Mila Mae, 4 yro German Shorthaired Pointer, St. Louis, MO

At just 8 weeks old we brought Mila into our home. With her big brown eyes, eager desire to please, and that clumsy puppy gait, she quickly stole our hearts and from that point on she became a part of our family. When she was around 1 years old, Mila began displaying extreme discomfort after longer bouts of exercise or sometimes just after 15 minutes at the dog park. I would sometimes have to carry her home because she was so lethargic and uncomfortable she couldn’t even finish the walk. Once home she would lay around moaning, with labored breathing, sometimes vomiting or involuntarily urinating until the episode pasted and we had no idea how to help her. I would tell my veterinarian at her check-ups, but they said without seeing these episodes I was describing, they really didn’t know how to help. They became more frequent and Mila’s heart would beat so fast we became afraid she may have a stroke. They tried to help her fast heart rate by treating her with beta blockers, but after 2 years of taking them, Mila’s episodes were getting worse and worse.

Although we were reluctant for financial reasons, we finally took Mila to see a cardiologist when she was 4 years old. She had and ECHO and wore an event monitor for a whole month. We were told that they thought Mila had an accessory pathway in her heart, causing an extra electrical impulse that resulted in Mila’s extremely fast heart rate. Basically, Mila had a heart arrhythmia, and the only doctor in the US that was doing the procedure to fix it was in Ohio. My initial response was naturally, how much money is this going to cost? Driving all the way to Ohio for a dog to have a cardiac ablation? Are we crazy? But after talking with Dr. Wright, she helped us understand that one option would be to continue Mila on the beta blockers and anti-arrhythmia pills, but those too were not cheap, and Mila was still having the episodes happen from time to time while taking them.

Dr. Wright explained that Mila would eventually go into heart failure causing all her other organs to fail and then we would be left with the expense of treating her for all those discomforts as well.  Her life span would be significantly shortened and in that short life she wouldn’t even feel healthy because of her heart arrhythmia. I didn’t like that option, so we decided to go for it despite the expense. We swallowed our pride and started a GoFund me page to help raise money. To our surprise, family and friends were very helpful and understanding. We ended up raising about half the cost of the procedure, which significantly helped in making it more affordable for our family. Dr. Wright and her team were so gracious with their time and answered all our questions so thoroughly.

​Before even traveling to Ohio, they had made me feel so comfortable with our decision. They were upfront and honest with what the procedure would entail and what they anticipated the cost would be. We dropped her off on a Monday and her procedure was the next day. It took around 5 hours and we were notified of the success immediately after. Mila was discharged the next day and other than some bruising and lack of hair, she was the same happy dog as when we dropped her off. The cost was exactly as we were told upfront. Two weeks later, Mila was back at chasing birds, but now, no more medications, no more constant worrying, and no more uncomfortable episodes. I have not regretted doing the procedure once, only that I wish did it sooner for Mila.