Teddy Stewart

Teddy Stewart, that makes me chuckle when I see my dogs named written out like that. My vet doesn't do it, but the specialist veterinary hospital where Teddy went to see the cardiologist does.

We got the report from the cardiologist last week. I had to call back to get the low sodium food list. The cardiologist said it was a grade 3 heart murmur but the report says grade 3-4. The cardiologist did say Teddy could be stable for quite some time before heart failure. Even after he has heart failure, he could have a good quality of life for 6 to 18 months with additional medications.

They added another medication and increased the dosage of the other two that Teddy was already taking. Teddy is now on 5 pills a day; he does seem more active and there's definitely less coughing. I'll also be changing his food to one lower in sodium.

The list the hospital gave me had a large selection of low sodium food choices but the majority had chicken as the protein and Teddy is allergic or at least sensitive to chicken. Of the non prescription diets, all except for Royal Canin, were American. Teddy and Liam are currently on Acana Pacifica so I messaged Acana to see what the sodium levels were in their diets.

Acana Customer Support sent me back a list of their diets without chicken with their sodium levels. It is recommended that his diet be 90mg per 100kcal or less of sodium. Acana Pacifica is well over that but two diets: Pork with Squash and Red Meat with Healthy Grains are under that, at 68 mg and 71 mg respectively. I'll be changing Teddy over to the Acana Red Meat option to get the grains into his diet as well. 

Teddy's heart condition is the first time I've made claims where the deductible has been paid and I've gotten money from the insurance company. The deductible was paid just with the first visit to my vet to diagnose the condition with all the blood work and x-rays, so when we went to the specialist, the cost of the actual echocardiogram was covered. Now any additional tests and medications will be covered. The medications cost over $500 for two months so the insurance covers about $400 of that. While I could cover the medications, it's nice not to have that big bill every couple months. In a little over a week, Teddy will have some other blood work and it's recommended that he have another echocardiogram in 4 to 6 months. A friend said you never really want to win the insurance game but it is is nice not to have  to worry about making these decisions when there could be large expenses involved.  

Teddy Stewart is doing fine right now. He's more active on walks and plays more with Liam. A number of friends have told me their dogs with heart murmurs did well for years on medications. Hopefully, I'll get to take him to play in the ocean this summer and even in summers to come.

Got to have Heart!

 

At Teddy's last visit to the vet before Christmas, our vet noted that he had a heart murmur and said there were tests that could be done to see if medication would help.  Well, since that visit Teddy's been coughing a lot when he plays with Liam, when he tries to roll over on his back and lately even just getting up after laying down for awhile. I made a visit for Teddy this past week and had those tests done. Sure enough, Teddy has an enlarged heart that the vet thinks is due to a leaky heart valve.

So Teddy has started on heart medication and we have an appointment to see a veterinary cardiologist for an echocardiogram to see what is really going on. I'm only going forward with the specialist consult as I have insurance on Teddy and the deductible was covered with the bloodwork and x-rays with our regular vet. I'll have to pay for appointment fee with the specialist but 90% of the echocardiogram will be covered.

I don't want to do the math to see whether or not I'm ahead of the insurance game. I never had insurance with my first few dogs. But then when Ceilidh got cancer and shortly afterwards Tucker had pancreatitis and also possibly Cushings, there were times when the vet bills would take one whole pay cheque, and let me tell you I made decent money when I was working. So I put insurance on Beckett and Keltic but Beckett's passing was so sudden I never even put in a claim for him and with Keltic, even though we had a diagnosis, he too went so quickly so that even though I'd put in a claim the deductible hadn't been paid.

The deductible for the interdigital cysts that Teddy has, still hasn't been fully paid but the claim is open and once I've fully paid that deductible, that condition will be covered as well. I'm hoping that it's never necessary but if the toe had to be amputated, I wouldn't have to worry if I could afford the surgery.  I guess that's the good thing about insurance is that you can make those decisions without worrying about where the money is coming from.

For Teddy, the insurance is now covering 90% of the cardiac medication. If that's all we do going forward, it's nice that those meds will only cost me about $40 a month rather than over $200 a month. He's only been on the medication for a couple days and I notice he's a bit more active.

Teddy has heart and let's hope with medication it keeps right on beating.