Thread: Heart Murmur
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Old April 9th, 2011, 03:00 AM
Staciewells1 Staciewells1 is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2004
Posts: 55
Please forgive me for jumping in, but I thought it would be better to post here rather than starting a new thread.
Ellie was diagnosed about 9 months ago with a murmur. Level three, but I don't recall the vet telling me the specific type of murmur. She's been on Enalapril (sp?) for a few months now, and her energy levels have increased dramatically. She has been completely asymptomatic until this past Thursday evening, when she started breathing really heavily. Imagine taking your dog to a new park with lots of new smells- that's the kind of breathing I'm talking about. So, we took her to the vet first thing Friday (yesterday) morning. They took x-rays and an EKG and found that her heart rate has started to slow a bit since January and she has a small amount of fluid in her lungs. Her murmur is now at level four. They've doubled the Enalapril dosage and added Lasix and another pill (I'm at work right now, and I don't have the bottle in front of me, so I can't remember the name, but it is a HUGE pill that I guess tastes good, because she ate it right up. No Pill Pocket needed.) We're going back in July for bloodwork and another EKG.
My problem is that the vet was in surgery when it was time to pick her up, and couldn't answer any of my questions. She's still breathing heavily. Should I be worried? Or do I just need to wait until the medication kicks in? Is that what the lasix is for?
I assumed that exercise would be good for her, but from reading here, I see that maybe it isn't. Should I cut back on playtime and walks or wait until Ellie tells me she can't handle it? We're on the second floor, and she loves running up and down the steps, but I'll start carrying her if need be.
I would give anything to be going through this instead of my baby girl, and I would do anything to fix her. Any help is appreciated.
Almost forgot! Eleanor is a 9-yr-old MinPin mix.
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