hello!

i'm seeking words of wisdom yet again....

i had a distraught friend ring me last night telling me her two and half year old golden retriever bitch has been diagnosed with an enlarged heart and is to be on drug therapy for the rest of her days. The vet (also my vet) has said she won't live to her teens, but can give no idea how long she'll live for. Needless to say, she's gutted. She gifted her 1yr old GSD dog to South Yorkshire Police a month ago (had a few behaviour probs, and despite behaviourists, an ex-police trainer (hmm...) and loads of training classes, didn't get any better), and has only just got over him going, to be hit with this.

she's pretty much been told to treat her as normal, but not to over-exert her physically as she struggles for breath and eventually collapses.

i have no experience with anything like this, so thought i'd if any of guys had?

nic

Yes I had a Golden with this. The medication needed jiggling with now and then to get the dosage right, but he lived until he was 11. :) I just let him do what HE wanted, stick to his own pace.

I've also got a cavalier right now with a heart problem and my vet told me he'd die before Christmas. That was Christmas *2002* !! So tell your friend dogs often surprise us, and medication is getting better all the time.

thanks for that-i'll let her know. I'm sure she'll live a lot longer than karen thinks-she's a little devil!

hi there i have an english springer on whom was diagnosed through x-ray with an enlarged heart, about a year ago, shes 11.5 now & still going strong, if anything she seems in a better way now than she was 18 months ago, vet prescriber her steroids,  fortekor & water tablets, for her heart, due to the nature of her complaint her exercise is very limited due to vets advice, she tends to cough now & again as if trying to cough something up, thats what 1st prompted me to get her checked, she was tested for thyroid/ cushions disease etc, you name it shes had the tests, cant believe i had to tell them i wanted the xray done, she will be on these tablets for the rest of her days but goes to prove they can still grow to be oldies & hopefully prove the vet wrong as to how long her dog may live, i sure hope so

My ESS was diagnosed with an enlarged heart this year (dilated cardiomyopathy). He also has asthma. He's on the same tablets as Spaniel Mad's dog but he also has an inhaler twice a day. He seems happy and tolerates a fair bit of exercise now.

Good luck :)