A Poodle puppy, was brought in to us after a local rescue did the first vaccines and found a heart murmur. Heart murmurs are encountered with some regularity in puppies and often will resolve by 12 weeks of age. In this case, the family history and the sound of the murmur indicated the need for an immediate workup.
The puppy’s father has mitral and tricuspid valve dysplasia. Heart valve dysplasia is a congenital heart defect, which in dogs (and cats), affects the aortic, pulmonary, mitral and tricuspid heart valves. Dysplasia of the mitral and tricuspid valves can cause leakage of blood or stenosis, which is an abnormal narrowing of a blood vessel or other tubular organs or structures.
Based on this information, we decided to go ahead and do a workup. We did the basics including thoracic radiographs (chest x-rays), superchem/cbc/ua (bloodwork and a urinalysis), and an EKG here. We referred the puppy to the Banfield in Christiansburg, VA, for an ultrasound echocardiogram and then on to Virginia Tech for a consult with the cardiologist and final diagnosis.
It was determined that the puppy had a large ventricular septal defect (VSD) – a defect in the ventricular septum or the wall dividing the left and right ventricles of the heart (which is also the number one type of cardiac defects in humans as well), along with pulmonic stenosis (the outflow of blood from the right ventricle of the heart is obstructed at the level of the pulmonic valve). This results in the reduction of flow of blood to the lungs.
The puppy is now 3 months old and we will monitor his PCV (packed cell volume) monthly. Aside from open heart surgery, there is no cure. Propranolol (a beta-blocker that decreases heart rate, cardiac output, the amount of oxygen the heart muscle needs and blood pressure) and therapeutic phlebotomy may help. Phlebotomy is the practice of obtaining blood from a vein for diagnostic tests or, in this case, to remove blood for treatment purposes.
My then 12 weeks old Westie was diagnosed with severe stenosis but after a angioplasty-like procedure is now, 2 years later, the most active and energetic of my four dogs.
June 30th, 2009 at 3:06 pm