Heart Disease Dog Food and Diet

Canine heart disease can affect any dog of any breed at any stage of life. It can be hereditary, environmental, or caused by stress on the dog's body. Canine heart disease can be caused by illness or by physical condition. There are times that canine heart disease can seem to have no direct cause at all.

Heart disease is often the result of aging. Our pets are living longer due to improved veterinary care. Incidence of heart disease has kept pace with this trend. But the good new in all of this bad news is that canine heart disease is no more inevitable later in life than heart disease is in aging humans. It can be prevented, or at least its probability can be reduced, from puppyhood. An active lifestyle and lifelong maintenance of the dog's ideal weight can go a long way toward ensuring a healthy later life.

Two different forms of heart disease are common in dogs. In one form of canine heart disease, the dog's heart causes the blood to flow abnormally due to malfunction of the heart valves. In the second form, the dog's heart loses its elasticity because it has become thin and weak, making it unable to move the blood efficiently. Both of these forms of heart disease can be present at birth or can be acquired later in life.

Obesity
Obesity is a preventable cause of heart disease. Dogs that are obese or overweight are prime candidates for developing heart disease due to the stress that the weight puts upon their bodies. In addition to the stress, obese dogs often have plaque, a fatty layer of cells, that forms on the interior of the blood vessels. This plaque narrows the blood vessels, raising the dog's blood pressure, and increasing the dog's risk of heart disease. Obese dogs are also more prone to liver disease, diabetes, and pancreatitis.

Obesity is easily preventable through proper exercise and diet. Puppies should be brought up using a good diet that consists of nutritionally balanced commercial dog food and treats or on a homemade diet that has been formulated in accordance with a dietician. A dog that starts to eat a proper diet when very young may have a better chance of avoiding heart disease in the future. Dogs that are at their proper weight will have a visible waist, with a slight “tuck up” behind their ribs when viewed from the side.

Weight Loss
Heart disease can not be treated through weight loss. However, if an obese dog with heart disease loses weight then it will reduce the effort that his heart needs to make to pump the blood at a sufficient rate to meet his body's needs. Less stress will be placed on his body, ensuring that other effects of heart disease such as fainting, exercise intolerance, and an unhealthy loss of appetite may be avoided.

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