When your dog's illness cannot be cured: Heart Failure in dogs: Leo's story, Part Four

I currently share my home with my husband of more than 37 years and our two rescue dogs. I have written about both of these dogs in the past and so will add links to the bottom of this Hub for any readers wanting to read their stories. I have yet to write about my husband. I must get my prorities sorted out.

Leo is the sweetest dog I have ever known and I have known more than a few. His maltreatment before his rescue was terrible but he has retained a sweet disposition. Diagnosed with a massively enlarged heart last year I envisaged this Fourth Part of Leo's illness would include his demise but it does not.

Leo and I visited the vets on a Saturday in late February 2010, for his three monthly check up and the good news was that he was doing OK. In fact Kate, our vet, said that Leo was doing surprisingly well.

So I started this Hub a little after that visit to the vets and for one reason or another have not got round to finishing it. It is now late April 2010 and Leo will be due his next check up in a couple of weeks.

I thought then that it was about time I completed this part of Leo's tale.

At the previous visit Leo's medication have been changed. Well it had another drug introduced. He had been taking Furosemide three times a day and one tablet called Fortekor. The vet had prescribed a tablet called Vetmedin. At £1 per tablet I was glad when the vet said that Leo had to only take 1/2 a tablet a day.

That said all of this means that Leo's three monthly vet bill is just over £170. This does include the normal costs such as annual vaccinations, anti flea preparations and the like. Then again I also have another rescue dog Jessie, and so I suppose a huge part of our income is going on these two pooches right now.

After the bad start both of these two dogs had in life they deserve some spoiling, so fair dos.

Sadly the prognosis for Leo is not good. His enlarged heart will ultimately lead to his death. This could happen in a few hours, days, weeks, months or years. Realistically it could happen this year.

Kate our vet has said that there is nothing else she can do. It is now medication, TLC and taking each day as it comes.

When Leo is having a good day it is hard to believe he is so ill. He races around the paths and field were we walk with Jessie leading the way. Some days his energy levels are less but then he happily trots alongside me.

His cough is worsening which is not a good sign. It means that his lungs and abdomen are retaining fluid. He has lost a little weight which Kate tells me is to be expected. He still eats like a horse though. His early starvation means food is important in his life.

The irony is not wasted on me. We used to see a different vet at this same practice who was always trying to get Leo to lose weight. Now the vet wants him to maintain it. He was never obese but having only weighed 7kgs when he was rescued he did develop a love affair with food.

For now Leo is comfortable and still enjoys life. Well most of the time. When he is having a bad day he is lifted onto on of our knees for more TLC. We know he is not well as he would not have allowed this years ago.

Warm weather can be as much of a problem as very cold weather for heart patients. As summer approaches in the UK Leo struggles some days.

Hubby I guess has been more inconvenienced than me. On bad days Leo may want to urinate 3 or 4 times a night. As Hubby works different shift patterns to me he will jump up in the middle of the nights. 2am, 3am, 4am, 4.40 and 6am have been known to be necessary in one night. Suffice to say Hubby looks the worse for wear the next day.

What a great little dog though that tries to let us know he needs to pee. He has to trot upstairs as he prefers sleeping downstairs these days. We often hear him coughing as he comes upstairs. This is no mean feat for Leo. Occasionally he has an accident and cannot wait to pee but come on.

Between us we make sure that Leo has the medication he needs which is given three times a day in total. It is a good job we work part time these days, although full time money would help.

All we can hope now is that we do not let Leo down in the end. He may ultimately just slip away but, if not, we must make the right choice in the end.

Footnote-Updated photos at the right. Those dogs were hard to catch on camera.