What is congestive heart failure?
The heart normally functions as a pump that pushes blood around your dog’s body. The blood supplies your dog’s body with oxygen. With congestive heart failure, the pump function does not work correctly. As a result, the blood is unable to supply the body’s tissues with enough oxygen and the blood can end up “pooling” or accumulating in organs in your dog’s body such as the lungs, chest cavity or abdominal cavity. Congestive heart failure can take place on one side of your dog’s heart or on both sides.

What will congestive heart failure look like in my dog?
Symptoms include decreased energy, weakness, difficulty breathing, coughing, a crackling sound when breathing (if fluid has accumulated in the lungs or chest cavity), or a distended abdomen.

How does my dog get congestive heart failure?
Congestive heart failure is caused by an underlying disease or a condition – either something your dog is born with such as a hereditary defect or a condition acquired later in life – that impacts the heart’s ability to function correctly. Examples of underlying diseases and conditions that may cause congestive heart failure include cardiomyopathy, heartworm, and heart valve problems.  

Although any dog may get congestive heart failure, giant-sized dogs appear to have a predisposition to developing congestive heart failure due to cardiomyopathy.

How is congestive heart failure diagnosed?
Your vet will first consider the symptoms you have described and listen to your dog’s heart and chest with a stethoscope. Then your vet will need to get a clearer picture of how the heart is working to confirm the diagnosis of congestive heart failure and also to look for the underlying cause. To do this your vet will likely need to perform some or most of the following: a check of your dog’s blood pressure; blood testing, a chest x-ray; an ultrasound of your dog’s heart.