Why is my senior dog with heart murmur coughing, breathless, fainting?

The elevated respiration and fainting may indicate that the meds are not controlling the heart failure well at this time. The movement you are seeing with the heartbeat may be related to the murmur getting more intense, or possibly due to an arrhythmia. Without evaluating the medical history and examining Heidi it's difficult to tell. I recommend having her evaluated by your vet sometime soon. Your vet should be able to help explain what's going on and may want to prescribe additional treatment. Heart failure is often a progressive disease, so it's expected that medications will change as the disease progresses. If Heidi is otherwise seeming happy, then I don't think you are being selfish by continuing treatment. I think it's worth consulting with your vet and seeing if anymore can be done to keep her from breathing hard and fainting. I hope that helps and Heidi gets better soon.

Heart disease is tough. This is true for humans or animals. Pets can quickly go from ok to not ok in minutes. Most forms of heart disease are progressive which means they get worse over time. Signs of worsening heart disease can be increased heart rate and respiratory rate, collapse, exercise intolerance, or coughing. There are many medications that can help improve quality of life. Please see your vet ASAP for an exam and possibly more tests or meds. Hope Boomer feels better!

A murmur is the sound of abnormal blood flow through the heart. It is not an indication of function. The next step would be to have an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) performed on Molly. This would assess cardiac architecture as well as function. An echo can be done by your veterinarian and then submitted to a veterinary cardiologist for review or you can schedule it directly with a specialist. Afterwards, medications would be dispensed if indicated. Life expectancy would be determined by the severity of her condition. This could be discussed with the veterinarian after results of the echo are returned.

I recommend to have her examined tomorrow. It's possible she has an infection or a mass in the throat. It's also possible there is pathology in her heart or lungs. It's best to play it safe since this has been going on for a few days now. I hope it's nothing too serious and that Molly feels better soon.

Coughing and not really eating in a dog with a heart murmur(s) could point to congestive heart failure. Please take her to a vet immediately. You cannot wait. Maybe you can find assistance with vet bills through this link. https://www.dogingtonpost.com/need-help-with-vet-bills-or-pet-food-there-are-resources-available/ https://veterinarypartner.vin.com/default.aspx?pid=19239&id=8501760

Hello, thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Sorry Mogli is having this issue. Heart murmurs can progress to heart failure and some of the signs of that are coughing, breathing issues and exercise intolerance. The other thing is that he may have a collapsing trachea. I think your best option is to take him to your vet for an exam. They may want to take some x-rays to check the size of his heart, the quality of the lungs and the size of the trachea. That will help you get to the bottom of this. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

In a dog Miller's age, this cough and heavy breathing could be due to something serious like heart disease. Unfortunately, heart disease is common in old dogs, and while it cannot be cured, its symptoms can be managed with medication. I think it's really important that he sees a vet as soon as possible, so I would recommend taking him into see his vet this weekend. I hope this helps.