Some backstory:

Woofles is an 8 year old, 15lb mutt. We were told he was a "chihuahua poodle mix" but, really, he's just a genetic mishmash.
http://tviokh.deviantart.com/art/Gimmie-the-ball-30330649 is a picture of him if you want to take a guess at what he is besides "a dog".

About a month ago he developed a deep chested cough in the evening, and we got him in to the vet the next day.
The cough was the only thing off about him, his activity levels, energy levels and overall look were perfectly normal.

The vet heard, in his words, a "very severe" heart murmur. We had xrays done to see how bad it was; it was pretty bad, there was a lot of back flow of blood, and his heart was enlarged.

Since we caught it early, they think he should have a normal life span and after a month of Enalapril (2.5mg) his heart has gone back down to a more normal size, though it's still slightly enlarged. He'll be on Enalapril for the rest of his life.

He's been a raw, grain free, mostly whole prey (feathers on chicks, quail, mice and rabbit...occasional squirrel as well) fed dog since we got him at 8 weeks. The non-whole prey parts of his diet include organic, cage free, not from grain fed chickens eggs, occasional raw fish, raw muscle meat scraps, misc. organ meat (usually kidney or liver), raw milk/cream (I share the raw milk we buy with them on occasion) and very occasional vegetable scraps.

I'm curious as to what the people here might recommend (if anything) supplementing his diet with to try and help out with keeping his ticker in as good condition as can be managed.

Enalapril has been working very well for my dog. She's been on it for a year now and and her heart enlargement has not progressed at all. She has a great energy level and is still a pretty active 11 y/o Border Collie.

If you don't give your dog fish oil/vit e, I'd be adding that in.

Also wanted to add as an FYI that Enalapril is on the low cost drug list at Wal-Mart - I get a 3 month supply for $10.

By any chance are you considering seeing a cardiologist and are there any plans or indications for kidney value monitoring?

I'd guess some kind of terrier, possibly Jack Russell, and something like a shih tzu.

And whoever said chihuahua poodle mix doesn't know Jack......well, you know......See what I did there?

Hope the pup continues to do fine.:smile:

I don't know of any supplements that would help anymore than what you are doing. Sounds like you and the doc have a good hold on this.

 Quote: aimee pochron

By any chance are you considering seeing a cardiologist and are there any plans or indications for kidney value monitoring?

Ah, I probably should have mentioned that.

The vet (Dr. Menard @ Northside in Eau Claire) didn't think it was bad enough to need a cardiologist since we caught it in the very early stages.

As for the kidney monitoring, he went in at 30 days to be tested for that and liver function and will need to go in once every 6 months to be re-tested just to make sure it's all okay.