Foxglove and Digoxin

Bailey and I just got back from her Vet. She has been doing really really well since last week (when we had another bad respiratory distress episode).



She was put on Digoxin last Friday and had to have her blood drawn today to make sure she isn't taking too high a dosage.

Digoxin is a kind of last resort medicine for dogs who are in late stages of heart failure. She is on a dilator already, and a diuretic, but needed more. Digoxin helps the heart beat stronger. It also slows the heart rate so that the heart has time to fill with blood between each beat.

It's highly toxic and if too high a dosage is given, it can kill. It kind of scares me, but I am feeling better about it, knowing she is on a tiny dosage.
And also, she hasn't experienced any adverse side effects etc.
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Interesting facts about Digoxin:

It is a purified cardiac glycoside extracted from the beautiful Foxglove plant:


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From Wikipedia:

"Charles Cullen admitted in 2003 to killing as many as 40 hospital patients with overdoses of heart medication - usually digoxin - at hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania over his 16-year career as a nurse. On March 10, 2006 he was sentenced to 18 consecutive life sentences and is not eligible for parole for 397 years."

creepy!
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