What Would Be The Best Times?

Hi, My cavalier Kaytee has a heart murmur She is on fortekor and frusemide.
At the moment she is on One and a Half 20MG frusemide aday.
I used to give her a whole tablet at 1pm and then half at 7pm, but then I realised there is a massive gap inbetween them.
So we broke the tablets into quarters and have started giving one half at 9am half at 3pm and half at 9pm so they are 6 hours apart then 12 at night.

It is a really hard one as I don't want her to need a wee when we are in bed as she will hold herself and leak if I don't wake which isn't nice for her, but at the same time her cough is worse at night and in the morning and thats then she has the 12 hours gap

Is it normal for her cough to be there in the morning really quite bad but after a few wees it seems better?? SORRY to seem so daft.

I go to bed a 12-1am can you think of a better plan or stick with it? Its just when she was having a whole one in the morning that made more sense to me to get all the fluid out that had built up in the night, Is half every time still as effective?

SORRY again and thank you xxx

Guinness is also on 20mg tablets. They started him on 2 a day - which we did at 7am and 11pm. Now we should be on another one - ideally in middle of day to spread the effects.

I think that a morning cough is almost inevitable (if your dog is going to cough at all). This is fairly common for him.

Guin is also on the Fortekor (1 a day) and Vetmedin (2 a day)
As the Fortekor was an additional prescription last time,and we had not seen any benefit from it, we let it run out as were unsure of its usefulness. Suggest that you do not let this happen, as it was not a good idea. He is back on all tablets, and doing fine.

What does you vet say? I wouldn't break up tablets unless the vet has said to do this -- the dose may then be too low to be helping her at all. This may DEFINITELY be the case if you are giving her tiny doses four times a day rather than the full dose fewer times daily. Therefore this is an urgent situation for you to clarify with your vet:

**Please check immediately with your vet on the correct dose and times as I believe it is very likely she is not going to be getting any benefit at all from small doses like this and this is a crucial medicine for her to relieve fluid in her lungs -- the worsening coughs may be directly related to her lack of a correct dose.**

It is extremely important to stick to exactly the directions given by the vet for an individual dog because each case is an individual, just as people shouldn't alter their medications based on what someone else is doing without medical approval.

When I had Leo on frusemide I gave him his vet-determined dose at least two to three hours before I was going to bed so that he'd get one last walk with plenty of time to empty his bladder before nighttime. She should *definitely* not get a dose right before bedtime unless you definitely get up and walk her an hour later. It is extremely difficult for dogs to hold their bladders when taking this medication and she could be very uncomfortable all night long and no dog, especially an ill one, should be lying in urine all night.

Dogs would have a worse cough in the morning because the fluid gathers in the lungs overnight when there's less activity.

That's right Karlin. A morning cough is to be expected as she has been lying down all night. In humans, frusamide is taken once a day in the morning. The whole dose. It has a long enough half life that the effects last all day and it means that they do not have to get up in the night. There is no need to break up the tablets. It is enough to give it once a day (or twice if that is what your vet recommends). x

Hi thank you for all your help, It was hard not to break the pills as she has to have one and a half a day, I found this hard and nearly swallowed the other half many times myself hehe!
I saw my vet recently who said she cannot hear any fluid on the chest, she said that she may not need the frusimide anymore and that the cough maybe there as the fortikor wasn't right for her, Kaytee has had a heart xray and her heart is miss shaped on the left like a "D" shape, my vet explains this could hit on her pipes and make her cough (Or something like that!) So now she is on vetmedin leaving the frusimide as they are for now, I hope we will see some improvement soon! xx