Mitral Valve Disease dog

[Mustang27]

Hi I posted a few weeks ago about my dog dropping weight rapidly she is a 15 yr old tri colour collie. We took her to the vets everything came back normal but we all knew something serious was going on. She has a grade 4 heart murmur and vet suggested her heart may be weakening. She over last few weeks has managed to gain a bit of her weight back but has started to faint/collapse even on a 10 min gentle walk. The vet has now diagnosed MVD and given me some meds to see if they help, although hasnt guaranteed anything just due to her age and the rapid degeneration in her health. The pills and check ups are going to cost between 70-120 a month and that's sourcing them on the internet with a life expectancy of 4-15 months as an average but that's just through reading and looking at studies which testing has ranged on lots of dogs all different ages so hard to have a true comparison.

My question is anyone out there with experience of this condition and what they did.

My gut feeling is between the cost, her age and the side effects of her meds that I'd be being selfish to continue treating her. This dog could run for miles 6 months ago I think it will be torture for her to be confined to the garden and a amble to the bottom of my street.

Also getting guilted by my partner about considering cost but she has been my dog for 14yrs of her life and he's known her nearly 5 so still feel ultimately it's my decision and his reaction is a bit unfair.

Sorry this has turned into a novel. I also ha e her booked in on Wednesday to discuss euthanasia and will do it next Saturday if it's what I can get my family to agree to it.

Nobody had anything like this happen to their dog? I was hoping to get some experience based stories as vet just seems to be so vague. Happy to put her down happy enough to treat her. Iv only ever had to make this decision once before and a spent a grand in a week trying to save my rabbit to have to put her down any way (not the same vets) anything would be appreciated even if it's not quite the same thing or it's mvd linked to breed as I know it's common to hit younger dogs of specific breed (dobermans, King Charles).

Completely ignoring the costs, it sounds like her health is really impacting in her quality of life now and I think your vet should be giving you a bit more guidance on the next steps tbh.

I have a tri colour BC and not being able to run around like a complete loon would make him so unhappy and I'd miss having everything less than 3 ft high being covered in a fine spray of dried mud through the winter

Myyoni are you understating the mud?? This is how I feel too . She would be bored and would start to chew and soil the house I'm sure of it, just out of shear boredom.

One of my previous dogs had the same thing though the situation was different. She was younger, diagnosed out of the blue when she’d just turned nine, & much smaller being a Yorkie.
I was devastated when the vet diagnosed it & told me to think of the life she had left in weeks, not months or years.
He put her on Vetmedin & she rallied a bit, then a bit more. I began to buy the meds online, it was back when the vet had by law to issue a prescription free of charge if you asked for one. He actually told me that what I was paying online( from one of the reliable English animal was pharmacies) was cheaper than he was paying from the rep so took the web address to order for the surgery!
Anyway, as I said he’d given her just weeks to live but on the medication she lived for another four years, happily & not in any discomfort, she had regular checkups yo monitor her progress. Her walks were shorter but other than that she still came everywhere with me.
I know your situation is different, being older, but just thought I’d tell you of my experience ,you asked if anyone had dealt with it.

I am sorry you have received this news. I don't have much experience with mvd. I am a student vet nurse so seen a bit in practice. My mum's dog also had a related condition. However his manifested more accutely and his quality of life wasn't affected.

I think you have to listen carefully to your gut feeling. Putting expense aside. Is your dog happy?

In your position I'd give it a month to see if the medication offers any improvement to the quality of her life. With a view to obviously putting a stop to things if you notice a decline.

With regards to cost that is considerable. I always try to discretely push clients to online pharmacy although this us actively discouraged by my new corporate employers they can get fucked the savings are crazy. Please feel free to pm me if you would like to know where we got meds for my mother's dog.

Lem the 70 was me sourcing on the internet but you are so right the costs are crazy. I'm going back to vets with her tomorrow and il get her checked over see what my vet has too say then go from there. Il definitely pm you if I have anything I think I need to query. Thank you.

Dark thank you for you for your experience and it's nice to here a positive story. She has improved I'm not going to lie however steroids are not a fun drug to be on long term. Her appetite is still pretty non existent still and her energy levels are not great she also just looks a bit low but I'm likely projecting lol.

Il keep the thread posted once I know a bit more tomorrow after the vets.

Are you sure she is on steroids? As they are contraindicated in heart disease of any kind.
Has she had an ultrasound of her heart? As border Collies can get mitral valve disease and dilated cardiomyopathy and her symptoms sound a bit more suspicious of DCM rather than mitral valve disease.

She is on 300mg corvental I thought it was a steroid my mistake there. 5mg vetmedin.

She hasn't had an ultrasound but it wasn't put to me as massively important.

She took another turn on Thursday after agreeing with the vet to continue to medicate for a month but she is still concerned as her appetite is decreasing and she is underweight so if that continues as well that's going to make her iller.

I think I'm just going to accept the fact that she is 15 and she isn't going to improve the way I would want for her and book her in and say our goodbyes. I feel shit as that was my instinct any way Iv just dragged it on for her for no bloody good reason.

I would be worried about DCM and irrregular heart rhythms causing your dog to collapse. Corvental is normally used for primary lung disease does she another condition.

No bar grade 4 heart murmur. Which was diagnosed several months ago prior to to November she has been symptomless.

Hey just to let you all know we said goodbye to my lovely dog yesterday. It was time she had definitely got worse and vet did a check over before doing the horrible bits and confirmed fluid build up in her stomach likely caused by both sides of her heart failing.

Thank you for all the advice and kind words it helped. I know I did the right thing for her but Christ it hurts like hell. I'm hoping her brother holds on in there but at 16 he is getting on too. Just spoil and distract him and hopefully he won't get sad.

Will be taking a very long break from pets I can't deal with this bit at all.