Bella is almost 16 years old and about a month ago bounced back from the brink!
Bella had been boarding at a local Doggie Daycare while her owners were away. The employees found her one morning listless, dull and dehydrated. She had been terribly ill overnight so they brought her straight into our Bethlehem Hospital.
We knew she had an underlying heart murmur which up until now had been monitored with no associated clinical signs of concern. We stabilised her with IV fluids, warmth, anti-nausea medication and put her on ‘Vetmedin’ – a drug to improve the efficiency of her heart. Within 24 hours she had made a dramatic improvement and has continued to go from strength to strength since being on the heart medication. It just shows us that the ‘slowing down’ her clients and ourselves put down to her age was more likely to be due to be due to the amount of work her heart was having to do to get blood flow around her body.
Just look at those bright puppy eyes. She has bounced back better than ever! Her owners are delighted to have her home and feeling so good. We have even managed to stock chewable palatable tablets so Bella eats them happily on their own.
If you have a pet slowing down, showing signs of lethargy and unwillingness to go for walks, fainting spells or a persistent cough – it could be heart disease. Book in for a senior pet check and they may be able to have their quality of life restored as Bella has.
