Hi...

I joined this list some months ago to find out some additional information about
MVD. I
thought it was time to share some of my own experiences. I have a 9 3/4 year old
cavalier,
Gizmo, who was diagnosed with MVD at 7 but was relatively symptom free until he
was 9
years old. His murmur has been various graded as 4, 4-5, and 5. His condition
worsened
in mid-August of this year. He has been taking enalpril, digoxin and lasix (plus
medicine
for low thyroid and potassium bromide for fly-catchers).

In mid-September his condition seemed to worsen again. And through the middle of
that
month until mid-October his energy level was very low, his disposition was not
good and
he was not eating particularly well. At that point we stopped the digoxin and
switched him
to Pimobendan. I'm not sure whether his clear improvement is the result of
stopping the
digoxin or that he is now taking pimobendan. Whichever it is, we're delighted.
During this
time the digoxin levels were monitored carefully and they were always within
therapeutically correct levels.

His energy level is back up; he jumped the puppy gate yesterday. He plays some
with the
new puppy. His appetite is good. And his vet check today was the best he's had
in a long
time. Good blood pressure; heart sounds "okay" (we're not expecting miracles
here) and
lungs clear.

For readers in the US the pimobendan was not hard to get. We ordered it through
a
veterinary pharmacy in Canada and it arrived very quickly.

I would encourage any of you who have a dog in end stage MVD to talk to your vet
about
the possibility of using this drug. It's not clear how soon the FDA will approve
it for use in
the United States but if your vet agrees I'm sure you could work something out
to order it
from outside the US.

I am in NO way associated with any group that profits from pimobendan. i'm just
a happy
owner who has seen real improvement in her dog with this medicine.

If any of you would like to talk to me more about this feel free to email me
directly.

Margaret