Treatment

When caring for a pet with heart or kidney disease, it’s important to have realistic expectations about what can be achieved. The fact is that any damage to the heart or kidneys is usually irreversible. However, appropriate support and treatment can both restore and maintain the quality of life of affected pets, and prolong life by slowing down the progression of the disease. In many cases, the long-term prognosis is relatively good.

The  management of heart failure and kidney disease is highly complex, due to the many different signs and complications that can affect individual patients, each of which may require a different treatment or therapy. Here you can find outlines of the main treatments in use today.

Because every case of heart disease and kidney disease is unique, treatment has to be tailored to each individual patient, so the decision as to which treatment (or, more commonly, combination of treatments) is appropriate for your pet can only be made by your vet. This information is therefore provided to give you a better understanding of any treatment that may have been recommended.

There is also a useful section on how to give medication, and why it’s vital to ensure your pet receives its treatment in exactly the way your vet has prescribed – this is known as compliance.