A dog heart murmur is similar in many facets to a human heart murmur. This condition is characterized by a situation in which the heart valves are unable to fully close when the heart beats. The result is that the blood that the heart pumps is not able to fully evacuate the heart system, and some small portion of it returns to the heart. The effect of this for those listening to the heartbeat on a stethoscope is that there is a bit of extra "noise" after the second beating of the heart. While heart murmurs most often occur in younger and developing dogs, they can also be persistent in older animals, and when they are, it's crucial that you deal with them with medication and other means so as to not allow them to be an important factor in your pet's overall health.
Heart Murmur Medications
The function of dog heart murmur medications is to remove the impaired function of the heart valves so as to allow them to fully close as they should. This forces the extra blood out of the heart muscle and causes the heart to fully contract and expand as it is designed to, giving it a normal beat and eliminating the heart murmur.
Types of Medications
There are a number of different medicines that have been formulated and specially designed for dogs to address the issue of heart murmurs. The most common ones include the following:
- Lasix
- Benazepril
- Enalapril
There are other heart murmur medications aside from these. For a more complete list of medications that may help to address your pet's heart murmur, speak with your veterinarian.
Risks of Heart Murmur Medications
Heart murmur medications may result in a wide variety of different side effects and other issues. Among the most widespread of these are nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, loss of appetite, distended abdomen and more. It's therefore important that you and your vet work closely together when you begin to give your pet a regimen of dog heart murmur medications. These medications are almost always prescription based. Keep your vet apprised of any and all developments to your dog's overall health as he takes the medicine, and also let your vet know of any other medicines or programs that your pet is on before you begin the treatment program.
Other Considerations
Most of these heart murmur medicines are given as tablets. This means
that you'll need to be prepared to crush up the tablets and mix them in
with your pet's food approximately once per day. The exact dosage and
administration schedule will depend upon the severity of the condition,
your pet's weight and age and many other factors. Work with your vet to
determine exactly how often you should give your pet this medicine.