Hi everyone,
I was hoping that somebody might have some experience or advice with regards to heart disease in greyhounds.
Our 8.5 year old greyhound was just diagnosed with Mitral Valve Disease. Our previous vets usually mentioned that she has a slight murmur, but they never recommended any followup or additional testing. After moving to NYC, during our wellness visit, our new vet recommended an ECG, so we had one performed a few days later by a cardiologist they brought in.
It turns out she has a Mitral Valve Disease, and that it's already progressed to the stage where her heart is enlarged (B2). The vet discussed the results on the phone, but there was a lot of information. It is scary, and at the time it was a lot to process. The vet suggested we immediately start her on medications.
The medications seem to be that once you start taking them, you never stop. It also sounds like this kind of disease will undoubtedly eventually turn into heart failure. I've been so emotional since the day we learned the news (yesterday) and most of today. We are due to pick up her medication and start her on it tomorrow.
My first instinct was to think that "this is just a weird greyhound thing," but from everything I have been able to read, an ECG by a cardiologist is pretty exact and accurate.
Does anyone have any information or experiences to share? She hasn't shown any negative symptoms yet, but this whole thing has me extremely overwhelmed and I really don't know what to expect. We have another phone call tomorrow, and then another appointment scheduled in 2 weeks, where the doctor wants to go over everything in more detail and see how the meds are reacting. However, I don't want to make any bad decisions that we will regret later.
