Mitral valve disease

[w1res]

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.

[MP_the4pack]

My Pearl had that. She was diagnosed at age 5. At age 6 she was diagnosed with hypertension.  It was never well controlled.  We were put on meds and had lots of checkups. 

She lived a full, happy, active life until cancer took her age 12.

[Remolacha]

My first greyhound had that, diagnosed at about the same age. She was put on meds (lasix and enalapril as I recall) and did great, she did have to go on a stronger med (Vatmidin) at age 11. I lost her to kidney failure at 12.5, she also had lumbosacral stenosis. 

[greysmom]

Did your vet discuss your greyhound's diet with you, concerning diet-mediated Dilated CardioMyeopathy and grain free dog food??

It's also perfectly reasonable to get a second opinion in situations with a serious diagnosis like this.  You might call around and see if there is a cardiologist in you area who can see your girl sooner rather than later.  It may be difficult due to pandemic scheduling, and cardiologists being particularly busy these days, but I would definitely consider it.

Also, start researching now for the cost and availability in your area of the meds she needs to be on.  Due to so many dogs being diagnosed with DCM there are shortages of the most common RXs and the price has skyrocketed.  The Good RX app was a lifesaver for us with getting costs down for meds.

[macoduck]

Is your vet greyhound-savyy?  Is he aware of greyhounds having a larger heart than other breeds? Is "B2"the murmur? A grade 2 murmur has been no big deal with my greyhounds.

My 12 year old italian greyhound has congestive heart failure. He's on several meds but the important one is Vetmedin. It can be very hard to vets to keep it in stock due to the increased cases of heart failure from feeding grain-free food. Has your girl been on a grain free diet?