Enlarged heart

The problem is my vet hasn't told me what it is yet.  I expect to get more info tomorrow based on the info I just requested from them this weekend.  7 yrs. old is when age issues start to happen and we assume Zoe is 7 in August assuming her adoption papers were correct.  Due to her premature graying, we have thought for a while she may actually be older.

 Thanks for searching the vets.  I actually moved to Virginia Beach and a friend of mine has recommended her dog's cardiologist and I will be going there if necessary. 

 Aside from the vet's exam and xray (which I didn't see), Zoe is showing no signs of issues... no coughing, extra tiredness, etc. and her bloodwork is ok.  She has a few borderline high, but from what I read, it could show from being a bit dehydrated at the time... I really need more info, but the vet is dealing with her hubby being in ICU and has not been reachable. 

I requested the vet get back to me with more info tomorrow... whether it is the regular vet or someone else who can interpret the xray and bloodwork for me since doing nothing is not an option in my book.

Princess died from an enlarged heart but it was to late and the vet wasn't much help she got sick Dec 23rd out of the blue I took her to the vets they did blood work then xrays blood work was fine xray showed her heart was enlarged 2-3 times bigger then it should be and that she ate something but all the vet did was worry about whatever she ate and if she could pass it without having surgery I was worried about her heart to this day I blame myself for not going to another vet and seeing if they could have done something. Dec 24th took her back to the vets, vet said she had passed 70% of whatever was stuck which I don't know how she could pass it she hardly went to the bathroom, on Dec 26th I woke up to Princess dead .

I wish you luck 

This is a really old post -- and yes, I ahve experience with it - I'll have to post a bit later cos I'm on my way out (to a vet visit of course)

How big is your poodle -- typically it's going to be like 500 mg of L-Carnitine twice a day and 500 mg of Taurine once a day.  That can change with the dog tho.

In honesty -- I would tell you to add a holistic vet, preferably one who does TCVM (Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine) -- it helped my Billy a *ton* for a long time.  In fact I've used it with two dogs that had heart problems.  We had a boxer/pit mix who had a severely enlarged heart (and a bent trachea) from heartworm infestation.  We took her thru the 'slow' method (no vet would touch her with the immiticide her problem was *that* severe) and got a clear occult on her but it left the heart severely enlarged.

She had to be on *some* heart meds (ferosemide primarily) but mostly I used supplements for her. 

Both dogs also took hawthorneberry -- the typical dose (no matter the size of the dog) is 1 capsule (which is about 1/4 teas. if you get the bulk herb) twice a day.

Hawthornberry is easy to give -- just the ground herb tastes sorta like dusty strawberries (yeah actually I *have* tasted it) and usually even regular vets don't mind you giving that one.  one capsule is just about a solid 1/4 tsp (scoop it up with the spoon and sorta press it in and you're bang on right measure-wise)

Depending on the size of your poodle tho I'd want a vet to help you with those taurine/l-carnitine doses.  If your poodle is just a wee guy you may need to halve them but I'm not sure.

But seriously -- acupuncture can help SO much with heart issues.  Really can. 

One of the things we did with Billy was to get him a heart work-up twice a year.  My regular vet would actually test him in his office and send the echo via the phone line up to the University of FL where a cardiologist/radiologist would read the tests for us.  It was not at all expensive and enabled us to keep track of any changes.

The other thing they did was x-ray his heart twice a year to keep track of the size of his heart to see if it had enlarged further.

 Hi Julie; welcome to the forum. I'm sorry that your dog has been diagnosed with an enlarged heart. The suggested dose for taurine for small dogs is 125 milligrams a day. There is some controversy about supplementing with carnitine; there isn't a correlation between the amount of carnitine circulating in the blood and the amount on heart muscle. According to the book " Small Animal Clinical Nutrition", the recommended dose for dogs with heart disease is 50 to 100 milligrams per kilogram of body weight three times daily. Adding some wild salmon oil to his diet may help too.