BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Dogs Enlarged Heart

My almost 2 year old Yorkie got some x-rays yesterday of his chest. He had been coughing alot and had to take him to the emergency vet on the 4th of July. I was told it was kennel cough, no idea where he got it from. On Sat i took him to our regular vet to get checked out (still coughing) she said that he might have a collapsed trachea. Well the x-ray results yesterday do not show a collapsed trachea. That is great news. He does have a slight infection in his throat.
He has an enlarged right ventricle. I was told by the vet that I should not worry about it now, but he will suffer from heart disease when he gets old. At that time he will need to be on heart meds. I looked up stuff on the internet on enlarged heart and heart disease in dogs, but I have not read anything promising. Do any of you have any info or know of this "enlarged heart" disorder? I trust my vet completely, but I am now learning all these new things about him. She also said it is good we knwo now instead of finding out 5 years from now. She said she can monitor him at exam times.

I had a Pomeranian that had an enlarged heart and heart murmur, extremely bad one. She lived to be 17 years old, on minimal medication. I kept her on a healthy diet, low sodium, and she got a lot of exercise. On her bad days when she would cough I gave her a diaretic the Dr. prescribed. Only 1/2 of the prescribed amount, if she still coughed a little more.
I believe its the quality of life the dog (us too) live, not the quanity of time. Enjoy your dog, let her be a dog, run and play!! My dog surprised everybody living so long. She raised all of my other dogs which kept her young.