Vets may prescribe Semintra to help your cat with hypertension (high blood pressure), or to reduce proteinuria (protein in the urine), particularly in cats with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). 

There is a strong link between cats suffering hypertension and chronic kidney disease. Up to 74% of cats with hypertension also have CKD, and up to 65% of cats diagnosed with chronic kidney disease also have hypertension.

Hypertension

When your cat’s heart pumps blood through the arteries, the blood puts pressure on the artery walls.  High blood pressure (hypertension) means that the long-term force of the blood against the artery walls may cause health problems.  It is a complex disease, and is difficult to diagnose.  The risk is that vital organs like the kidneys, eyes, brain and heart can be damaged by hypertension, and if left untreated, it can lead to shortened life expectancy or death. 20% of cats over 7 years old suffer some level of high blood pressure.  

Chronic Kidney Disease

Firstly - there are two different medicines, called Fortektor and Fortektor Plus.  These are not the same drug.  If you want information on Fortekor, click here!

Vets may prescribe Fortekor Plus if your dog has congestive heart failure (CHF).  

Heart disease in dogs 

Vets say that about 10% of all dogs have heart disease.  

There are a lot of things that can cause congestive heart failure, or heart disease, including:

• a heart valve infection (called endocardiosis) which may have resulted from blood infection or periodontal disease, 
• a cardiac muscle disease (eg. dilated cardiomyopathy)
• .an increase in the thickness of the muscular wall of the heart (called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy). This reduces the volume of blood within the heart and also prevents the heart muscle relaxing properly between contractions.

Heart failure means that the dog’s heart is not able to pump enough blood around the dog’s body.  This can lead to exercise intolerance, difficulty breathing and fluid

Firstly - there are two different medicines, called Fortekor and Fortekor Plus.  These are not the same drug.  If you want information on Fortekor Plus, click here!

Vets may prescribe Fortekor for two very different diseases.  It may be prescribed if:

• your pet has heart disease - Fortekor is used for: 
• dogs with congestive heart failure (CHF), caused by either mitral regurgitation (endocardiosis)  or dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), or 
• Cats, with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) 
• your cat or dog has chronic kidney disease.

Heart disease in dogs and cats

About 10% of all dogs, and about 15% of all cats have heart disease.  

Possible causes of heart diseases can be:

• a heart valve infection (called endocardiosis) which may have resulted from blood infection or periodontal disease, 
• a cardiac muscle disease (eg. dilated cardiomyopathy)
• .an increase in the thickness of the muscular wall of the heart (called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy). This reduces the volume of blood within the

Vetmedin is prescribed by vets to treat dogs with heart diseases.  Vetmedin is used for congestive heart failure (CHF) caused by two types of heart disease:

• Mitral valve disease (MVD)
• Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM)

Heart disease in dogs

Research shows that heart disease affects 10% of all dogs.  Heart diseases can be caused by a valve defect (eg. mitral valve disease) or a cardiac muscle disease (eg. dilated cardiomyopathy) or through a parasite like heartworm.  

Heart failure in a dog isn’t the same as a heart attack in humans.  It means that the dog’s heart is not able to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs.  The symptoms increase as the heart’s performance declines.

There’s lots of information about heart disease in dogs at this website, by the manufacturers of Vetmedin, including a canine respiratory app, for you to use to monitor your dog’s heart.

Managing my dog’s heart disease

Finding out that your dog has a heart disease is very upsetting for many owners, but

Caninsulin is prescribed for pets that are diagnosed as diabetic, or suffering diabetes mellitus.

What is diabetes?

Diabetes mellitus (commonly called diabetes) is a disease caused by the body producing a deficiency of insulin. Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas, which regulates the amount of glucose in the blood. Using insulin, the body is able to use glucose for energy.  Insulin also helps balance blood glucose levels. 

When the body either produces no insulin, or not enough insulin, diabetes occurs. Humans and pets get diabetes! 

It is estimated that 1 in 500 dogs suffer from the signs of diabetes mellitus

Diabetes - better managed, better outcomes

Because of improvements in veterinary science, vets are better able to identify, understand and treat diabetes in pets, including diabetic dogs and diabetic cats. Feline and Canine diabetes can be managed successfully with the correct diagnosis and treatment, which includes insulin therapy using drugs like Caninsulin (called

 Propalin syrup is prescribed for dogs (and very occasionally, cats) that suffer urinary incontinence.

What is urinary incontinence?

Urinary incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine. It is quite common in middle-aged and older spayed female dogs, but it can be seen in intact females and males.  In many cases, the first you’ll know about it is a small wet patch on the dog’s bed at night - if untreated, the amount of urine can increase, and can even lead to urine scalding your pet’s skin.  It’s also unhygienic and smelly - this makes pets and humans unhappy!

Incontinence isn’t naughtiness, or inappropriate weeing - an incontinent dog will be completely unaware that they are passing urine.  

Whilst there can be other causes (like bladder infections), incontinence is often caused by “sphincter mechanism incompetence”.  SMI means that the muscle at the neck of the bladder is weak - when an animal lies down or changes position, urine flows into the neck of the bladder and if the

CPR or Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in pets is an emergency technique used when your pet has stopped breathing and they have no heartbeat. It involves rescue breathing or mouth-to-snout resuscitation and chest compressions.

Seeing your dog in a life-threatening situation can be a terrifying and stressful experience, especially if your dog is unresponsive. Arming yourself with the knowledge to effectively recognize and take action to treat your dog’s condition can help to keep you calm and greatly increase your dog’s chance of survival.

The two life-saving procedures you need to know are artificial respiration and CPR for dogs. This article will outline how to identify whether your dog needs CPR and how to perform those procedures.

1. Check For a Pulse and Breathing

 Use your middle finger to find a pulse in one of the following locations:

• Below Wrist
• Inner Thigh 
• Below Ankle or 
• Where the elbow touches the chest

2. Check for Other Warning Signs

• Do Gums and lips appear white/gray