Dilated Cardiomyopathy Cocker And Some Hope For Others

[blonde]

hi everyone, it has been ages.

I think one of the last times i was on the forum was when my 3 year old cocker spaniel beautiful little boy was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, he was given 3 months to live..well i am very happy to say that after 12 months (in 2 weeks) he will have survived a whole year and still going very very strong. So just giving hope to others with this awful illness, and i must say, we have been given him taurine (as well as a heap of other medications) which you get from a health food store and which is ggiven to heart transplant patients 6 mnths before the trnasplant to strengthen the human muscle and it seems to be working with my little boy too. I hope i get another 10 years with him>>?

[Bully]

hi everyone, it has been ages.

I think one of the last times i was on the forum was when my 3 year old cocker spaniel beautiful little boy was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy, he was given 3 months to live..well i am very happy to say that after 12 months (in 2 weeks) he will have survived a whole year and still going very very strong. So just giving hope to others with this awful illness, and i must say, we have been given him taurine (as well as a heap of other medications) which you get from a health food store and which is ggiven to heart transplant patients 6 mnths before the trnasplant to strengthen the human muscle and it seems to be working with my little boy too. I hope i get another 10 years with him>>?

So glad to hear that your beautiful boy is still doing well.

Jessie (now at the "Bridge") was diagnosed with DCM when she was nearly 9.5 years. She was given a prognosis of "6 months, 12 if she's lucky" and made it to 3 years much to the heart Vet's amazement. He called her an "inspiration".

Jessie was on "Vetmedin". It was a new drug at the time and we switched her from Fortekor. The Vetmedin made a big difference. I also had Jessie on Co Enzyme Q10, Hawthorn, Magnesium, L-Carnitine, Taurine, Fish Oil, Vitamins A, C, E and probably a few others that I can't think of at the moment. Jessie had been fed a BARF diet for most of her life, so cutting down on sodium was no big deal.

I've got lots of heart links on Jessie's webpage

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Estates/5493/links.html

Hope your boy keeps on doing well

[blonde]

:rolleyes: Than you very much, i will look at the link in a sec. Its so nice to hear support from others, especially when you are down or have had a crappy day and decided humans are mean! Thank you so much..i needed that.

[blonde]

Wow Bully, i think i am going to be on your site for the rest of the nite and its after 2am!!!

My little boy Miki was only 3 when he was diagnosed and my vets are amazed at how healthy he is as well. He is on Vetmedin and fortekor and frudex. Plus other non prescription stuf. This is helping me a lot. Now.. all i have to wait for is my other little cocker to recover-he inhaled a grass seed last week and was in hospital straight away, long story short, his lung collapsed and they operated on him yesterday and removed part of his lung...my poor little baby...he is only 16 months....

But my other cocker-she passed away last year at 14 from heart disease too but she made it to an ok age-i would have liked her to go on a lot longer. But i ramble...thanks again.

By the way-the inhaling of the grass seed cost $10,000 for the op!! What do people do when they havent got the money??