Grace had her appointment yesterday at the RVC.
She had an ultrasound scan and this confirmed what my own vet had diagnosed, mitral valve disease.
At present she doesn't need medication, but will in due course as the disease is progressive. As to the rate of progression they cannot say - some dogs progress very quickly and some more slowly. For now all I can do is hope and pray that Grace will progress very slowly.
The cardiologist said that most dogs present with moderate disease requiring medication, whereas Grace has presented very early in the condition - which in a way may explain why she is only 7 years 51 weeks and 6 days old (her birthday is tomorrow!!) - if I had not gone in for the routine appointment this might not have been picked up until she was 9 plus.
We discussed diet, supplements and surgery. Grace has the Yumega Itchy Dog oil, Ubiquinol, and salmon oil - she also has Vetzyme's but they are not given for her heart. She also has a sardine each day! Apparently the only proven supplement for the heart is the fish oils but that doesn't mean that other supplements are not helpful.
Mitral valve repair is major surgery currently being carried out in Japan, France and at the RVC - with varying degrees of success. My own vet said this surgery was relatively new with many complications. However, the cardiologist said that this surgery may be an option further down the road and the success rate may be much improved by then - obviously it may never be an option, but at least they are still trying to find a better way of treating this disease.
I'm still finding it incredibly hard to accept the situation - they said a good progression would be 1 to 2 years, then drugs for 1 year and then progression to congestive heart failure for which survival is up to 1 year. So that translates to only 2 to 3 years of good quality life - and 10 to 11 years for a Cocker is not a good age with most living to 14 plus.
For now all I can do is to make each and every day count.
We will be returning to the RVC in 12 months for another scan - unless she needs to return sooner which I hope will not be the case. In the meantime I will be measuring her sleeping breathing rate as this is a good indicator of anything starting to go wrong - I do this daily, sometimes twice or three times - and for now she has a BPM of between 10 and 15 which is good. I hope and pray it doesn't change for a long time. I will also be taking her temperature twice a week as part of her usual routine, so I can be sure to pick anything up before it gets out of hand - as we all know how well dogs can hide things when they aren't well.
Oh, and poor Grace had some kind of reaction to being at the RVC - she is starting to get another bout of the itchies and I'm booked with the vet for Friday which will probably mean a steroid injection and anti-histamines for a few weeks (the cardiologist said this was ok) - BUT she is a super nervous patient and her tummy was suddenly bright angry red with red spots all over! They tried to get someone from dermatology to take a look at her but no one was available - by the time I got home with her the redness was subsiding so I can only guess it was the stress that caused it?
