Do you have high blood pressure?
They do say that pets are like their owners – so could your dog have high BP problems too?
We’ve known about the risks of hypertension in humans for decades of course and the pharmaceutical industry make millions of dollars a year creating treatments. You can download diet sheets, advice about salt restriction, breathing cures, alternative remedies and a whole lot more besides. But what about your pet? What do you do for a dog with high blood pressure?
How would you even know about it if your dog had this problem?
Hypertension problems in all kinds of pets are beginning to be recognised by veterinarians. High BP in dogs is now to be found as an area of interest in many scientific journals. Dogs seem to be more prone to this than other animals but one of the difficulties is that it’s not clearly established what the normal levels might be for different breeds.
Vet hospitals will now make a BP check a routine part of an examination but local town or small village vet practices probably won’t.
If your pet has a serious heart or kidney or endocrine problem then a check can help the specialist work out what’s happening and what treatment might be needed. Undiagnosed hypertension in an animal seems to carry the same kind of risks that it does in humans – stroke, heart disease and sudden partial loss of vision or blindness.
Even the signs of low blood pressure can be seen in a dog. Loss of blood or anemia, diabetes and other endocrine conditions can all trigger a drop in your animals BP level.
One of the problems is that it really isn’t all that easy to check a dog’s blood pressure – most readings are obtained when the animal is under sedation while having a treatment or an operation and these times and readings may not properly reflect the true readings.
At the moment most pets will never have had their BP level checked but things are starting to move in a new direction. Blood pressure medications for animals are starting to be produced and vet scientists are starting studies to see if treatment alters the long term prospects for your pet.
In the meantime – keep you dog healthy: regular walks and a healthy low fat, low salt diet. These things work for human blood pressure too of course. As they say – pets are like their owners!
Gordon Cameron is a physician in Edinburgh Scotland. He has a special interest in high blood pressure and in the assessment of low blood pressure too. He also has two dogs, a guinea pig, several gold fish and a stick insect!
