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I have a 13 yr old miniature ****zu with CHF she has been on meds since Dec.Today she is berating a lot harder and won't eat.She woke me up with a yelp and am very worried with what's going on.She just looks so pitiful and I just can't hardly bear to what is to come.I just don't want her to suffer and should I make a decision for her.You know they are our baby's and this is so hard to see her like this....help
My chihuahua is around 10 years old, and he was diagnosed with CHF. I noticed he was having a harder time keeping up on walks and his breathing became labored when I took him into the vet. I have him on Pimobendin, Furosemide, and Benazepril. I hope I can keep him alive at least a couple more years. He's doing very well on the medications so far.
We just discovered what was wrong with our Lady last night. She's a beagle mix and usually very very active, likes to race around and jump and she's just a crazy pupper. The last couple of weeks she's been acting calmer although we have been trying to stop her from racing around as one day after coming in from the extreme cold our area she collapsed. We chalked it up to the cold weather, heck even I had heady moments after coming in from the cold. Well last Thursday evening we noticed that her stomach was so swollen that she looked pregnant! We had noticed she had not been eating much, again associated it with the cold weather at first but when we saw how swollen she was figured maybe she was constipated so gave her milk and oil. Maybe it was rose colored glasses but thought she looked better. Saturday decided it was perhaps a good idea to take her to the vet as the swelling looked bad again. Well wouldn't you know it the car overheated so couldn't go. Yesterday she wasn't moving around very well at all, granted she's a tail wagging doggie grin happy girl still but moving slow and having major issues with our stairs. Found a Vet that will come to your house and he looked her over, said she has pale nearly bloodless gums, fluid in her abdomen and did a few tests and heard a 6/6 murmur. He doesn't think she'll last till the end of the month, which happens to be her birthday. Emotionally it's tough, I'm trying very hard to put on that happy face and make her last days with us the best possible for her. I also have a 3 year old that keeps kissing her belly and saying "all better?". I keep going through the happy times we've had together, when I first brought her home from the rescue, how my other dog Snoopy was so jealous of her that the first winter they had together he ate her sweater, while she was wearing it! It's not easy though keeping my emotions in check. My husband and I made the decision that regardless we do not want her to suffer, we don't want to have her last days subjected to numerous tests and being poked and prodded we want her to be happy at home and feeling loved. Do I want Lady to stay with us longer? Of course I do but, well to put it in perspective, our other dog, a full blooded beagle, started having seizures when he was 6 months old, I took him to the vet on a regular basis to find out what was wrong and several thousand dollars later no answer and no meds. Now poor Snoopy starts to literally scream anytime he goes near a vets office, will get so scared he will piddle himself. I don't want that to be the last thing Lady goes through before her time which ultimately seems like something that would make ME feel better rather than her since she's so far along with her CHF.
Itchy is a 16 1/2 year old cocker/dachsy mix. I brought him and his brother Scratchy home as a pitch black matching pair when they were so small I carried them in my coat pockets. Scratchy, unfortunately, contracted parvo and passed away less than 2 months later. Itchy came down with parvo symptoms a day later. I believe to this day that it was fate that he survived. The vet I had taken Scratchy to, who told me there was nothing I could do but make him comfortable and wait for the end, was out of the office so I had to take him 6 miles up the road to a vet I had been to before but never had any opinion of one way or the other. He told me that as long as I kept Itchy hydrated and nourished, he would pull through. And with a little syringe, that's what I did, even as I held him close and bid him a tearful farewell. I have been with that vet ever since. Now, more than 16 years later, I'm faced with the same heartbreak. Around 3 1/2 years ago, I noticed Itchy would wake up coughing sometimes. It was like he had a hairball and he would gag a little and that was it. By then he was already 13, had been slowing down, was overweight, showing signs of arthritis, had cataracts and was losing his hearing. His age was becoming obvious but he still played like a puppy and tried to get himself into trouble just as often as he always had and since his coughing episodes were sporadic, I thought it was just another sign of old age creeping in. I had put him on senior vitamins and glucosamine when he started having trouble with his age. A few months later it was an almost everyday occurrence so to our vet we went. He listened to his chest, said he had chf and prescribed a low salt dog food. Within a week, the coughing had almost completely stopped and the only thing I worried much about was keeping him out of the other dogs food. It seemed like the older he got, the hungrier and it was a constant thing, him sneaking over to the other bowl when I was out of the room. About a year later, the coughing started to happen more but not so much to cause concern. He held steady until last summer, he was coughing about as much as when he was diagnosed. The dog food wasn't helping anymore. I noticed that he was pacing a lot, his sight and hearing were worse, he had trouble working his back legs now and then, his belly was very round and I would comment to my son that I thought he was going senile. He would stop in the middle of the room and stare off into space. Or break rules he hadn't thought about breaking in 10 years and look at me like I was crazy when I reminded him. He remained like that until about a week ago. He woke up coughing and it sounded wet. When the coughing stopped, he stood in place with the "I'm about to sneeze look" for almost 10 minutes. Then he started sneezing. It didn't sound like he had a tickle, it sounded like he was trying to expel fluid. When that stopped, he laid on the hard floor with his legs splayed and his head down. He continued the coughing, sneezing and discomfort for a couple hours and I was building myself up for that awful farewell. The next day, he seemed almost back to "normal" and has remained that way but I can see the difference. I don't think it'll be much longer now yet I still have a bit of denial. He just keeps on truckin' along and I can't help but sometimes think that nothing can kill my old coot and he'll still be waddling around in another 10 years, letting his nose lead him where it may. So many of you brought me to tears and I am so sorry for all of us and our fur babies. I give to you my heartfelt thanks for sharing your stories and will be holding all of you that have felt/are feeling such despair in my thoughts and selfishly take a bit of comfort knowing I'm not alone as I hope you all do too. Thank you for reading Itchy's story
I have a 7 year old Old English Sheepdog - Jasper. He was diagnosed 13 months ago and only given 2 months to live. He is on a lot of medication daily including Vetmedin which I swear by. 2 weeks ago we had to have his abdoman drained, a total of 10 litres. He came back to us like a new dog but the fluid is starting to build up again. He still has a good quality of life and appears not to be in pain.
My only wish is that when it's Jasper's time he goes with his loved ones around him in his sleep.
My 7 yearold Yorkie terroir has congestive heart failure, I haven't brought him to the vet to know for sure that's really what he has but I done alot of research and all the the sytoms that he has matches with heart failure. The vet is to expensive & I don't have the money to take him. I think hes on his last stage of living. I really need you help I don't know what to do. he meens ever thing to our family..
I just had my beloved pet die from CHF, I can tell you from my experience it was not a quick painless passing. I had an awful experience. I had him on med's and took care of him the best I could. The night he was bad I even brought him to the emergency vet, they wanted to do all these tests and I told them no, he was brought there to put him out of his misery and instead gave me false hope because they put him in a bubble dome of oxygen. They just wanted to keep charging lots of $$ and giving me false facts when I told them he was dying. They as experienced health care vets, should of known the proper solution and how to handle this. Instead I watched my poor baby suffer until my vet opened up in which they were able to put him to sleep so he was at peace. My heart is so broken that I cant even express the sadness I feel. A piece of me died with my baby that day. I am numb and missing him so. My advice is to anyone going through this with your baby, please watch the signs. The cough will get worse and when it does and the meds dont help like they use to, get him to your vet ASAP, because after that the time will come quickly. Dont let them get to that point of at all suffering! Please, you will live with that the rest of your life and from my experience if I can just help one person, I will feel like someone heard me. Hug your babies because you might not get the chance later. RIP YOGI BEAR, Mom loves ya.....
I just had my beloved pet die from CHF, I can tell you from my experience it was not a quick painless passing. I had an awful experience. I had him on med's and took care of him the best I could. The night he was bad I even brought him to the emergency vet, they wanted to do all these tests and I told them no, he was brought there to put him out of his misery and instead gave me false hope because they put him in a bubble dome of oxygen. They just wanted to keep charging lots of $$ and giving me false facts when I told them he was dying. They as experienced health care vets, should of known the proper solution and how to handle this. Instead I watched my poor baby suffer until my vet opened up in which they were able to put him to sleep so he was at peace. My heart is so broken that I cant even express the sadness I feel. A piece of me died with my baby that day. I am numb and missing him so. My advice is to anyone going through this with your baby, please watch the signs. The cough will get worse and when it does and the meds dont help like they use to, get him to your vet ASAP, because after that the time will come quickly. Dont let them get to that point of at all suffering! Please, you will live with that the rest of your life and from my experience if I can just help one person, I will feel like someone heard me. Hug your babies because you might not get the chance later. RIP YOGI BEAR, Mom loves ya.....
I'm sorry for your loss. I had almost the exact same experience. My little guy had been in and out of the ICU for two weeks with CHF. After 4 nights they gave him back to us apparently 'stable'. But he was skin and bones, could hardly breathe and could hardly walk. I got such a shock when I saw him. He was obviously suffering and I knew the medication wasn't working anymore. They too kept giving us false hope telling us he was stable and eating which he clearly wasn't. We only had him home for 18 hours before he went into respiratory distress. We rushed him back to the ICU where they put him in the oxygen tent. They insisted on doing a whole battery of tests like X-rays etc which at that stage were really unnecessary and I feel so stupid for agreeing. They told us he was breathing ok and to go home. Three hours later they rang me to get permission to euthanise him immediately as he had 'suddenly decompensated'. He was in cardiac arrest before the end of that 2 minute phone call and died a horrible, frightening and painful death. $500 later my dog was dead and we were completely heartbroken.
My little dog was the most precious thing to me in the world and we didn't even get to say goodbye. I had to leave him with them overnight because he died at 5pm on a Sunday and we couldn't get in touch with the crematorium. I picked him up the next day in a white plastic bag cold and stiff from the 'morgue'. It was the worst experience of my life and something I will never recover from. I am very angry that a cardiology specialist at a teaching hospital and ICU vet couldn't see that my little dog was so sick. I feel like they just gave us false hope for more money and I was too stupid and too desperate to keep my little guy alive to realise. I will never make that mistake again (if I can even get another pet). My husband and I are so traumatised.
I read a lot of posts about people feeling guilty about euthanising their pets and to all of them I can guarantee that they did the right thing because the alternative is a haunting nightmare I will experience until the day I die. Hug your fur babies every day. RIP Sossi, I will love you forever.
I adopted a senior minature poodle that was rescued from a puppy mill in Ky. She has CHF. She is on the meds but now has developed " the cough". She still have a quality life at times runs like a puppy. She deserves the best end of life I can give her considering the terrible life she had for 11 years prior. I had another rescue that passed away last year from CHF in my arms. Up to the afternoon he passed he was a frisky happy little man. I miss him dearly but know he is at the bridge playing. Everyone on here is so full of compassion for their pets how great it would be if everyone was as kind to animals.
We lost our poodle,"Buddy",on October 31,2014 to CHF,he would have been 14 on November 11th. CHF is one of the hardest things I have had to go through. He was diagnosed on June 27 and it was such an emotional thing to go through, he would seem ok and then have a fainting spell.I miss him so much-he was my Best Little Bud!!
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