Any veterinarians? I need someone to please explain how my 8yr/o Doberman died of congestive heart failure. Can someone help me understand?

I'm not a vet, but that's the number one cause of Doberman deaths. They are prone to a condition called cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle, causing their hearts to weaken, making it difficult to pump blood, which can cause various symptoms, like coughing, lethargy, breathing problems, etc., and then they progress into having congestive heart failure, and their heart will just stop pumping and if that happens, then they will die. Scientists have found a genetic mutation in Doberman genes that is one of the believed causes, which is more common in Doberman's than most other dog breeds. They believe the mutation makes their heart muscle cells to have a reduced capacity to contract adequately so wind up with cardiomyopathy, which will most inevitably progress to congestive heart failure, and there is likely not much you could have done to prevent this. Even if you could have possibly prolonged their life through diet or exercise (which won't likely do much for a dilated heart) or spent a ton of money on your dog to have open heart surgery, which I have no idea how much it would cost, but likely over 20k; since cardiomyopathy is a progressive disease, not sure how long it would prolong their life, or what kind of quality of life they would have.

It seems many bigger dog breeds have heart problems, and do not live too long. However, the reasons aren't the same across the board. For example, Great Danes and Irish Wolfhounds are also inflicted with this condition but not sure if due to a heart defect in a gene mutation or more due to their large size. In fact, on Dogs 101, they said don't get too attached to Great Dane or Irish Wolfhound breeds, since they usually don't live older than around 8 years for the same reason. And I guess in addition to being prone to the cardiomyopathy, their larger size makes the disease progress more rapidly, since big dogs have to have strong hearts to pump their blood through their long legs. So in those breeds, the cardiomyopathy could have been caused by their size, and then also because of their size, they go downhill faster because of it as well.

In any case, I am very sorry for your loss. Very smart and loyal dogs. Great companions. My aunt had a Doberman that died of the same thing, and he wasn't ten years old either, maybe was right around your dog's age. Beautiful sweet dog, and always got compliments. He was very big too, larger than other Doberman's I've met. He was like a pony, or seemed like it, since I was pretty young when she had him. But I wouldn't be too surprised if his larger size, contributed to his developing of the disease and his ultimately fatal demise from it.

Google 'congestive heart failure', with as many sites that will pop up, it won't take you long to figure it out.

No Vets on this site.

Congestive heart failure is due to the fact that your dog was born with a heart defect.This means that it no ones fault and that for whatever reason the dog just developed this way in its mothers womb. It is very unfortunate. It can also be affected by old age, and poor diet and exercise could mean that the heart will fail sooner.

I hope this helps

There are no vets to ask here on yahoo they are all working for folks that pay them money for their advice and skills in their surgeries, you see.,

So a vet can magically do a necropsy on here? Um NO.

Your dog probably had a congenital defect of its heart from bad breeding. Ask your vet to do a necropsy.

I'm so sorry. I lost a much beloved dog to CHF 7 years ago. She was diagnosed with a heart murmur at the age of 4, and went on medication at the age of 7. She lived to be 11. Basically, her heart became enlarged, and the heart muscle became too weak to properly pump blood and oxygen through her body and causing her lungs to fill with fluid, which ultimately caused her death. I still miss her. Some dogs are born with heart defects. My dog was incredibly fit and wasn't diagnosed as a puppy, but it steadily got worse after diagnosis. Again, I'm so sorry.

There are no vets on here, just people pretending to be vets. This is a question to ask the vet who diagnosed your dog - without knowing history, etc. no one can answer your question. Sorry for your loss.