attacks and strokes. Based on this, some veterinarians suggest that dogs with heart problems also receive them. The makers of prescription dog and cat foods tend to increase the content of omega-3 fatty acids in the products they market for a variety of dog and cat health issues. (read here)
L-carnitine is involved in the process by which the heart muscle converts fats into energy. There is some data that L-carnitine supplements help people who have heart disease. (read here) Whether or not it helps pets is something we do not yet know. (read here)
There is a small group cats and an occasional dog that develop sudden heart disease due to a deficiency in the amino sulfonic acid, taurine. Once that link was discovered, pet food manufacturers added more taurine to their diets. Although we think more about cats that develop cardiomyopathy, a taurine deficiency has also been implicated as a possible cause of canine cardimyopathy . One study discussed taurine’s possible role in that heart problem in golden retrievers. (read here) Since it is non-toxic, many veterinarians suggest a taurine supplement for all their cardiac patients.
Other Helpful Things You Can Do:
Keep your pet’s weight optimal, feed a name brand high quality commercial diet or prepare one you prepare at home.
When you exercise your pet, keep its activity at a level a bit less than what it would take to cause your pet to breath heavily, pant or elevate its heart rate. Don’t give up short walks until you absolutely must. Dogs and cats benefit physically and mentally from physical activities and exploring new environment.
Heart Valve Disease Of Dogs And Cats:
I mentioned earlier that age-related scaring and distortion of the mitral valve is quite common in old dogs. The mitral valve divides the lower and upper left chambers of your pet’s heart. It’s constant hard work may cause it to fail to completely close and open. Sixty percent of dogs over 8 years old are said to have some degree of this problem. But less than half the dogs with this condition have any symptoms you would notice.
Many veterinarians have noticed that small breeds of dogs that eat soft food and table scraps eventually develop chronic mouth infections or periodontal disease. It is very common for these pets to also have a heart murmur related to their mitral valve. Dentists and many veterinarians believe that bacteria break loose from oral tissue, move through the blood stream and attach to the heart valves to cause a condition called endocarditis that eventually scar the heart valves. When a mitral valve wears out, its two flaps become blunted, shriveled and scarred so that they do not open or close properly. When this happens, blood does not flow in the normal pattern but leaks back in to the left atrium and/or fails to fully fill the left ventricle before the heart beats. With time, increased back pressure causes one or more chambers of the heart to enlarge. As the chambers of the heart enlarge they press on the windpipe resulting in a dry, hacking cough. The enlarged heart also stretches the nerve fibers that control heart rhythm. That can resulting in abnormal heart beats or arrhythmias. As blood backs up, it pools in the lungs as edema that makes the cough even worse. Particularly when the pet is lying down or at rest.
Less frequently than left side heart failure, it is the right side of the heart that fails to move blood adequately. When that occurs, blood backs up between the heart and the lungs. You can read more about that problem through the previous links .
Puppies and kittens are sometimes born with abnormal hearts. This is congenital heart diseases – errors in heart construction .
Errors In Heart Development:
Subaortic Stenosis (SAS):
This problem is most common in big dogs (Rottweilers, Boxers, Newfoundlands, Golden retrievers, Great Danes etc.). Stenosis means narrowing. In cases of subaortic stenosis the puppy is born with an abnormally narrow passageway leading from its heart to its aorta. The problem comes in all degrees of severity – from very mild case, requiring no treatmen