MVD terminology?

[Rumor]

Leopold (5 yrs.) recently went to a heart clinic & had an auscultation done.
On the report the Cardiologist wrote - Grade 2, Systolic, Left apex, MVD. For those of you with experience do those terms require immediate action? My Vet doesn't think so because he's not exhibiting any symptoms. Just wanted to get some input.

[Pat]

I agree that there is no immediate action required. What you may want to do now or soon is have your vet take a two view chest x-ray. This will serve as a baseline x-ray and in future years you will use this to compare to new x-rays in order to monitor heart size.

The other thing you can do is to make sure that Leopold is at his ideal weight.

Can your vet hear a murmur and does his grade correlate with the cardiologist's grade? I usually have my GP vet listen before I tell her the cardiologist's grade so that she is not influenced by the cardio report. For the past 15 years, my vet's assessment has pretty much duplicated my cardiologist's assessment. For that reason, I'm comfortable not consulting with the cardiologist until my vet grades a murmur at a III or so. By the time I'm ready to consult the cardiologist to get an echocardiogram, I generally have a few sets of x-rays taken at 6-12 month intervals that I can take along to the consult. If you have your vet take x-rays and he thinks there is heart enlargement, I'd want a consult for the cardio to see the x-rays. But, I've learned that GP vets often think there is enlargement when there is not as Cavalier cardiac profiles are a bit different from many other breeds. If your vet can also hear the murmur, you can have him check every 3-6 months to see if he thinks the murmur has gotten louder. You are at the stage (called the occult stage because there is progressive disease but no overt symptoms yet) where you simply want to monitor progression - and hope for slow progression which isn't uncommon.

A grade II at age 5 is pretty standard.

I will say that you don't want to wait for overt symptoms before you take action (symptoms indicate that he is in congestive heart failure). I make treatment decisions based on heart size and other factors BEFORE my dogs are in failure. My dogs have done better and lived longer with earlier intervention. This could be a coincidence but I tend to believe otherwise. Also, I don't like surprises, and if you monitor there should not be surprises.

Pat

[Rumor]

Thanks Pat for being so informative & detailed. I'll talk to his Vet about taking chest x-rays. Leopold is my rescue & my smallest so his weight is fine. My avatar is my big boy Remus, who is on a diet.

My Vet is a holistic Dr. & believes in taking supplements. She has him on Vitamin E, Hawthorne Berry & CoQ10. I give these to all 3 of my dogs. Don't know if it's working but she believes it will help.