Brenna Colleen Fitzgerald, Sara Dias, Jaume Martorell
Cardiovascular disease, including congestive heart failure, pericardial disease, and atherosclerosis, is becoming increasingly better recognized in companion birds, small mammals, and reptiles. A wide range of medications is available to treat these conditions, including diuretics, vasodilators, positive and negative inotropes, antiarrhythmic agents, and pentoxifylline. This review systematically discusses each of these drug classes and their potential applications in exotic species. Although treatment approaches remain largely empirical and extrapolated from small animal and human medicine, the management strategies presented here have the potential to both maintain quality of life and extend survival time for the exotic cardiac patient...
May 2018: Veterinary Clinics of North America. Exotic Animal Practice