Cardiology NAVLE Guide
CHF Staging Overview for Dogs and Cats
Staging drives both treatment and follow-up cadence. This overview emphasizes pattern-based staging decisions and how to avoid over- or under-staging when presentation details are incomplete.
Use this guide to move from first-pass pattern recognition to structured diagnostic and treatment logic. The flow is designed for NAVLE-style decision sequencing and practical ward preparation.
Rapid Algorithm
- Identify whether the patient is asymptomatic risk, compensated disease, or active decompensation.
- Integrate respiratory pattern, imaging burden, and perfusion markers into stage assignment.
- Document stage-specific priorities for treatment intensity and monitoring.
- Set near-term follow-up intervals based on relapse risk and owner monitoring capacity.
- Re-stage when respiratory effort, imaging findings, or perfusion status shift.
Diagnostic Flow
- Thoracic imaging and focused cardiac assessment anchor stage interpretation.
- Resting respiratory rate trends provide practical progression signals at home and in clinic.
- Blood pressure, renal markers, and electrolytes guide safe medication adjustments.
- ECG and rhythm surveillance can identify stage-altering instability.
- Serial reassessment prevents outdated stage labels from persisting.
Treatment Flow
- Align medication choices with current stage severity and decompensation status.
- Prioritize decongestion and oxygen support in active failure phases.
- Adjust outpatient plans using objective response metrics rather than fixed assumptions.
- Reinforce owner education on daily respiratory monitoring and red-flag triggers.
- Plan rechecks to catch recurrence before severe decompensation.
Exam Traps
- Assigning stage from murmur grade alone misses respiratory and imaging context.
- Underweighting resting respiratory rate trends often delays needed escalation.
- Ignoring renal and electrolyte monitoring during medication changes adds risk.
- Treating staging as static instead of dynamic across visits is a common error.
- Discharge without clear home-monitoring instructions weakens outcome control.
Practice Prompts
- Which findings most strongly support active CHF decompensation?
- How should follow-up timing change after medication adjustments?
- What data can move a case from compensated to unstable stage?
- How do renal trends alter CHF medication planning?
- What owner instructions reduce avoidable re-presentation risk?
Related Content
Sources and Review Notes
- Drug label search (DailyMed)
- IRIS stages
- Normal lab values
- Heartworm treatment protocol
- Lab test protocols
- Microchip lookup
- Vertebral Heart Score
- BCS charts
- ACVIM cardiology consensus guideline references
- Dental charts
- AAHA vaccination guidelines
- Flea/tick product info
- Dog/cat breed search
- RECOVER CPR guidelines
Last reviewed: February 13, 2026
Educational only. This page is designed for study and does not replace case-specific diagnosis, local protocols, or direct supervision.