The last week has been intense. I don’t have anywhere else to have a longer format update on what’s going on, so here seemed like the best choice.

On August 3 and 4, Luna, my nearly 10 year old Staffordshire mutt (who looks like Petey from the Little Rascals) collapsed on walks. She was completely unresponsive. After the second episode, I loaded her up into the car, and brought her to Veg Emergency Vet. She recovered on the car ride, and was her normal happy self once we arrived. Their team, who I am so grateful for, did an ultrasound on her heart, and ran a few other tests.

As she does any time I take her somewhere, she made friends with everyone. There was another dog there recovering from surgery, and she wanted to say hi to her and her humans so badly. Both of these things lead to her almost fainting two additional times. Thankfully, the team was ready, and they were able to get some better scans of her heart, and they were able to identify some of the issues. We were referred to an animal cardiologist so we can get more information and a treatment plan together.

So today, we went to the cardiologist. It’s thankfully only about a 15 minute drive from home, and they are actually also an emergency veterinary facility. She was so good while we were there, and they were able to do her ECG without issue. She came home with a Holter monitor that she has to wear for 24 hours to get even more data. What it’s looking like is cardiomyopathy as well as a grade 3 heart murmur. Neither of these were observed at her annual checkup back in April. Once I return the monitor tomorrow, and they go over the data, I will get more details about the diagnosis.

In the meantime, she has continued on the human beta blockers she started after visiting Veg, and the cardiologist also prescribed Vetmedin, which is a dog-specific heart medication. I got those filled today, and she will be starting on the latter tomorrow after work, so I can keep an eye on her, as there can be some crappy side effects when first starting it. I plan on adding some pumpkin to her diet to help mitigate this potential issue. I’ve started her on salmon oil, and the vet was happy to hear this. I am also changing my personal criteria for the kibble and treats I will feed her. The treats are going to be focused on single ingredients, and be things like fish (for the omegas) and organ meats. She had her spleen removed in 2023, and whenever I can find spleen treats, I get them for her. I will add heart treats to the rotation as well. For the kibble, I am aiming for fish as the main protein, zero peas/chickpeas/lentils, and close to zero corn. Corn based ingredients are sometimes hard to avoid, and I am taking an approach of “as close to perfect as possible” so I don’t drive myself nuts trying to find the absolute best of the best every time I get food for her.

If you’ve read all of this, I am grateful. She is my baby dog even though she is going to be 10 in November. I love her so much. I recently had to ask for help to get the new laptop I am typing this on, so I absolutely do not think that anyone needs to help me out again. But a few friends have reached out and asked what they can do. Luna has a little wishlist on Amazon. She also appreciates you sending her love. I appreciate anyone who read this far. Thank you a million times.