All About the Heart

SUMMARY: Well--not all about--just some useful stuff in general and Tika's in particular.

Tika has congestive heart disease. Depending on which veterinary web site you visit, either cancer or congestive heart disease is the leading cause of death in dogs.

So, what's going on in her heart?

Here are the parts of the heart. A dog's heart is essentially the same.

(image from this site.)

Found this video that shows how the heart works, and a dog's works the same way.


The vet kindly drew a sketch on a paper towel of what's going on with Tika's heart. High-tech! This drawing is reversed from above--Left Atrium (LA) and Ventricle (LV) are on the left here.

Tika's mitral valve--between LA and LV--has become enlarged and hardened. So (a) it doesn't close all the way and (b) it's prolapsed--it opens in the wrong direction as well (picture a door that should open inward now opening outward). So, when the heart pumps, instead of the proper fluid staying in the proper direction as shown in the video, some of the fluid squishes backwards, increasing the pressure in the Left Atrium. (That's about as technical as I can get.)

The additional pressure has caused her Left Atrium to become greatly enlarged--the dotted line--which means that the muscle wall is stretched badly and no longer pumps as well; also, it's encroaching on the Right Atrium, making that part work harder to do its job and to get enough blood flowing.

What happens eventually is that the valve or the left atrium stop working entirely, for various reasons. In that case, it's all over, and it could be very sudden.

Some places have done valve-replacement surgery on dogs, but not that many and (a) it's really, really expensive, (b) very involved surgery with lots of risks, which I don't really want to put Tika through, (c) Tika's left aorta is in bad enough condition that it's not really worth it to try fixing just the valve, and (c) she's nearly 12, so even if everything else were to go right, I don't know that I'd get more than a year or 2 anyway.

Example discussion: http://www.vetinfo.com/vets/answers/can-dogs-get-heart-valve-replacement

And now you know.

Vet Clarifications for Tika

SUMMARY: Follow-up to Thoughts From the Heart.

Spoke to the vet. Yup, I misunderstood about the thyroid. Normal is .8 to 3.5, "low-normal" is .8 to 1.0. Tika tested at .9.

He says that the measurement can vary widely even at different times of the day, so one reading like this doesn't necessarily mean anything. He says the key indicators of low thyroid are a decrease in energy and weight gain, and he doesn't see either of those with Tika.

I did note that she doesn't have as much energy as she used to--chases the ball or frisbee a very few times instead of relentlessly, for example, but does chase them full speed. She looked pretty energetic before and after being in the ring all weekend this last weekend.

I've chalked that all up to being older and/or recurring soreness or arthritis acting up and subsiding.

He pointed out that her heart murmur-- 3 on a scale of 0 to 6--could have the exact sort of symptoms as that or low thyroid, pointing out the difficulty of diagnosing a specific thing.

He recommended another thyroid test no sooner than a month from now, and unless I really notice a change in energy levels, even 3 months or more would be fine to wait, and if it reads low again, then we can decide what to do.

He noted that, once thyroid meds are started, they have to continue for the rest of the dog's life.

Forget the jetpack and the household robot maid, where's the tricorder medical scanner that exactly pinpoints a problem in half a second? Waiting-- and hoping--

(Photos thanks to Diana Wilson)

Thoughts From The Heart

SUMMARY: Well--actually *about* the heart. Tika's.

Tika went in for her annual checkup and shots and tests the other week. Actually it has been about a year and half although we've been in a couple of times in the intervening months for various other reasons.

It was about that time, back then, that I think I first was told that Tika has a heart murmur, but very slight.

This year, the vet said that, on a scale of 1 to 5--hmm, or was it 1 to 6?-- a year and ahalf ago it was about a 2, and now it's about a 3. Still nothing to worry about, he says, but if I notice any change in behavior, or less energy, let him know.

Well, of course, I've noticed less energy in recent months already. I attributed that to being 11 and a half. She still runs full tilt after a ball or frisbee, but instead of being indefatigable, she does it only a few times and then stops or takes a break.

So is that heart related or not?

He said to report in if she does a lot of coughing, say, first thing in the morning. She had been doing quite a bit of coughing in odd ways and at odd times, but now that the doc has said something about it, I haven't heard her do it at all. So... maybe just low-grade allergies or a tickle in her throat?

Also, I asked for a nice full panel on the bloodwork, not just a heartworm check. He reported back that her thyroid is borderline--normal is .8 to 1.0 and she's at .9. If I heard the phone message right. Which makes me wonder, if .9, smack dab in the middle of normal, is borderline, what exactly is normal? I just got around to calling him back, but now he's out of town until next week, so the mystery remains.

Mostly everything seems to be in good working condition, but now I have more things to fret over than just her ever-increasing deafness and what I still think is her deteriorating vision.

For a dog who's been so healthy most of her life, this is all quite distracting for me. I guess every dog will be different as they age, just as they've been different when they were younger. How rude.

We have three weekends of agility coming up, so will see how we all do.

Well--kinda 3 weekends. This weekend, SMART USDAA trial in Prundedale. Next weekend, Bay Team CPE in San Martin, about as close as it ever gets to my house any more. Following weekend--"Dreams of the '90s Are Alive in Dog Agility Woodstock", which seems to be an excuse for a bunch of agility people, who obviously don't have enough agility events yet, to get together for 24 hours from midday to midday and do fun, useful, or silly agility-related things and have a big potluck and sleepover party. I think there are about 30 of us.

We will see how we all do there, too.