My senior dog has a heart murmur. What natural supplements can help?

Omega 3 fatty acids for pets can help with heart health. Royal Canin makes a diet for dogs with heart disease. Lastly, it is not fully understood, but there appears to be a link between grain free dog food and heart enlargement. If you are feeding a grain free diet, you may talk with your veterinarian about a diet change. I hope this helps.

A good quality essential fatty acid supplement, such as DermCaps or EicosaCaps, will promote healthy skin and coat. A quality multi-vitamin such as Pet Tabs, VetriScience tabs or NuPro can be added to a quality diet. Recommended joint supplements include Welactin, Dasuquin or Cosequin. The most important factor is to keep Mila lean and active. Obesity and inactivity will negatively impact her life and may shorten it. Regular veterinary care, especially echocardiograms when she is older, may identify any conditions early.

Hello and thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Pearl looks like she is very sweet! One of the things you may be able to do to help Pearl lose weight is to home cook for her. There is a website called balanceit.com that can help ensure the home cooked diet you are feeding is appropriate for weight loss and well balanced. From a holistic standpoint improving nutrition and having Pearl lose weight can help her overall well being. If she is on temaril P I assume this is for coughing related to reduce airway inflammation or tracheal inflammation. If she is coughing related to heart disease other medications may be useful so it may be a good idea to schedule a follow up with your veterinarian or even a veterinary cardiologist. There are other supplements and herbal medicine that can be helpful when heart disease is present but they vary from case to case. If You are interested in treating using these therapies I suggest looking into an integrative veterinarian near you. Or I would be happy to set up a consultation.

As long as you are feeding a complete and balanced diet commercial dog food, you don;t need to worry about those types of supplements unless Remy has some sort of pre-existing condition. For normal, healthy aging dogs, the most common supplements are joint health (I recommend Adequan and Dasuquin) and omega 3 fatty acids for pets. I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

The biggest issue with herbal medications (which is what this supplement is) is a lack of controlled studies to prove that they work. Additionally, just like a man made medication, an herbal medication can also have side effects. Having said all of that, the specific product you refer to does contain Hawthorn which does have effects similar to sotolol. I don't know that its "better," or "safer" than sotolol because we just don't have the data to show that, whereas sotolol has been studied extensively regarding dosage, safety, efficacy, etc. In short, its reasonable to try this herbal medication but I would strongly advise that you do it under the care of a veterinarian who has been trained in herbal medicine. Here is a link to find a a veterinarian who has studied herbal remedies: https://www.vbma.org/us-members.html Keep in mind that SAS is a mechanical defect, and so no medication will "fix" it.. rather the goal of medical management is to minimize the problems that the heart defect causes. http://massvetcardiology.com/Data/resources/cardiacdiseaserefe/subaorticstenosiss/understanding_sasgeneric.pdf Best of luck with her!

There are many medications which can be used to support a failing heart and should be used alongside diuretics in order to help support the function of the heart, reduce fluid build up in the lungs and abdomen and control blood pressure if required. Unfortunately, no cure is available and medications should be adjusted as Zoe's condition changes; many dogs can live for months-years with a heart condition depending on the severity of other health complications which can also occur as they age. Without a full history of all her complaints and recent tests it is impossible to assess her medium-long term prognosis

Great question! Most diets that are formulated for heart conditions are low in sodium, and thus prescription based. Lower sodium diets are not typically recommended for the "average" dog. Talk to your vet about the Science Diet H/D or Royal Canin Early Cardiac diets for Lulu.