I took my dog Grace to the vet today. She’s lost a good bit of weight in the last two months, and I was worried about her. She was dumped near my farm 4 years ago, and at that time my vet said she was about 7-9 years old, so now she’s 11-13, reaching the upper lifespan of dobies. They’d diagnosed a heart murmur at that time, too, but said there was no real treatment and just keep an eye out that she didn’t gain too much weight, or if she started coughing of fainting. Heart issues are pretty common in dobes. So now we’re going to start meds and see how that does for her, but I need to face the fact that she’s probably reaching the end of her life.
I’m so sorry about Grace. My dog is actually in the emergency clinic at this moment for acute heart failure apparently brought on by CHF. I had her in the vet twice this week for funny breathing and they did not find anything wrong, despite doing blood work and x-rays. May I ask how your vet knew that it was CHF? Is there something I should have seen coming?
I have an obese sheltie (my fault, I know) who is almost 13 and has a heart murmur, too. He’s starting to have “accidents” and has a hard time getting up to go outside, or just to go in another room.
Novelyne** - I took her in, told them she’d been diagnosed with a heart murmur four years previously, that she’d dropped about 10 lbs in 2 months. They could see that she was retaining fluids. He listened to her heart and lungs and made the diagnosis. He said they could do bloodwork and x-rays, but that would just raise my costs and the treatment would be the same anyway. So she’s on lasix (a diuretic) and something else, we’ll see how she does in a week. There’s another med they can try, but the vet wanted to try the least expensive option first. The office visit including meds, cost me $30.
My vets came to Tennessee from Oregon to retire. Their clinic was supposed to be a small, extra-income thing, and they’re now so busy they’re planning to add on to their clinic.
I an so very sorry. That’s what I lost my little Pap boy to a year and a half ago. It was totally unexpected with him, he was young for a Papillon, only 10.
My goodness, Grace is a big doggie! We have a Dobe also, as you may remember because you posted in my early help-me-with-this-beast threads. Grace is lucky that someone left her for someone like you to find.
I hope she starts feeling better soon.
Oh, Grace. Good vibes to you. And to you StGermain, not only for Grace’s trouble, but for being so good and making her your dog when someone else dumped her. I wish comfort to you both.
I’m actually the lucky one to have found Grace. I’ve had a doberman for the last 20 years or so. When my neighbor saw Grace get dumped, I took her in, because I love the breed. Just a week after I brought her into the family, my 14 year old dobie rescue Simon died in his sleep. That’s why she’s Grace - someone brought her to me when I would need her most.
