Chihuahua with Heart Murmer and Arthritis

Question
Male Chihuahua 8 yrs old 6Lbs.  Moans when breathing at times and wines a little at times.  Vet says he has a heart murmer and arthritis. Says it may or may not get worse. Gave him Prvicox to take for two weeks for the arthritis pain.

Diet- Natural Balance reduced calorie formula less than 1/2 scoup 6am and 4:30pm. Snack - Dogswell Mellow Mutt chicken treat or mashed organic egg at around 11am and 8pm.  Usually he gets a small piece of celery with the outer stringy fibers stripped off before bed or about an hour after his last treat.

When outside he likes to eat the sourgrass with the arrow shaped leafs and grass and wild strawberries when he finds them in early summer.    

He was alergic to wheat when he was a pup and we finally figured it out. He threw up every day until we got the wheat free dog food.
He has sugar drops and can't go for long periods without eating.

He has a litter box so he can go any time he likes.  We try to get him half hour to 40 min out a day.  He and his companion Myra get to run around in a big field off leash. Being warm weather dogs they don't usually get out in Dec- middle of may.  He has been slightly overweight in the winter but I stopped that a few yrs ago.

They get frontline once a mo 9 mo a yr.  They get heart worm meds ery mo.

Answer
Ok, we've got a lot of things to cover here so stick with me. First of all, the food that you are feeding him (Natural Balance) is high in carbs which is not good for a dog with sugar problems. I always prefer a raw diet for all dogs but yours in particular could very much benefit in several ways from switching to such a diet. The Mellow Mutt treats have excellent ingredients! Don't drop that one. Have you ever tried feeding the egg raw? I usually throw an egg and some of the shell into whatever dinner happens to be for that day. Cooked eggs are second best though. I also make treats by drying heart or liver in a dehydrator or a low oven.

I usually recommend feeding just once a day but with the insulin problems you are right to go for more. To help the heart murmur there are two things you can do. First is to feed raw heart to your dog. Beef, pig, chicken, doesn't matter. The raw heart helps with the murmur. The second thing that will help is giving the dog 20mg CoQ10 every day. I know this because I just lost a dog to a heart problem and he amazed the vet how long he survived with his bad heart. His quality of life was good too, and he was a happy dog till the last day of his life.

Now, heart murmurs sometimes come from vaccine damage. With the murmur and his other problems he should qualify for an exemption to the rabies vaccine. I'd stop all vaccines for life. There has never really been a reason to give those shots over and over every year. Once a dog has antibodies to something they are there for life.

To help with the arthritis I'd try massage, especially Reiki massage. I think the exercise you are giving is right for the situation. You can help him out by putting in ramps or small stairs so he doesn't have to jump so high to get in his favorite spots. And put him on a supplement of glucosamine, chondroiton and MSM which you can get anywhere they sell vitamins. This will help his joints. So will feeding chicken feet or necks.

One huge advantage of feeding raw is that your dog is better able to deal with fleas, heart worms and intestinal worms. I'm in Florida and don't give heart worm preventative at all. On the slight chance one of my dogs actually got them I knew there are holistic methods for treatment that are much less harmful than the standard vet treatment. If you really feel the need to use heart worm preventatives switch to a 6 week schedule instead of every four weeks and only when there are mosquitoes outside in the summer. It's not a preventative anyway. It actually poisons the blood of your dog so that baby heart worms die.

Frontline is dangerous for dogs and I've found a few ways to prevent fleas that doesn't use harsh chemicals. Diatomaceous Earth can be put on the dog, put in the yard, in your carpet, in the dog bed, anywhere at all. It's also given internally for intestinal worms. Neem oil is also effective. Spraying your dog with a lavendar based spray will act as a deterrent. Use it right before those exercise times so they don't bring them home. Look into nematodes for the yard as well.

What all this does is rids the diet of it's problems so that your dog can heal. No chemicals on or in him, a species appropriate diet and help with the problems he already has will prevent other problems in the future and help with his current state.

If you'd like some links about raw feeding, the problems with vaccines or anything else I've mentioned please ask and I will see that you get them. I will include a couple here for now.

http://www.rawfed.com/myths/
http://www.rawlearning.com/rawfaq.html
http://www.petsynergy.com/fleaskin.html
http://www.fetchdog.com/learn-connect/dog-resource-library/health/supplements/Co...

And please feel free to ask me more questions as well as staying in touch so I know how you are doing.