boy this year due to, amongst other things but mainly, heart failure.

He was diagnosed around 11 months before he passed with cardiomyopathy, different to your Brother and SIL's dog as my Murf had all 4 leaking valves, not significant enlargement. I noticed that he was getting very tired when out on our walks and his tongue had a blue tinge.

He was on vetmedin and fortekor for the last 11 months but we did have a few relapses and thought that we were going to lose him 3 months before we actually did. He was very thin, no matter what we fed him and he went from 50 kilos down to 43 kilos in that time but still loved his life.

We were told to keep exercise to a minimum and no more walks, just let him wander around the garden. We had a heart monitor jacket put on him for 24 hours to monitor his heart beats. My vet told me that if he over exerted himself he could just drop. It was hard telling Murfee that though as he still wanted to leap about for short periods of time, but I didn't dare take him out for a walk as where we live, in the middle of nowhere, if we went 15 minutes up the road and he took a bad turn, I was worried about getting him home again.

I would say that restricting his exercise is sensible but other than that, let him enjoy his life and be there for him to make the right decision when the time comes. My old boy collapsed one morning, we took him to the vet and they decided to change his meds, when we went to leave, he collapsed again and I knew from the look in his eyes that he couldn't cope any more, he was tired of living with it. That particular day he was also refusing all food which I knew was a sure sign, as all of his life, he loved his food.

I hope that they have more time with him yet and that they all enjoy the time that is left

Thanks for all your replies. I appreciate it, and will be passing them all on. I hope Ben will be around for a good while longer.

irishRuby