Guest bigorangedog Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Well I had hoped not to be posting again in this forum for a while... I just got a call from an adopter who got a sweet 5-yr-old girl from us last Summer. She had an odd history... Not a racer, was turned in from someone who got her as a puppy from the humane society. But clearly a greyhound -- although *extremely* tall and skinny, even for a greyhound. She looked like a caricature of a greyhound...all hyper-elongated and Art Deco looking. She had repaired Bloat at 3-yrs-old (had her stomach tacked), and had 2 other major accidents in her life, having been attacked by another dog and hit by a car, which left her with a somewhat deformed ribcage. However, she was healthy at the time we received her, and this great couple looked past her odd appearance and have given her what she needs to thrive, even managing to put some weight on her. Anyway! They are at the U of MN with her right now because she has had an erratic, fast heartbeat over the past few days, and also somewhat labored breathing. They have basically diagnosed her with heart disease, and this afternoon they will be doing an electrocardiogram, a chest x-ray, and a radiocardiogram. I have never gone through this with a dog (thank goodness), and so I have no advice for them. I hoped someone here might be able to help. What should they be looking for? What might her prognosis be? Thanks so much!!! Jen (Minnesota Greyhound Rescue) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MP_the4pack Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 My Pearl has heart disease, but not the same as you stated. She has chronic valvular disease where the mitral valve doesn't close completely. She's on 7 different meds, a total of 18 pills a day. She has outlived her prognosis by several years now and is still playing and running around at age 11. I credit this with keeping regular cardiology appts with her cardiologist. She was diagnosed age 6. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Energy11 Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 My friend lost his Monica to heart disease at six There are GREAT medications for heat disease out there, and once they diagnose what "type" of heart disease she has, then, they can go from there. Good luck and lots of love to the a girl who has been through wayyyyyy toooo much already! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahicks51 Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 One thing that comes to mind is to double- and triple-check that the hound didn't get into something they shouldn't have, i.e.: chocolate. If the dog gets markedly better for no apparent reason, this could be the case: a near-miss poisoning. Similarly, make sure there's not a new bag of food involved. Quote Coco (Maze Cocodrillo) Minerva (Kid's Snipper) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greyhndz Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Interesting... your description of the dog makes it sound like a canine equivalent of Marfan's Syndrome. Among the constellation of problems that go along with this syndrome are heart conduction abnormalities, very long limbs and fingers, and anomalies of connective tissue that can lead to other complications. I wonder if there's a similar congenital syndrome in dogs? I'll try to research this a bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahicks51 Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Here's a paper on spontaneous dissecting aortas in a border collie and a border collie mix where they refer to Marfan syndrome no fewer than 19 times. There may be some histo information in there that a good pathologist might be able to use. http://jvdi.org/cgi/reprint/17/5/492.pdf Quote Coco (Maze Cocodrillo) Minerva (Kid's Snipper) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bigorangedog Posted August 19, 2009 Share Posted August 19, 2009 Here's a paper on spontaneous dissecting aortas in a border collie and a border collie mix where they refer to Marfan syndrome no fewer than 19 times. There may be some histo information in there that a good pathologist might be able to use. http://jvdi.org/cgi/reprint/17/5/492.pdf Wow! That certainly is interesting! I'll pass that along to the family... Haven't heard back on the tests from today yet. I'll call them tonight and may get more info. Thanks! Jen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahicks51 Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Here's a paper on spontaneous dissecting aortas in a border collie and a border collie mix where they refer to Marfan syndrome no fewer than 19 times. There may be some histo information in there that a good pathologist might be able to use. http://jvdi.org/cgi/reprint/17/5/492.pdf Wow! That certainly is interesting! I'll pass that along to the family... Haven't heard back on the tests from today yet. I'll call them tonight and may get more info. Thanks! Jen The lead author on that paper went on to U-Penn vet school, but is now working for Novartis. Can't find a contact email for them, but she's on Facebook. Unlikely she's done anything along those lines since that paper came out. Quote Coco (Maze Cocodrillo) Minerva (Kid's Snipper) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest bigorangedog Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Heard this from the family today, if this is informative to anyone (I truly know nothing about heart disease): "Atrial fibrillation. Her left atrium is way too big and firing up to 600 times a minute. We started some medication today to slow down her heart rate which is at 200 bpm while she's resting. We'll try to get it down to half that and take it from there." Jen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Greyglo Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Just adding a prayer for her from us - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ahicks51 Posted August 20, 2009 Share Posted August 20, 2009 Interesting. Searching for "Marfan" + "atrial fibrillation" came up with some surprisingly relevant hits. http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=off&...9fe100d9e542c1e Quote Coco (Maze Cocodrillo) Minerva (Kid's Snipper) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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