Truley
Posted : 9/5/2009 1:59:16 PM
My best to you and Salem.
My girl Babe developed this at 9 years of age. Hers was a side effect of a car accident at 10months.
She had enlarged her heart because her lungs were not working properly. (the vet suspected severe scar tissue) Because of her age and the fact that they had no real answer we tried a couple of drugs and curtailed her activity, especially in the summer. Cooler air is easier to breath and they pant less so she was not over working to much.
We did drugs for 18 months and then took them away, she hated them and did not understand why she could not play with the kids or chase her ball. In the end we decided to let her go down swinging. If she died in the middle of running after her ball, or chasing a stray cat or bouncing around the yard we would except it, because she would die doing something she loved.
The accident that damaged her happened at 10 months, she literally ran full bore into the side of a moving pick up, with a full intake of breath her lungs took the most damage, she had drainage tubes and the whole works, spent 24 hours in ICU and then another week at home recovering. At one point that had to remove a 1/2 cup of blood from one of her lungs. The vet warned us it would prematurely age her and it did. But she was healthy, active and happy up until the age of 9, in the end hemangiosarcoma took her from us at 11 years and 10 months.
I would say this is manageable, depending on what is actually on the lungs.