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Author: Admin | 2025-04-28
Of the inaccuracy of noninvasive blood pressure measurement and the influence that stress has on blood pressure, blood pressure measurements should be done only in dogs and cats that have a disease known to cause hypertension or that have a clinical problem referable to systemic hypertension (eg, detached retina). Blood pressure measurement is not a screening tool in veterinary medicine versus human medicine, except in patient populations that have a disease that causes systemic hypertension (eg, dogs with renal failure should be screened for systemic hypertension). Even in an animal with a disease that causes hypertension that has an increased blood pressure measurement, documenting end-organ damage (eg, the presence of hypertensive retinopathy) is recommended before treatment is started.Dogs and cats with severe systemic hypertension often have no clinical signs. Acute blindness is the most common clinical sign. Retinal lesions (eg, retinal hemorrhage, retinal detachment, arterial tortuosity, focal or diffuse retinal edema) are very common in hypertensive cats. Blood tests may demonstrate abnormalities consistent with the cause of hypertension (eg, increased thyroxine [T4] concentrations in hyperthyroid cats, increased BUN and creatinine in animals with renal failure). Treatment should be initiated in animals with consistently measurable hypertension that are documented to have an underlying cause such as renal disease/failure and evidence of end-organ damage. Systemic hypertension in cats and dogs appears to be due to constriction of systemic arterioles, because only potent systemic arteriolar dilators seem to have a positive therapeutic effect. The treatment for systemic hypertension in cats is to administer amlodipine, telmisartan, or a combination of amlodipine and telmisartan. Other drugs, such as an ACE inhibitor, diltiazem, beta-blockers (eg, atenolol), and diuretics (eg, furosemide), are generally ineffective. In dogs, amlodipine and hydralazine are the only consistently effective drugs. Amlodipine and hydralazine can be very cautiously administered together in a dog that is refractory to both drugs alone. Some clinicians have had success with prazosin in dogs. Phenoxybenzamine is expensive but can also be effective in dogs. It is most often used in dogs with a pheochromocytoma; however, it can also be effective in dogs with systemic hypertension due to other
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