Dogs with Heart Failure: Symptoms to Watch Out For
It is not a standalone disease but a syndrome that can occur in the progression of many illnesses.
Heart failure typically develops gradually on the basis of progressively severe cardiovascular disease. When animals fall ill, they experience an increase in heart rate and a longterm overload on the heart, leading to excessive tension in the ventricular muscles. This stimulates myocardial metabolism, increases protein synthesis, thickens myocardial fibers, and causes compensatory hypertrophy, thereby enhancing myocardial contractility and increasing cardiac output to meet the body's metabolic needs. However, the hypertrophied myocardium has a higher resting tension and a slower increase in tension during contraction, which results in increased oxygen consumption and significantly reduced cardiac reserve and efficiency. When the animal's heart rate increases due to exertion, exercise, or other factors, the hypertrophied myocardium enters a state of severe hypoxia, leading to weakened myocardial contractility. The heart is unable to empty the ventricles during contraction, causing the heart to dilate and ultimately leading to heart failure.
Symptoms: Dogs may exhibit distinct heart murmurs and symptoms such as difficulty breathing and intolerance to exercise.
Treatment:
The treatment of heart failure in dogs should be tailored to the specific clinical symptoms present, as it is not possible to use a onesizefitsall prescription. Drug selection and potential interactions must be considered, as well as adjusting the dosage of the medications used.
Relieve the heart burden and enhance care by placing the dog in a quiet and comfortable environment, and limiting exercise to reduce the heart's workload.
Relieve respiratory distress by administering oxygen through a face mask at a flow rate of 2 to 4 L/min. It is best to use a nasal cannula for positive pressure oxygen therapy. Oxygen therapy can increase the concentration of oxygen in inhaled air, raise the oxygen content and saturation in arterial blood, and promote the metabolism of the dog's body during acute heart failure, helping to alleviate respiratory depression and improve the body's ability to maintain life activities and improve pathological conditions.
Strengthen the heart: For acute heart failure, choose rapid and effective cardiotonic agents to enhance myocardial contractility. For chronic heart failure, opt for slowacting cardiac glycosides.
Diuretic therapy: Due to the significant impact of heart failure on sodium excretion, dogs with chronic heart failure excrete only onethird of the normal amount of sodium. Therefore, diuretics can be used to increase the excretion of sodium and water. Administer furosemide at a dose of 2 mg/kg, intradermally, once daily.
Targeted treatment: During heart failure in dogs, it is important not to administer excessive intravenous fluids and to avoid rapid infusion or injection rates to prevent accelerating the dog's death. Oxygen therapy can be provided for 2 hours to relieve respiratory distress. Furosemide injection at a dose of 2 mg/kg can be administered intradermally. Other medications such as Oxytetracycline (0.05 mL/kg), Meglumine (0.2 mL/kg), Cotrimoxazole (0.1 mL/kg), Salmeterol (0.1 mL/kg), and Theophylline (0.1 mL/kg) can also be administered intradermally. For oral medications, administer Lung Heart康 100 mg once daily and Furosemide tablets (20 mg per tablet, half a tablet per dose, once daily) for 20 consecutive days.
