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Originally Posted by iggy7799  I did take him to the vet this afternoon. He has an enlarged heart its pressing on his trachea. They think he has Cushing's, as well. His ALP was over 2000 too. The vet said that testing him for Cushing's is putting him through alot and we could do that if we wanted but there's no decisive way to no at this point if he has it or not. I said what I cared about now was his quality of life. I don't want to put him through ANYTHING that may be too much unnecessarily. She also said they could have cardiologists come and look at the x-rays and do an ultrasound for more details. She didn't say it would be diagnostic necessarily and I'm questioning why do all that. We already know he is very sick. But he seems ok as long as he's not coughing like crazy. She gave me a prescription for an antibiotic just in case he picked up something and one for Hydrocodone. So I'm just hoping... I don't know what else to do. |
I know how you feel because my 15.5 year old dog has both of these conditions (enlarged heart and a very profoundly collapsing trachea). We have our dog on benezepril for his heart disease (valve disease).
Is your dog on Hydrocodone or is it Hycodan? Hycodan is a compound medication and you can use higher doses than straight hydrocodone. I have found this to be the ONLY thing that has worked to essentially stop my dog's cough and I've run through the gamut of drugs and options.
Is your dog on enalapril or benazepril for the heart valve disease?
Does he cough a lot and is the cough due to the trachea?
How is his quality of life?