My dog is coughing and has an enlarged heart. What should I do?

Hello His cough previously could've been due to something else and now it's due to his heart disease. Unfortunately without x-rays done at the time of his previous coughing episodes we won't know for sure. However it is very unusual for dogs to go a long period of time in congestive heart failure without treatment and do well. So it's doubtful his heart failure was causing his coughing before now.

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Coughing and bringing up clear liquid could be coughing up stuff instead of vomiting. This is important to try to differentiate. Coughing up liquid is more consistent with heart disease. The x-rays are difficult to read as the image transfer through is of poor quality and to really assess the lungs you need good quality images, however the heart does look a bit enlarged and the lungs do look a bit 'white'. I cannot assess the liver on these radiographs as you cannot see them. An enlarged heart, white lungs (fluid in the lungs), and an enlarged liver is consistent with both right and left sided heart disease. I recommend you return either to your vet, or another vet, and get a specialist ultrasound of the heart (an 'echo') to determine if heart medications are required. Your vet can also listen to the heart to see if a murmur is present in the heart, or 'crackles' are heard on the lungs. Heart disease is very serious and needs medications to manage. Without these Lily unfortunately will essentially drown in her own lungs, if heart disease is the problem. I suggest a recheck as soon as possible to get this figured out. Best of luck with Lily, I hope she feels better soon.

I agree that Duke heart looks enlarged and it is pushing up on his trachea. I cannot diagnose his condition without doing an exam but with just looking at the X-rays, I would say he definitely has a heart condition. I have heard coughs from heart problems sound very similar to upper respiratory infections. Your vet will be able to put him in some heart medicine to help him. Heart medicine will slow down the progression of heart disease and help him feel better. I hope this helps. I'm sorry for the news!

Poor guy. The coughing is mainly due to fluid bulid up in the lungs. If the coughing has not improved then ask you vet if adjustments can be made to his current medications, in particulra the Libeo (Furosemide), which is designed to pull fluid off the lungs, reducing the cough. He is on all the medications currently recommended for heart failure dogs, so the best thing to do is increase his medications and perhaps get him on a cardiac prescription diet (i.e. Hill's Science Diet H/D). Also understand that heart medication is not curing the disease, it is merely managing it to buy your pet more time. Unfortuantely the medication may reach a point where it is no longer effective when the disease has progressed too far. I do hope that we have not reached that point yet, and perhaps can still make adjustments in Kenzo's medications to help manage his heart disease for a while longer. Here is more information on heart disease --> https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=8501760 Best of luck moving forward with Kenzo and managing his heart disease. Take care.

I certainly agree with your veterinarian that the symptoms you are mentioning do sound consistent with heart failure. If your veterinarian has not yet taken an x-ray of her chest, that would be the next thing I would recommend doing. It will confirm if there is fluid in her lungs. There are a number of medications that can be used for heart failure. A diuretic is only one of them and diuretic doses do have to be adjusted to each patient. I am attaching a handout below with more information on heart failure and medications for you. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=1968 Another option would be to have a consultation with a cardiologist who can do an ultrasound of Roxie's heart (an echocardiogram) and will be able to help decide on the best medications for her based on that information. You can find a cardiologist near you here. http://find.vetspecialists.com Good luck! I hope that was helfpul. Thanks for using PetCoach.

An enlarged heart could mean that your dog is developing heart disease but it could also just be normal for your dog. Your vet could submit a blood test called a proBNP which helps detect heart disease. You could also have a cardiologist perform an ultrasound of her heart to evaluate the function of her hear and measure the size.

I agree that Scotch's trachea is severely narrowed on this x-ray, which is likely associated with his coughing. Without seeing another x-ray view (preferably with Scotch on his back), I can't comment about his heart size or shape. There appears to be additional soft tissue opacity around his heart on this x-ray view, which could certainly be partially due to heart enlargement, but could also be associated with pneumonia or a heart base tumor. Scotch has significant dilation of his esophagus as well. It is important to determine the underlying cause of Scotch's cough and chest abnormalities in order to determine the best course of action. A different x-ray view is the next diagnostic step, potentially followed by an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart). Based on those results, Scotch may need a course of antibiotics to treat pneumonia, different medications if heart failure is suspected or chemotherapy if a heart base tumor is present. I imagine that your vet suspects congestive heart failure given that he is giving Enalapril and Lasix. I don't understand the need for Gardinal (phenobarbital) in this situation unless Scotch has epilepsy. I hope that all goes well for Scotch!