A survey on dogs with valvular disease flying to Japan for operation.

In small-breed dogs, myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) is a common disease which may lead to chronic heart failure. Mitral valve repair is an optimal surgical treatment that is currently available in limited veterinary facilities globally because it requires a special surgery team and specific devices. Therefore, some dogs must travel overseas to undergo this surgery. However, a question arises regarding the safety of dogs when traveling by air with a heart disease. We aimed to evaluate the effect of flight journey on dogs with mitral valve disease, including survival rates, symptoms during the trip, laboratory test results, and operational outcomes. All dogs stayed near the owner in the cabin during the flight. The survival rate after the flight was 97.5% in 80 dogs. The surgical survival rates (96.0% and 94.3%) and hospitalization periods (7 days and 7 days) were similar between overseas and domestic dogs. This report shows that taking air flights in the cabin may not have a significant effect on dogs with MMVD, on the premise that their overall conditions are stable under cardiac medication.

Efficacy of pimobendan on survival and reoccurrence of pulmonary edema in canine congestive heart failure.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of pimobendan with conventional therapies on survival and reocurrence of pulmonary edema in dogs with congestive heart failure (CHF) caused by myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD). Records of 197 client-owned dogs from 14 veterinary hospitals were included in this study. Dogs were administered conventional treatments with or without pimobendan. Sixty-four dogs received a standard dose of pimobendan (0.20-0.48 mg/kg every 12 hr (q12hr)), 49 dogs received a low dose of pimobendan (0.05-0.19 mg/kg q12hr), and 84 dogs received conventional therapy alone. Dogs in the standard-dose and low-dose pimobendan groups had significantly longer median survival times than dogs in the conventional group (334, 277 and 136 days, respectively; P<0.001). The reoccurrence rate of pulmonary edema in the standard-dose group was significantly lower than in the low-dose and conventional groups (43%, 59% and 62%, respectively; P<0.05). Combination of pimobendan with a conventional treatment regimen significantly prolonged survival time after an initial episode of pulmonary edema in dogs with CHF caused by MMVD. There was no difference in survival between dogs administered standard and low doses of pimobendan, but pimobendan did prevent the reoccurrence of pulmonary edema in a dose-dependent manner.