Is My Dog in Congestive Heart Failure

Congestive heart disease can often be recognized by the dog's sluggishness, shortness of breath, loss of vigor, inability to sustain exertion, blueness of tongue and gums after exertion, and a weak, thready, feeble pulse which can be felt on the inside of the dog's hind legs close to the crotch. Dropsy is sometimes present. Fainting spells may even occur. A dog that has always hounded up the stairs ahead of you may be so seriously affected that it will wait for you to carry it up.

Stimulants like caffeine and digitalis, or some derivative such as digoxin, can be used. Once digitalis is started under your veterinarian's direction, the dog must have the dosage for the remainder of its life. And since digitalis is eliminated by the kidneys, it may be necessary to reduce the dose as a dog's kidneys become less efficient with age.

A congestive heart failure is quite fatal for both the dogs and the cats. The dogs that mainly suffer from the failure are those that are overweight. The following are the four main reasons behind the dog congestive heart failure.

Causes behind Dog Congestive Heart Failure

• The main reason for the development of the disease is the incapability of the ventricles to pump out enough amount of blood to the other parts of the body. The damaged ventricles are generally due to the over intake of drug toxicities or when enough amount of oxygen is not transferred in the heart the, the chambers of the heart become very large in size, occurrence of infection or inflammation and irregular heart rhythms due for a continued period of time.
• The heart may develop the disease in cases the chambers of the heart are too much overloaded with liquids or fluids. The heavy accumulation of fluids in the heart due to the development of leaking valves, chronic occurrence of anemia, presence of toxins, damage or degeneration of valves, and inflammation of the valves.
• The disease is also caused when sometimes the heart needs more than the normal level of pressure to push the blood to other parts of the body. In order to exert the pressure the heart has also to bloat to a great extent resulting narrowing down of the walls and the valves. The disease may also develop as a side effect of the incidence of the dog being infested with heart worms.
• Another very primary cause behind the dog congestive heart failure is that of the reduced rate of ventricular compliance. When the ventricles get damaged, the passage through which the blood flows gets partially blocked. This results low rate of output of blood and intense congestion in the heart.