High blood pressure is leading to hypertension. Similar to humans, dogs can also experience hypertension. What causes them to have hypertension as they don’t have problems just like humans do?
So far, the primary cause of hypertension in dogs is still unknown and not discovered yet, but there are some secondary causes, such as kidney disease, diabetes mellitus, renal disease, hyperthyroidism or adrenal gland disease.
Genetic is also one of the factors causing hypertension. The breeding dogs with hypertension will be likely to transfer the genes to the offspring. Surprisingly, the risk of getting hypertension is getting higher when the dog is aging.
The older they are, the more risk they have to get hypertension. Besides, overweight or obesity is also one of the suspects of hypertension in dogs. You can spend time reading the harmful effects of obesity in your pets.
How do You Measure the Blood Pressure of a Dog?
The answer is it is using the same manner as humans. There will be an inflatable cuff placed on the dog’s tail or paw and the standard blood pressure measuring instrument is working to check the pressure.
Here are the standards of dog blood pressure:
- 150/95 – there is minimal risk of hypertension, and no treatment is recommended.
- 150/99 to 159/95 – this reading suggests no intervention is recommended.
- 160/119 to 179/100 – this reading suggests your dog to get treatment to prevent the risk of organ damage.
- 180/120 – your dog should get immediate treatment to prevent the degree of other severe complications.
For measuring the dog’s blood pressure, it will take 5 to 7 times, to ensure that the measurement is valid.
Symptoms of Hypertension in Dogs
Fortunately, hypertension in dogs has some symptoms that you can observe. Once you notice one or more of these symptoms, consult immediately with your vet. Remember, the earlier you notice the symptoms, the better prevention of organ damage you can do to your dog.
Symptoms of hypertension in dogs:
There are three main groups of symptoms that your dog is suffering from hypertension:
- Ophthalmologic Changes
Ophthalmologic changes is related to the effect of hypertension to your dog’s eyes. Check if there is any dilated pupil, involuntary rolling movement of the eyeballs, or the worst is sign of blindness. Moreover, high blood pressure or hypertension can cause intraocular bleeding and detached retina.
Read symptoms and cause of hyperlipidemia in dogs as its symptoms are also related to eyes area, such as retina and cornea.
- Renal Issues
This symptoms are related to the presence of protein and blood in your dog’s urine. Kidney failure is the cause. Check if your dog is drinking or urinating more frequently, or vomiting and also showing lethargy.
- Cardiac Symptoms
These symptoms are related to the coordination or movement of your dog. Watch if your dog is starting to get weakened, either on one side of the body or the legs part.
Heart murmur and congestive heart failure can be the effect of untreated high blood pressure in dogs. Your dog will likely to have difficulty in breathing and coughing more often. Coughing can also be one of the signs of pneumonia in dogs.
- Other Symptoms
- Bleeding in the nose and nasal passages (nosebleed)
- Some nervous system signs, such as depression, head tilt, and seizures. See the ways of how to care about your dog seizure 2.
After looking at the symptoms, it is expected that you can be more aware of your dog. Once you notice the symptoms, you can decide the best solution or treatment for your dog.
Treatment
The types of treatment of hypertension in dogs depend on the underlying causes. If your dog suffers from a serious complication related to its hypertension, then being hospitalized is the best choice. Complication can be acute kidney failure, bleeding in the eyes, and other that need to be managed seriously by the professionals in the hospital.
However, if the case of hypertension in your dogs is not that severe, you can try controlling the causes. One of the treatment of the causes is by reducing the sodium intake in your dog’s food.
As hypertension can also be caused by other diseases, then some treatment will be dedicated to those diseases first. Once you treat the diseases well, then you can control the dog’s blood pressure.
Some well-known treatment for hypertension in dogs are calcium channel blockers, vessel dilators and ACE inhibitors. These kinds of treatment can be consulted with your vet.
Hypertension in dogs cannot be taken easily. You need to be aware of the symptoms to prevent further damage on your dogs’ organ. Hopefully, after getting to know better about hypertension in dogs, more cases of it can be solved well.
One of the causes of hypertension is diabetes. If you experience to have a diabetic dog, you can also find some ways of how to manage diet for your diabetic dog.