How to Treat Heart Disease in German Shepherds
To treat heart disease in your German shepherd, watch for common symptoms like coughing fits, having less energy, trouble breathing, and weight loss. If your dog has any of these issues, take it to the vet as soon as possible so they can diagnose it and recommend a treatment plan. Once your shepherd has been diagnosed, you may have to give it a prescription diuretic daily to improve its circulation. Your vet might also recommend giving it beta blockers twice a day, depending on what type of heart disease it has, which will help its heart muscles relax between heart beats.
Look for a cough. The most common sign of heart disease in a German shepherd is a cough.This usually occurs at night when the animal is resting. Fluid buildup in your dog's lungs may trigger a series of coughing fits. If your dog coughs for more than three days, you should take them to the vet. The cough is often described as similar to a smoker's cough, due to its harsh, hacking nature. Watch for a lack of energy. Your German shepherd will probably have a lack of energy, exhibit lethargy, or show signs of fatigue. Your pet may not be as energetic or lively as they used to be, and they may lie around the house or sleep more. Due to the restricted blood and oxygen circulation, your pet may tire sooner than normal. Your dog may have difficulty exercising because of restricted oxygen flow. In extreme cases, the dog may faint or pass out during exercise. Check for breathing problems. Respiratory problems commonly occur when a dog has heart problems because the heart has difficulty pumping oxygen to the body. Your German shepherd's heart will have to work overtime to get blood flowing. Pooling of fluid in the lungs makes gas exchange more difficult and the dog has to put in extra effort to breathe. This may look like rapid breathing at rest and exaggerated movements of the chest wall. Some dogs may need to use their belly muscles in order to help expand the chest to help breathing. Look for weight loss. If the heart disease has been around for a while, many German shepherds will have a poor appetite. Your dog may refuse to eat or want to eat less food than is normal. Therefore, your dog may start to lose weight. In some circumstances, this can be masked by fluid accumulation in the belly due to poor circulation. However, these dogs will feel bony when stroked and have a disproportionately big abdomen. Take your dog to the vet. If you notice any symptoms of heart disease in your German shepherd, take them to the vet. The vet will perform a thorough clinical exam and assess the dog's body condition, how lively the dog is, and how well the dog is breathing. The vet will listen to the way the heart sounds with a stethoscope in order to detect heart murmurs and irregular heart rhythms. This exam may indicate if heart disease is likely and what the nature of the problem is. Further tests are required and these can include an ECG trace to give information about the heart rate, rhythm, and the size of the chambers. Your dog may need to wear a Holter 24 hour ECG harness. This trace is recorded over a 24 hour period and may be necessary in order to catch erratic episodes of heart arrhythmia. The dog is fitted with a special Halter harness, which records the ECG continuously. Radiography gives information about the size, shape, and position of the heart, plus whether the lungs are congested with fluid or not. An ultrasound exam gives a direct visualization of the heart and the blood flow to it. It allows the operator to measure the thickness of the heart muscles, study the health of the valve leaflets, and watch the dynamic flow of blood in order to find extraneous blood vessels or blood flowing in the wrong direction. Diagnose PDA. A patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is a hereditary problem where a blood vessel that joins the aorta and the pulmonary artery in the fetus fails to close when the puppy is born. This is diagnosed when the vet hears a typical waxing-and-waning murmur. This defect is present at birth and usually picked up when the puppy is presented for vaccination. Undergo surgery for PDA. The treatment for PDA in German shepherd puppies is surgical occlusion of the abnormal blood vessels so blood can no longer avoid the heart by passing through the duct. This is done by either ligating the duct or by passing a special coil inside the blood vessel in order to block it. Putting a coil into the blood vessel is specialist surgery, but experts are able to feed the coil into the correct position by inserting it into the femoral artery, back up to the aorta, and then into the duct. Puppies that have a corrective procedure do very well. Left untreated, the German shepherd puppies usually progress into heart failure and may only survive a few months to a year before going into heart failure. Diagnose sudden cardiac death. Sudden cardiac death is another inherited condition which can lead to German shepherd dying suddenly at the young age of four to eight months. Death usually occurs during sleep or when the dog is resting after exercise.The reason for death is an irregular heartbeat, which causes the heart to go into spasm where it is unable to pump blood. In the congenital form which German shepherds suffer from, there is nothing wrong with the physical structure of the heart. The problem lies in the electrical current that causes the heart to beat. Thus it can be difficult to detect the dog has a problem until it is too late. Potentially fatal irregular heart beats may only occur in episodes which happen sporadically. The rest of the time the dog appears normal and there is no detectable heart murmur. Diagnosis is usually made by the dog wearing a Halter harness for a 24-hour ECG trace. Treat sudden cardiac death. There are limited options for treating sudden cardiac death. Half of the affected dogs die suddenly before 12 months of age. In dogs where the problem is identified, the use of intravenous doses of antiarrhythmic drugs, such as lidocaine or procainamide, can help get the heart back into a regular rhythm. However, giving the dog drugs is not practical in the majority of situations given the erratic and unpredictable timing of the episodes and there being a need to get medication into the dog immediately. The responsible breeder would not breed from German shepherds that are known to have produced sudden death puppies. Learn the difference between the two types of heart muscle disease. German shepherds are affected by two types of cardiomyopathy: hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and dilated cardiomyopathy. These two conditions affect the heart muscle but in different ways. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy refers to a thickening of the heart muscle. The thickened walls of the heart cause a decrease in the size of the heart chambers whose job it is to fill with blood. Thus each heartbeat pushes a smaller volume of blood around the body, leading to the clinical signs. Dilated cardiomyopathy is the opposite problem, where the heart wall muscle thins and becomes soft and baggy like a balloon that has been blown up and let down several times. The lack of tone in the muscle means the heart makes weak pumping movements and is inefficient of sending blood round the body. Diagnose the heart muscle condition. The two conditions are difficult to distinguish on clinical signs alone. Therefore, a diagnosis is usually made via imaging, such as an ultrasound which is used to measure the thickness of the heart wall. Treat the condition with diuretics. There are several medical treatments available which improve the ability of the heart to pump and therefore improve the dog's quality of life. One is diuretics. These are drugs that shift retained water, such as fluid that accumulates in the lungs because of inadequate blood circulation. This makes it easier for the dog to breath and helps improve circulation. Typically furosemide and or spironolactone are prescribed. An initial loading dose may be given, and then a reduced daily dose by mouth is given to keep the patient stable. This is appropriate for both hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and dilated cardiomyopathy. Furosemide is given two or three times daily, while spironolactone is given once daily by mouth. Give your German shepherd medication for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. There are different medicine treatments available for hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathy. One treatment option for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is beta blockers. The most widely used beta blocker for this condition is propranolol. This slightly slows the heart rate, which is helpful in cases of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The medicine helps give the chambers longer to fill with blood, which improves the volume pumped out with each stroke. The beta blockers are given orally twice a day. Calcium channel blocking agents, such as diltiazem, are another medicine used to help treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. These help the heart muscle relax more fully between heartbeats, therefore filling with blood more effectively. The regular formulation is given three times daily, or a slow release once-daily formulation is available. Get medication for dilated cardiomyopathy. There are a couple different medications your German shepherd can take if they have dilated cardiomyopathy. Pimobendan is an important treatment for dilated cardiomyopathy which can extend life if routine screening is undertaken and a problem identified before clinical signs develop. Pimobendan can delay the onset of clinical disease and increase life expectancy. It acts by improving heart muscle contraction and acting on blood vessels to minimize the resistance to blood flow. This means it requires less work to push blood around the body. Pimobendan must be given on an empty stomach. This is given twice a day by mouth, every 12 hours. ACE inhibitors is another treatment for DCM. It works by opening up small blood vessels in the extremities, so there is less resistance to blood flow. This is a tablet given once or twice daily. Monitor your dog regularly. After diagnosis, your German shepherd requires regular monitoring to ensure they remain on the correct dose of medication. It is common to adjust the dose of medication in order to compensate for deterioration or to decrease the dose as the dog improves. It is standard practice to see a stable patient every three months, but ultimately this is at the discretion of your vet and your German shepherd's condition. 
Look for a cough. Watch for a lack of energy. Check for breathing problems. Look for weight loss. Take your dog to the vet. Diagnose PDA. Undergo surgery for PDA. Diagnose sudden cardiac death. Treat sudden cardiac death. Learn the difference between the two types of heart muscle disease. Diagnose the heart muscle condition. Treat the condition with diuretics. Give your German shepherd medication for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Get medication for dilated cardiomyopathy. Monitor your dog regularly. 