Katie (Northport, Ny) on 10/23/2013:

If it were me, and my dog was faced with a serious heart condition such as congestive heart failure or mild congestive heart failure (such as fluid in the lungs, a racing heart, or fluids in the abdomen), I would probably do the following:

(1) Nutrition. Give my dog the Standard Process protocol which I outlined previously so I could get the correct nutrition into him. This will help to strengthen and rebuild his heart. Once the heart gets the right nutrition, it will shrink back to its normal size.

(2) Edema. If my dog was suffering from any kind of edema, I would do what it takes to get rid of the fluid so that he could breathe easy and lay down comfortably. I would either consult with a homeopath for remedies to clear the fluids and ask for further guidance on remedies which will further help his heart's function. There are many remedies indicated for this purpose such as Crataegus Q, Lycopus, Adonis Ver and a number of others, but they really should be prescribed by a professional homeopath to be truly effective.

(3) Or, if my dog had bad edema I might just give the Lasix to him temporarily or for the short term until I could find another safer long-term alternative that works for him - or until my phytonutrients and homeopathy kick in and my dog's heart gets stronger. Note that if you're giving Lasix long term there is a huge loss of magnesium and potassium, among other nutrients. So, if you have to keep your dog on this for a while you might want to think about giving extra magnesium to offset the loss from the body. The long term use of Lasix also puts a terrible strain on the kidneys and will affect them negatively in the long term too. And if you choose not to do the Standard Process protocol (which is what I currently give to my dog), I would suggest that you research the heart protocol that Dr. Stephen Sinatra recommends to his heart patients. Not only does he recommend magnesium, ubiquinol, carnitine and ribose to his patients, but he says that they need to be taken with other vitamins to "round out" his protocol. He also recommends a good multi-vitamin.

(3) Ubiquinol. I would definately give additional ubiquinol to my dog if he had a serious heart problem. However, I would not use regular coQ10 or ubiquinone. Patients with end-stage heart failure do not absorb these standard types of CoQ10, but they do absorb the ubiquinol formulation.

(4) Ribose. I would also give my dog ribose, because it is indicated for severe heart conditions and congestive heart failure.

(5) Magnesium. I think I would also probably give with magnesium to see if it is helpful to my dog's condition.

(6) Hawthorne. If my homeopath didn't recommend the Crataegus homeopathic remedy for my dog (which is made from the hawthorne berry), I would give my dog Hawthorne (the herb) as a supplement. This is supposedly a very effective cardiac herb. You should know, however, that if you're taking digitalis and hawthorne, that your vet will likely need to lower the amount of digitalis. The reason being that the hawthorne does the work of digitalis so effectively that less digitalis is needed. If the vet isn't aware that the patient is taking hawthorne along with the digitalis, the patient might actually be overmedicated.

(6) Once the serious heart condition improves, I would slowly wean my dog off any drugs he might be on with the help of my vet. I would then take him off any of the isolated supplements mentioned above once he's ready, with the exception of any prescribed homeopathic remedies, ubiquinol, hawthorne and (of course) the SP products.