Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 17, 2010 11:26:03 GMT -5
We brought my 8 year old female Bichon Frise, Claudette, to the vet today for a checkup. The vet's always said that Claudette has an irregular heartbeat, but that it was "regularly irregular" (it beats 3 times instead of 2) and it's not a problem. But, being an 8 year old Bichon, today the vet noticed that she has a heart murmur. It's only a 1-2 on the 1 to 6 scale, so there's no need to medicate her right now. I was wondering if there's something that I could supplement or give her, though, to help out her heart or promote heart health? I'm looking online right now, but I was thinking that maybe one of you have had more experience with this than me!
|
|
|
Post by Heather on Aug 17, 2010 15:18:27 GMT -5
Raw diet helps big time. I will check and see if there are any herbals that are safe. A lot of our big time pharmaceutical heart medications come from herbs, but a lot of them aren't safe to use in their plant type format. Did they happen to xray at all, to see if the problem is a malformed heart or age related? That will also give you a better idea as to what battle to fight. ciao
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 17, 2010 20:58:37 GMT -5
The vet suggested doing an EKG sometime in the near future, so probably during "tax season" (mom does taxes so we'll have an easier time paying the $500 in the winter) we will look into it closer. I would love to feed her raw but mom will not allow it in any way.
|
|
|
Post by mustelidmusk on Aug 17, 2010 22:03:49 GMT -5
Taurine will certainly NOT hurt. I know, dogs produce their own taurine.
HOWEVER, at 8 years old, your dog may not be generating enough taurine. Moreover, some vets feel that taurine is beneficial to dogs, especially when the dogs are under stress. A heart issue would be stressful to anybody's system.
It's just about impossible to overfeed taurine - it's water-soluble, difficult to absorb, and any excess is eliminated through the urinary tract. It's tasteless, and capsule content can easily be mixed in with a wet food/treat. dogs sometimes eat capsules wrapped in table scraps or meat.
If your dog is overweight, take the extra weight off!!! this is CRITICAL.
-jennifer
|
|
|
Post by mustelidmusk on Aug 17, 2010 22:16:41 GMT -5
Hear are some other possible alternatives:
1. cooked diet. you can by frozen raw diets for dogs and cook them. Kibble is processed at EXTREME heat levels, which destroys a lot of the nutrition in the food. most of the nutrients have to be added back to the kibble through the coatings that get sprayed on top. Home cooking retains most of the value in the food since the cooking temperatures are much lower than for kibble.
2. free-dried raw diet - this can be left out without the worry of spoilage.
3. supplementing a kibble diet with either of the above - or both.
-jennifer
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 18, 2010 10:38:15 GMT -5
I'm really thinking about the cooked raw diet thing. Claudette loves loves loves LOVES freeze dried, but it's kind of expensive and since my parents pay for it, I would feel bad about making them pay that much. This month, in about 2 weeks actually, I'm going down south to get Percy and we're stopping at a place on the way back that sells raw Stella and Chewy's, Bravo, NV (which I won't feed but still...) and other things and I will pick some up for her. It mom knows that I will cook it, she will be happy. And of course I will probably just put it in a skillet on low heat and just cook it enough to make it look cooked. I'm going to give mom a hard time, though, and tell her that if we feed the dog raw then she will live longer, which is true. Mom says the dog is too "prissy" to eat raw, whatever the heck that means, but she does really like Claudette. I've told her before that if the dog gets more bladder stones, I am feeding her wet food no matter what she says. Sometimes all I need to do is stomp my feet and say it's happening and she'll go along with it. Of course, it's not the most responsible method but if it works and benefits the dog I'll do it. Not to mention feeding raw will probably get rid of Claudette's bladder issues completely, too. Another thing that I'd like to know is supplementing taurine. I think I'd probably just go get some sort of heart treat to give her, but if she ends up getting too much and it just is urinated out, would that affect her bladder health any? She is also extremely prone to BOTH calcium oxalate AND struvite stones/crystals so I don't want to screw that up, either.
|
|
|
Post by rarnold18 on Aug 18, 2010 12:39:21 GMT -5
Because she's prone to struvite and calcium oxalate crystals you may want to look at the kibble your feeding her... I have two cats that have severe urinary problems and they refuse to switch to raw, I've been trying to for the past 3-4 years! I had to look at both the ash content and the magnesium in the food itself, the lower the ash content the better (6.5 or lower) and your magnesium shouldn't be more than .12%. It also has a PH of 5.5 which also helps with urinary care. The only quality food that I've found is Acana Wild Prarie it's grain free...the fish is delivered fresh daily and is preservative free, no ethoxiquin! yeah! here's the link www.championpetfoods.com/acana/show-product.php?formulation=phfd I know the dog food is good because...well I'm an idoit and didn't read the package and the first bag I bought was actually the dog food, yup for my cats...and the picky b@stards ate it!!! Can't get them to eat raw but they'll eat dog food...grrrr! I didn't realize it until after I had already finished that bag and bought a new one that I realized the size of kibble was different! It's been about a month and the 4 cats are doing great, no new UTI's, blockages, crystals, stones....or vet visits!
|
|
Emilee
Cageless and Roamin' Free
Posts: 240
|
Post by Emilee on Aug 18, 2010 17:08:31 GMT -5
Yeah, she's on Eagle Pack Holistic and we haven't had a problem after but I don't like her eating just kibble!!! Eagle Pack is the only dry dog food that has agreed with her and also kept the stones away.
|
|