Mitral valve insufficiency...
It is a chain of unfamiliar words, but this is a disease often seen in small dogs.
With the present state of medicine, it is hard to cure completely, and once it is diagnosed, the dog has to rely on medications for the rest of its life.
"Mitral valve insufficiency in dogs (a heart valve disease)"
[Symptoms] The dog has a light, dry cough during the night and into the early morning. The intervals between coughing spells gradually become shorter, and as the disease progresses, it leads to trouble breathing; the dog becomes anemic and may even collapse.
[Cause] With age, the mitral valve ceases to close completely and the blood flows back, raising the pressure in the left ventricle and giving rise to symptoms. This puts stress on the lungs and results in pulmonary edema and trouble breathing.
[The most susceptible breeds] This is a disease often seen in small dogs such as Maltese, Yorkshire Terriers, and Pomeranians.
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We received an inquiry today concerning a 3 kg ten-year-old male Maltese named Tom. It seems that the dog is living with the parents of the person who contacted us, who lives some distance away.
● Message of August 24, 2006
This is a male Maltese that was raised in my parents' home; he is around 10 years and
9 months old, and I think he weighs about 3 kg.
He was diagnosed with mitral valve insufficiency on July 29 and is taking heart medicine and a diuretic.
As I have been told, four days ago his breathing became rough and he was in distress, so the next morning my family took him to the hospital. He was kept there until the evening and treated, and he was fine when he came home.
Considering the nature of this disease, after reading the experiences of your blog, I decided to order some Pinfenon in the hope of helping our dog to feel even a little more comfortable.
●Message of August 31
Thank you for your kind answer to my question the other day.
He has been taking Pinfenon for 6 days. There has been a definite improvement seen in his condition, and to the family's surprise, he has become able to take longer walks.
He may have overdone it, because when he came home after a walk, his legs seemed to give way for a second and he fell, so my family got upset and thought they would have to take him to the vet, but...
Today, when they were at the vet's, they told him about Pinfenon.
He said it was all right, so long as it didn't contain sodium, chlorite, phosphorus, and protein, so they wanted me to ask about that.
I don't see those things in the list of ingredients, but...
Would you please let me know?
●Message of September 2, 2006
Thanks for your reply. The vet said today that because the dog is taking a diuretic to deal with water retention, it would be bad for him to take something with sodium in it, which would increase the amount he drinks.
Once before, he had retained so much water that he was in distress and was put into an oxygen chamber for half a day and switched to a stronger diuretic.
My family began to give him Pinfenon right after that, and he got better, so they seemed to be thinking that his recovery was thanks to Pinfenon; but the vet told them that the dog felt better and had become lively again because he had started taking a stronger diuretic.
In my opinion, it was Pinfenon that helped him, but..
Anyway, I will let you know how he is doing.