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The Cardiac Service at the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine is in the business of mending broken hearts, and it breaks our hearts when we see a cardiac case we just can’t fix. Your financial support will make it possible for us to answer one of veterinary medicine’s biggest canine conundrums— why do Cavalier King Charles Spaniels get valvular heart disease at an earlier age than other breeds, and why does their heart disease progress more quickly? Our project aims to find ways to predict early onset of the disease so we can provide better care for those dogs at higher risk, i.e. extend the quantity and quality of life of dogs with this condition.
Mitral valve disease is the most common form of canine heart disease, affecting up to 75% of older dogs with cardiac disease. It is a major cause of illness and death in all dogs, but hits certain breeds, like Cavaliers, the hardest. The disease shares many features with the human form of mitral valve disease, but there are far fewer good treatment options for the canine form. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels have an unusually high incidence of mitral valve disease. Mitral valve disease symptoms can range from mild to severe, with the most serious cases leading to congestive heart failure and even death. Although this disease is common in many breeds of dog, Cavaliers are predisposed to an earlier and more severe form of mitral valve disease.
So far, our research has shown that, compared to healthy dogs from other breeds, some healthy Cavaliers have significant differences in the shape of the mitral valve. In other words, these dogs seem to be born with a valve that makes them more likely to get the disease and, once they have it, more likely to suffer a more rapid and severe form of it than other affected dogs.
Your contributions will be used to map the hearts of the Cavaliers using specialized software and 3-D echocardiogram — a noninvasive type of ultrasound that uses sound waves to assess heart function. We are one of the few veterinary institutions with this capability. If we reach our funding goal, we’ll be able follow the enrolled dogs over several years to see how the shape of their mitral valve impacts their long-term health outcomes. That will help us predict which of our patients is likely to need more aggressive, early intervention to manage their disease. It will also help us design future studies to target specific therapies for affected dogs.
Your $25 donation makes it possible to enroll one dog in our study.
At this level, you pay for one complete Echocardiographic study of an enrolled dog.
A donation of $250 will pay the entire cost of a dog’s enrollment over the course of the study, from the first visit to the end of the study.
Fund four dogs' participation throughout the life of the study, from enrollment through study completion.