Chance just turned 11 y.o. and is doing great.
The veterinary cardiologist who operated on Chance is named Christopher Orton.There is a world class veterinary cardiologist (surgeon) in England : Dr. Dan Brockman at the RVC. I would try to get a referral if you can. Dr. Orton went over to England with his team and worked with Dr. Brockman. There are many articles about it. Below is a link to a recent article about Dr. Brockman's amazing work.
Royal Veterinary College Performs Groundbreaking Open-Heart Surgery on Dog
You definitely should get your puppy to a vet cardiologist because there are medications he/she should start on that can help. This condition is something beyond the scope of the primary practice veterinarian. The fact that the regurgitation is currently mild is very good.
Thank you so much for your reply. It's really helpful and I'm so glad that Chance is doing well because you got him the right treatment. What kind of surgery did he have?
The Vet who saw Sophie yesterday is a Cardiologist who works two days a week at our General Vet Practice however unfortunately my Dad had to pick Sophie up from the Vets as I was caring so I didn't get to hear all the details. I am unsure about the Cardiologist's decision not to treat her condition yet (he will re-scan in 3 months).
Sophie has some significant symptoms including:
- blueish/grey gums and back of tongue but only at times,
- tiring easily and sometimes lying down very suddenly (like a collapse but no loss of consciousness),
- a visible pounding of her heart at certain times when lying on her side,
- a visible jugular pulse in her neck
- noisy breathing but again only at times
Although I took Sophie to the Vets the first few times and requested the Echocardiogram and ECG (the regular Vet didn't hear a murmur), I do not know whether my Dad gave an accurate representation of her symptoms this time because he had thought there was nothing wrong.
So now I'm unsure what to do! My options are:
1. Leave it, wait 3 months and have her re-scanned then. In the mean time let her exercise freely and eat what she normally does.
2. Request an appointment to discuss the situation either with the Cardiologist or our general practice vet.
3. Ask for a referral for a second opinion e.g. to the specialist centre you mentioned
Reading up on it, it sounds as though in humans early treatment can help so I don't think the wait and see approach is necessarily the best one.
My other major concerns I have are that she does have a very fast heart beat at times- the Vet felt that this was just a normal puppy thing but I'm really not sure. Also I do wonder if she has a slight arrhythmia that could on be detected with 24 or 48 hour Holter ECG monitor. I would like to ask for this. The Vet felt that her collapsing episodes were just normal puppy exhaustion but I'm not sure of that.
I hope it's ok to ask some questions- Did Chance have heart failure when he was treated? Was his heart enlarged by the condition? What medication was he given?
Also can I just ask what advice you were given regarding exercise? and diet?
Thank you so very much for your help.
Issie