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Vetmedin - Experiences, Sideeffects, Recommendations?


cycas

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Took Az in for his vaccination booster and annual checkup today, and the vet reckons that given the noise his heart is making, and the fact that he has slowed down a bit, I should consider starting him on Vetmedin. He suggests possibly an ultrasound scan would be a good move first, to try to work out what is causing the murmur.

 

Az does still run and play and will cheerfully do an hours offlead walk and jump into the car enthusiastically at the end. However, I have noticed that rather than racing about with his nose into everything the whole time as he used to when younger, he now tends to go tearing off for a few minutes at the start of a walk, then will come back and walk mostly to heel. He's probably about 11ish-12ish in age.

 

I've just been reading up on Vetmedin and it seems like good stuff, but I thought I'd ask you lot for any experiences or recommendations. :flowers:

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An ultrasound would probably be a good idea to see what's going on, Meg had one for her heart problems and it turned out that one of the valves in her heart is mis-formed rather than it being a 'normal' murmur. On the basis of the results the vet decided not to medicate at that time, as it was something she's probably had all her life to some extent rather than a progressive problem, though obviously we're keeping an eye on it and she may need meds at some point in the future.

 

To be honest Az's behaviour and activity level doesn't sound that unusual for a lurcher of his age - my Taz is now about 10 and does less loony charging around than he used to, he tends to have a mad 15-20 minutes and then settle down to mooching and sniffing for the rest of the walk. He also has a slight heart murmur, but still quite low grade.

 

Loads of good thoughts for the lovely Az wub.gifGroup_Hug_Emoticon.gif

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Joe has been on this for about 18 months and I haven't noticed any side effects but I would have the ultrasound done before putting him on any medication, only then will you know what is wrong.

 

Joe has a grade 4 murmour, leaking mitral valve and his heart is so large it is pushing his windpipe up onto his spine. Not sure how long I am going to have Joe but at the moment he is pain free and enjoying life.

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The vet said, if I have it straight that new studies into Vetmedin suggests that it's more effective than previously thought in preventing further degeneration with certain conditions, so they are now looking at starting dogs on it earlier. Of course, this could be a marketing tactic! rolleyes.giflaugh.gif

 

 

 

I did some googling, and it does look as though there was a new study published Sept 2008.

 

 

I'll definitely get the ultrasound done at least. Az has had a murmur for several years - I'm not sure if he has always had it, and that it wasn't picked up at his first checkup, or if it's something that has appeared as he's got older, but the vet did say that it was very noisy today, although apparently the amount of noise it makes isn't always an indication that it's causing problems.

 

Fee, Az's loony phase tends to only last about 2-3 mins now, Mollydog at 10 with 2 knackered legs and quite a bit heavier, is at the moment marginally the more active. Once they have both got into trot-along mode, he can go on apparently forever whereas the legs are a limiting factor for Molls, however.

 

Molls also has a heart murmur, and they haven't suggested ultrasound for her, so I'm assuming Az sounds worse!

 

 

 

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That's interesting, when I last discussed it with the vet he felt medicating too early could make things worse - but that was a couple of years ago, it sounds as though theory has moved on since then. Meg is due for another check-up/ultrasound in a couple of months so I'll talk to him again about it.

 

I know of dogs who have done very well on Vetmedin and had a whole new lease of life, so I hope it will do the trick for Az Group_Hug_Emoticon.gif

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