Pulmonary edema (or accumulation of water in the lungs) is primarily caused by a "left" heart problem. There is also edema due to increased vessel permeability The main symptoms are cough (often absent in the cat) and dyspnea (difficulty breathing). The best examination to confirm the presence of edema is X-ray. Often its appearance is sudden and requires urgent treatment and extremely aggressive (venous, hospitalization, oxygen). Once the crisis has passed, it is imperative to treat the cause in order to limit recurrences. The prognosis depends on the stage of the underlying disease.
In fact, gas exchanges can no longer take place in its lung (since it is filled with water), its tongue and its mucous membranes quickly to color you in blue-black, proof that its blood is no longer oxygenated. You understand the importance of oxygen therapy: the dog is breathing 100% oxygen, to better oxygenate his blood.If you own a cardiac dog, it may be interesting to have this kind of system Home, indeed, oxygenating your dog early in the edema crisis can save his life. Many heart problems cause problems with hypertension, and it is this hypertension that causes edema. In the dog, the most common heart problems are valvular disorders: between the atrium and the ventricle there is a valve, a small valve, whose purpose is to prevent the return of blood to the atrium when the ventricle contracts . However, with age, this valve may no longer work properly, so the blood goes up into the atrium during each contraction of the ventricle, so there is bottlenecking, and this bottlenecking causes hypertension. When the blood pressure becomes too high (hydrostatic pressure), the abused vessels tend to let the acqueous part of the blood escape. The vessels behave like porous tubes: if the volume of blood is increased, the water contained in this blood "oozes" and leaves the vessels. |
