I lost my Great Dane last year to DCM. It's a devastating disease and I hope your dog was diagnosed early on and can be put on the right medications.
When they reach the point where they lose their appetite it's time to let them go. The quality of life goes rather quickly. My dane lived for exactly six weeks after first diagnosing the disease. It was horrible.
Keep his diet low sodium as long as the dog will have his appetite. There will be a time when they totally lose their appetite and that's when pretty much "anything goes". My dane refused steak at the end....... Also check his breathing and the coughing. They get to the point when lying down is not comfortable anymore because of all the fluids in their lungs. Don't get upset when your dog all in a sudden prefers to sleep on the hard floor rather than his dog bed because soft cushions make breathing harder. There's also a whole regimen of natural supplements you can/should give. Taurine being one of them.
These are fairly standard supplements for DCM dogs:
Coenzyme Q-10 1 mg per pound body weight, 2 times per
day)
Vitamin E (400 iu per day)
Selenium (200 mcg per day)
Give these two together, either at night or in the
morning.
B-100 complex (1 tablet/day)
Ester C (1000 mg, 2 x per day)
You can get all of these at Walmart, Costco, or any
supplement store.
.....and more:
This is a really good article about familial DCM in
Danes & supplementing with l-carnatine. I started
on 250 mg BID. Guesstimate it will cost about
$20/month.
http://www.unipr.it/arpa/facvet/anna...uintavalla.htm
Here's the quick & dirty summary:
According to available statistical survey, at least
40% of dogs with heart failure secondary to DCM seems
to have also a L-carnitine deficiency in association
to other congenital or acquired defects. Probably, the
most part of these dogs could take advantage from
L-carnitine supplementation.
It is difficult to state if L-carnitine
supplementation could be useful in all dogs
with DCM or if this should be considered an isolated
case. However, according to our observations, even in
lack of diagnostic confirmation of endomyocardial
carnitine deficiency, oral L-carnitine therapy could
be reccomended in young dogs with familial CDM and
with highly motivated clients who wish to pursue every
treatment avenue.
I also checked my "archives" and found some good information you may want to pass on:
http://www.ginnie.com/gdlinks4.htm
Scroll all the way down to "Cardiomyopathy" and there is a whole bunch of useful information to be found.
If you order Pimobendan from the UK it's about half the price.
I ordered mine here:
http://www.mastersmarketing.com/
It's a devestating disease and my heart goes out to you and your dog and I hope the diagnosis was made early on in the disease and can be brought under control somewhat so you have a lot of quality time still to spend together
.