Ronald Has Heart Failure

Hello again, readers,

In Today's post we will be discussing Ronald's semi-recent diagnosis of heart failure and how we noticed Ronald's symptoms. We will briefly mention about the medications we are using and scrape the surface as to why they can help with some of the symptoms of heart failure. As always, we will break the post down into clearly labelled sections so you can pick and choose the bits you'd prefer to read.

Although we will be discussing medical topics (in basic terms) this information should not be substituted instead of medical advice from a qualified veterinarian if your pet is ill.

How the diagnosis came about:

To set the scene, we'd very recently lost a gerbil - Bradley - making Brandon friendless. We knew Brandon would be very lonely without his life-long cage mate and sibling by his side. We thought we had the perfect fix for Brandon - Ronald.

Ronald is a 3-4 year old gerbil with a significant disability; he's missing a limb. Finding a suitable and long-term friend for Ronald has been very difficult. Ronald is very easy to push around given his disability, and with Ronald's extremely placid nature, he often lets himself get picked on until he becomes miserable.

We knew Brandon could be a total softie so long as he gets to be 'top dog' - or top gerbil in this case. We decided with Ronald being submissive, Brandon being a gentle leader, both gerbils being elder males, they'd be perfect for each other.

Bonding them was going brilliantly, there was no signs of aggression or any unusual amounts of stress. Inevitably with bonding any animal, some stress will be caused and is simply unavoidable. We often find gerbil-bonding to be some of the more difficult introductions, but as always, it depends entirely on the situation and the nature of the animals you wish to bond.

Within a few days, Ronald had began showing some signs of severe respiratory distress and lethargy - it was becoming increasing worse but came in flares. We decided it would be appropriate to call off the introductions.

Unfortunately, even when separated, Ronald continued to have these episodes. We decided to speak to the vet. 

Medical Intervention:

We showed the vet two videos taken within 20 minutes of each other: one showed Ronald with labored breathing, but still responsive. The other showed Ronald limp, lethargic, borderline unresponsive, cold, and with heavy inaudible respiration.

We will enclose the video footage - DISTRESSING CONTENT!

Video one showing less severe respiration difficulties

Video two showing severe respiration distress - 20 minutes after video one

Given the videos, symptoms described, and Ronald's age, the vet believed that the signs were pointing towards heart failure. Ronald was introduced to Frusemide/Furosemide (diuretic) to help alleviate some of the fluid which would've been in Ronald's lungs. We would get an idea pretty quickly if the drug worked or not. Luckily, Ronald perked up within a matter of days and had only 1 severe flare up. Given that the medication gave Ronald a great deal of relief, he will have to continue with the drug indefinitely. It also enabled the vet to give us a confirmed diagnosis of heart failure.

Given the confirmed diagnosis of heart failure, we decided it would no longer be safe to introduce Ronald to a new friend. 

Brandon is currently attempting bonding with a gerbil named Ralph. It is also not Brandon's fault that Ronald suddenly became ill.

Video footage after approximately 1 week of Furosemide (apologies for the noise of nebulisation therapy for a separate resident in the background)

Using Diuretics with HF:

Firstly, Furosemide is a type of diuretic known as a 'loop diuretic' and largely speaking, they work by releasing fluid from the body - it is to be expected that fluid intake will increase whilst using the medicine. 

Heart Failure (HF) is a condition which doesn't allow the heart to pump effectively or fill normally. Our vet described the heart and blood vessels as a sort of closed plumbing system which sends blood around the body in a singular direction. When the heart can't pump as efficiently, there then becomes a back-log of fluid that builds up. When there is blood simply sitting there, the body then believes it needs to reduce the volume of blood and begins leaking fluid into wherever - usually the lungs or abdomen. This build up of fluid can then cause breathing difficulties and/or a swollen belly.

The diuretic (in Ronald's case we used Frusemide) then counteract the body's mechanism by draining that fluid and sucks fluid from the blood and is then passed to the kidneys and released via urine. Unfortunately, there is no cure for heart failure but with lifestyle amendments (controlling diabetes and other chronic conditions, losing excess weight, staying as active as possible, healthy foods) and medications, the condition can be helped. Though typically it does get worse with age.

Ronald is currently managing his condition well. It is clear that Ronald has become fairly unwell, but we are still confident that he is able to live a great life despite all that he is dealing with. 

We would like to thank our incredible vet, Sarah Bruce, for expertly dealing with Ronald and for the informative insight about HF and how it has impacted Ronald.

You can keep up with Ronald on our Instagram.