Congestive Heart Failure in Dogs: What We’re Doing, Pt. 5-An Unexpected Turn

Previous Post Recap:

• Sophie’s first acupuncture appointment yielded great results in stopping her head tremor by about 90% for two days
• Her appetite was spotty and the 1/3 meat, 1/3 veggies, 1/3 carbs diet wasn’t helping, so getting her to eat and take her supplements was a process I figured out with the help of raw green tripe
• Our experience of cutting back on her Lasix medication too soon
• Learning from Dr. Ruskin that Sophie’s heart needed protein and if she wasn’t eating this new diet, her heart condition was more pressing than her hepatic one. So, I put Sophie back on more meat. Find out what happened below.
• I shared a good resting respiratory rate app I’m using to keep tabs on how hard she’s breathing and her lungs and heart are working at any given time.
• Sophie’s follow up echo cardiogram, which would tell us a lot.

My own heart was pumping in my chest. Sophie was on the cardiologist’s office table, getting her follow up echo cardiogram. I was praying the result was good.

What Sophie’s Follow Up Echo Cardiogram Told Us

 

Unfortunately, it wasn’t.

Sophie’s echo showed continued advanced chronic degenerative valve dis-ease, with thickened, leaky heart valves. Hers was categorized as an ACVIM (American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine) Consensus Stage C. This means Stage C dogs have Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease (MMVD) severe enough to cause current or past clinical signs of heart failure. This classification includes all dogs with MMVD that have experienced an episode of clinical heart failure and that do respond to standard heart failure treatment. That part was good.

The gist of veterinary cardiologist, Dr. Julia Lindholm’s, findings were this:

• Sophie’s heart dis-ease was severe and not any better than her previous echo cardiogram on April 19.
• Dr. Lindholm strongly recommended doubling Sophie’s medication quantities daily and adding spironolactone, the drug I thought she reacted poorly to, after 3-4 days of doing well. She said it takes time for spironolactone to get into the body, so an immediate reaction wasn’t likely. Spironolactone is used to manage fluid retention in heart failure and Sophie’s echo showed fluid in her lungs and abdomen.
• She expressed deep concern with Sophie being on BioCardio or any supplement with Hawthorne, saying that because Hawthorne and Pimobendan both have an inotropic effect, or helping Sophie’s heart to contract stronger and better, and a vasodilatory effect, of dilating her blood vessels, the concern was about the risk of doubling up on these effects. There is literature for and against using Hawthorne, even though it’s been used since the 1st century to treat heart dis-ease, among other things.

What To Do When You’re Getting Conflicting Information

 

This is one of those times I know you’ll all relate to. You want to do the best for your dog. You aren’t a doctor and even the doctors are disagreeing. What do you do?

When I left Dr. Lindholm, I was convinced to pull Sophie off of BioCardio. I also knew I wanted to set up an appointment to speak with Dr. Ruskin to go deeper into why she was so pro-BioCardio and her experience with it.

We did that today, after Sophie had been off of BioCardio for three days. I was truly concerned for my little dog, wondering if using this supplement was doing harm or good. Here’s what I found out that put my mind more at ease.

Dr. Ruskin has been using BioCardio along with the same heart medications, including Pimobendan, that Sophie is on for thirteen years with great success. Prior to that, the iconic Dr. Marty Goldstein was doing the same thing with his patients for many, many years, also with great success. Dr. Ruskin’s own dog with severe congestive heart failure is doing great on her protocol…”She’s living the good life,” Dr. Ruskin enthused.

I had to make an executive decision and I did. I’m putting her back on the BioCardio, and following the protocol from Dr. Ruskin. I’ve also increased Sophie’s medications, as per Dr. Lindholm. Dr. Ruskin agreed with Dr. Lindholm’s assessment about upping them at this point, too.

What’s Happening Now

 

After five days on double the dose of Lasix, Pimobendan, Sildenafil and now, adding Spironolactone today, Sophie for the first time in over a month was feeling good enough and playful enough to engage in some play time with Anabelle, our resident Chihuahua monster (said with the greatest love, but Chihuahua parents out there know what I’m talking about!). Sophie seems to be feeling better and I’m grateful for every moment.

What I’m Trying Homeopathically Now and Why

 

I’d mentioned I was wrestling with Sophie’s lackluster appetite. I did some research in the homeopathic repertories I have in my online platform and looked into a couple of the remedies that came up in the Materia Medica, the bible of homeopathy which describes in detail many of the remedies available to us and what they do. I came up with an odd one called Alcoholus, made from, you guessed it…alcohol. Ethyl alcohol. It is being used by homeopaths to treat alcoholism and many health issues arising from alcoholism, as well as similar issues in patients who are not alcoholic.

Before you gasp that I’ll be giving Sophie ethyl alcohol, when a substance is made homeopathic, none of the original substance remains, only its energy. And, there are many symptoms Alcoholus, abbreviated Alco. creates and can, therefore, resolve. Loss of appetite. Inflammation of the liver. Diarrhea often alternating with constipation. Hacking, dry cough. Hypertrophy of the left side of the heart. Valvular insufficiency. Increased activity of the heart and arteries. Very excited action, violent throbbing of the heart. Palpitation of the heart. Congestion of lungs. Trembling of extremities. Trembling in arms and hands. These all apply to my girl!

So, I sent my list of symptoms for Alco., my thoughts about the remedy and my question about whether this could be a good remedy to Dr. Sagrera, the homeopathic expert. She thought it was a very interesting choice and suggested I try it with Sophie. She said she’s not sure about it as a curative remedy for Sophie, but even if it acts as a palliative one, where she gets some relief when she’s on it, that for now, is good. I’m giving her one dose and re-evaluating in a few days. I’ll let you know what I find.

She also suggested alfalfa tincture – 2-4 drops per day – to stimulate Sophie’s appetite. Alfalfa is a very nutrient-dense herb that contains high levels of protein, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. It is great for viral infections, joint inflammation, and additional nutrient support. And, it is also really good as a natural appetite stimulant and digestive aid. I’ll let you know how that goes, too, in case any of you are interested in getting your pup or kitty to eat better, naturally.

I Couldn’t End This Post Without Telling You What Happened to Us Right After Sophie’s Echo

 

I haven’t shared this online, only with my good friends, but on April 20th, the day after Sophie was diagnosed with congestive heart failure, we had a flash storm in parts of Austin and, where I live, we had 5″ of rain dumped on us in less than an hour. My house flooded. It was scary. I rent, so I had to reach the management company overseeing this property for the owner, who is living in California. I was able to pull all the towels I had and a remediation company came the next morning. Unfortunately, the owner decided not to work with them, nor with the next remediation company that didn’t come for almost a week.

The house has no gutters or drain pipes and the detached garage roof is a bee line into my back sliding doors into the house. After the storm, the owner chose to do nothing about this.

Exactly one week later, we had another flash storm and the house flooded again. The next day, they brought in a handyman to install gutters and drain pipes.

My biggest fear throughout all of this was mold. Once water gets into flooring and under baseboards, that is the perfect environment for mold spores to form and grow. And, I learned it happens fast; in 24 hours.

My former chiropractor in New York City, Dr. Daryl Gioffre, went on to become a leader in the alkaline nutrition space and today is a very popular celebrity nutritionist. If you Google him, you’ll see he’s appeared everywhere, helping people lose weight and get healthier. He’ super knowledgeable and I’m grateful we became and stayed friends.

Daryl lived through his own mold nightmare; is still living through it, to a degree. He moved his young family into a house in Newport Beach, California, not knowing there was mold. Over the months, he got exhausted even walking up the stairs and developed brain fog. His young son developed tremors and was ill. It took them awhile, but when they finally figured out what it was, they got the heck out of there. Today, he still suffers from long mold exposure symptoms.

Daryl told me to get an Ermi 7 mold test done. I suggested it to the management company and they said ok. They never did it.

They ended up hiring a mold inspector and then withheld his report from me for 4 days. This is the same management company who was so nice to me and was thanking me just two months before for taking such good care of the house. Now, they were covering themselves.

When I finally got the mold report, it showed Aspergillus/Penicillium, a dangerous mold, as well as Basidospores, another dangerous mold and a couple of others, which can cause things like pulmonary emphysema, asthma,  skin lesions, eye ulcerations, headaches, shortness of breath and more.

Just 5 days before I got the report, I started experiencing symptoms and so did Sophie. She was coughing more and I had monster headaches (not something I ever get), brain fog, addled brain where I couldn’t put thoughts together, insomnia and shortness of breath. This scared me. So the day after Sophie’s follow up echo cardiogram and getting a not so great report, and then hearing from the vets that Sophie’s condition could have been exacerbated by being around mold, I packed us up and moved into a hotel. I couldn’t go back to that house; I didn’t feel safe.

Now, we are getting ready to check out of the hotel for an AirBNB for three weeks, while I look for a new home. This is a huge financial burden we didn’t anticipate, but I feel I need to do this for my health and the health of my animals, especially Sophie who is already fighting a battle to get better.

Sophie is improving since we left the house and my symptoms, with the exception of some leftover insomnia and shortness of breath, have resolved. The management company is insisting because more mold was found outside the house than in, that I couldn’t possibly be experiencing symptoms from mold exposure but I am telling you, I know what I felt.

Mold is a silent killer and many people may experience symptoms and never think of mold. This is a wake up call for you and your fur kids. Make sure your house is safe.

The owner has only agreed to have a handyman come in, pull off some baseboards, look to see if there’s mold (many forms of dangerous mold are too tiny to see with the naked eye) and then put new or the same baseboards back on. To me, this is not remediation; this is construction.

I have chosen to purchase that Ermi 7 test myself and do it after the band aid work is done to see if mold still exists in the house. If it does, then it proves the method of fixing this was insufficient. If there is none, then what was done worked. Either way, we are moving into a space I feel safe in.

So, life is very fluid at the moment. We are on an adventure. I do believe the Universe brings things into our lives for a reason. Maybe I needed to get out of that house/neighborhood. I’m trying to go with the flow and trust in and listen to the guidance I’m receiving.

For Sophie, we will see if going back on BioCardio, after a few weeks it will take to see the benefits of its action, is working. I will probably wait for a couple of months at least to get another Echo Cardiogram, to give what we’re doing a good chance of helping to stabilize Sophie’s condition. And, I pray that, like Dr. Ruskin’s own dog, my Sophie will be “living the good life” very soon.

Stay tuned for Dr. Ruskin appearing on my The Pet Health Coach podcast, talking about her heart dis-ease protocol and why it’s working.

Until then, to their best health ever!