Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / January 2006

neutered, vaccinated and tested for heartworm.  BUT from the condition he
came to us

.........which might be why he has a heart murmur.  I'm not saying you can
turn this around with supplements, or that there's proof that it helps heart
murmurs, but it can't hurt, might help.  At the very least supplementation
provides the dog with the essentials to make a healthy heart.  Both taurine
and carnitine are only found in meat (also dairy for carnitine); some B
vitamins are necessary for the body to produce CoQ10 and taurine; Vit C
might be necessary to make taurine, so if this dog was on the short end of
the stick where food was concerned and is still growing, then perhaps good
grub may make a difference.  They are starting to consider taurine to be a
conditionally essential amino acid for dogs.

........This is the major site that talks about the use of supplements, but
unfortunately it's under construction for a new look and there's nothing
there right this minute, though perhaps Google cache might have something:
http://www.vetheart.com/index.html

Certainly there are some cases where supplementation of the amino acids
carnitine and taurine improve heart function (in this case it's a genetic
disorder):
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_ui
ds=9298474&dopt=Citation

....This review article will cost you 5 bucks for a 2 day access, but might
be worth it (better than the 25 bucks some other journals charge!):
Nutritional and Herbal Therapies in the Treatment of Heart Disease in Cats
and Dogs
Gompf J Am Anim Hosp Assoc.2005; 41: 355-367.
http://www.jaaha.org/cgi/content/full/41/6/355

Dr. Clemmons site on vitamins - don't think the aimno acids are listed, but
many supplements are:
http://neuro.vetmed.ufl.edu/Alt_med/Library/Advisor/vitamin.html

Suggestions for supplementation of amino acids, fish oil, plus lots of
links:
http://www.dogaware.com/specific.html#heart

......From Complementary & Alternative Vet Med, Eds., Schoen and Wynn:
Ch 4, Robert Kendall
Suggestions for heart disease (dilated cardiomyopathy, congestive heart
failure, myocarditis) in dogs (ranges are for daily use - smallest to
largest dog):
Vit C 500-6,000 mg
Vit E 50-400 IU
CoQ10 20-100 mg
L-Carnitine 500-1000 mg
Taurine 100-1000 mg
Selenium 5-50 micrograms
Fish oil 250-1000 mg
Dimethylglycine 50-250 mg

........On the other hand if you want to focus on food, I'd add a small can
of sardines to this dog's food a few times a week, give an egg daily (can't
beat the nutritional value of egg plus it's a great source of B vitamins,
which are used in everywhere in the body), and some heart meat (raw) 3 or 4
times a week.  Taurine is destroyed (or made unavilable) by heat, so if
you're nervous about adding raw meat to your dog's diet, then use
supplements for taurine, L-carnitine.  If you supplement with fish oil, make
sure you also supplement with Vit E to keep the fish oil from oxidizing in
the body.

Sorry to take so long to answer this - it went in my draft file when I
didn't have time to finish it, and when it's out of sight, it's out of mind!

buglady
take out the dog before replying

I think you understand perfectly.  Hopefully, you've got a veterinary
cardiologist nearby...that's the ideal situation.  I've done lots of
echocardiograms, but especially with younger dogs, I refer to the
cardiologist because the potential problems can be very subtle and
difficult to diagnose by a general practitioner.  I'm glad your dog's
cardiac function seems good.  I'd say 98% of dogs veterinarians diagnose
with a heart murmur are in your dog's situation - they're feeling fine,
have no outward signs and aren't in heart failure.  The good news is
that this is the time to diagnose him, not when he's going downhill.

I can't comment on the supplements.  L-carnitine may be useful in some
cardiac diseases, but not necessarily across the board.  The same goes
with CoQ10.  Fish oil's pretty harmless and may be of benefit.  I don't
know of any published studies looking at the efficacy of these
supplements in dogs with heart disease, so most of the info is anecdotal.

Sandy Christmus, DVM