Yes, sure. Although the numbers may be just as important. (left ventricular ejection fraction) and whether they are within the reference range.
I'm a bit sceptical about the vetmedin to be honest.
Frusemide costs about 3p (ballpark figure, for humans), whereas Vetmedin is a patented combination drug (these tend to be v v expensive IME). Is the company giving the vet incentives to prescribe this?
Also it seems to be a combination of a vasodilator (and we have lots of other vasodilator drugs, in humans at least, which all seem about as good as each other) and a positive inotrope. My knowledge is a bit out of date, but IIRC positive inotropes have been pretty disastrous in the treatment of human heart failure - helpful in the short term (hours/days), like we used to give them on ITU when we couldn't get the BP up any other way, but not helpful when given for weeks or more. Some did more harm than good. Now I realise dogs are different from humans but.... not THAT different.
So see if you can get your vet to give you the references to relevant published research, preferably not by the manufacturers, and preferably a head to head comparison with the "next best thing" or "standard treatment". Same for any other drug he might suggest. Then read the research to see if you are convinced.
If there's no good evidence behind his recommendation, I'd be cautious about giving drugs to an otherwise well dog.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2010-02-04 01:09 pm (UTC)I'm a bit sceptical about the vetmedin to be honest.
Frusemide costs about 3p (ballpark figure, for humans), whereas Vetmedin is a patented combination drug (these tend to be v v expensive IME). Is the company giving the vet incentives to prescribe this?
Also it seems to be a combination of a vasodilator (and we have lots of other vasodilator drugs, in humans at least, which all seem about as good as each other) and a positive inotrope. My knowledge is a bit out of date, but IIRC positive inotropes have been pretty disastrous in the treatment of human heart failure - helpful in the short term (hours/days), like we used to give them on ITU when we couldn't get the BP up any other way, but not helpful when given for weeks or more. Some did more harm than good. Now I realise dogs are different from humans but.... not THAT different.
So see if you can get your vet to give you the references to relevant published research, preferably not by the manufacturers, and preferably a head to head comparison with the "next best thing" or "standard treatment". Same for any other drug he might suggest. Then read the research to see if you are convinced.
If there's no good evidence behind his recommendation, I'd be cautious about giving drugs to an otherwise well dog.