Happy-Go-Lucky Spot Overcame Being Outside During Hurricane Harvey at 5 Weeks Old and a Serious Focal Atrial Tachycardia at 5 Months Old.

At 5 weeks old, our very mixed-breed rescue dog, Spot, survived the fury of the Hurricane Harvey storms in an outdoor shelter in Houston.  The shelter he was at needed his space for Hurricane Harvey victim's pets, so to save him from being put to sleep, a rescue group in San Diego sent Spot on a 25 hour bus ride to California along with his sister.  We fostered Spot and his sister for 10 days, after which we "foster failed" and adopted Spot into our family of five. 

He was four months old when our vet discovered our sweet puppy's heart arrhythmia during a routine exam in 2017.   We felt overwhelmed when we learned later it was a serious focal atrial tachycardia, which required strict limits on exercise and lifelong medicine which had side effects.  The medicine would likely become less effective over time, and it was expected he would need increasingly more aggressive medicine to treat his condition.  I understood that the secondary effects of having a heart that was beating too fast would likely include eventual enlargement of his heart which would lead to congestive heart failure. His quality of life would be quite limiting even with the medicine and he could deteriorate very rapidly.
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Through our own online research we found Dr. Wright and her team.   She had so much expertise and experience and her success rates were very good.  At the time, as we are still saving for the kids' college, the cost did give us a slight pause to process and put it into perspective.  The total cost for the surgery and short trip to Cincinnati was less than two serious ER visits not to mention a couple years of heart monitoring and heart medicine.  It was also about the same cost as one ACL surgery another dog of ours had previously.  Some pet insurance even covers most of the expense.   We decided we  needed to give him his best chance at having a good quality of life and lifespan.  

In less than a month, with cooperation from our San Diego Cardiologist, vet, and the help from a wonderful trainer in 3 weeks time, we flew with our 40 pound puppy to Cincinnati for the surgery.  The MedVet Cincinnati office was beautiful and the team of experts who assist with the surgery sound very accomplished.  Spot was pampered at the MedVet office (at one point they were playing harp music for him) and we picked him up the day after surgery without a single stitch.   We noticed his increased energy levels the day we picked him up, which rose significantly for the first month after the procedure (we thought he was just a mellow dog before).

Spot had a complex and rare focal atrial arrhythmia and his results have been incredible.   The post-operative medical records from his cardiologist in San Diego indicate that there is no trace of his supraventricular tachycardia on ECG's now and he requires no medicine.  He will continue follow-up monitoring yearly by a cardiologist in San Diego with rental holter equipment already included in the MedVet quote.  Still we pinch ourselves every day that Dr. Wright and her team, in cooperation with our cardiology group here, were able to give our puppy a new lease on life.  He is a great big snuggler when he's relaxed, but he absolutely loves zooming around and wrestling with his sister,  furiously digging giant holes in the sand, and galloping at full speed,  all of which he would have been restricted from doing before.  He enjoys every precious minute of his life living in the moment and reminds us to do the same.  It all still seems like such a miracle to us. 

Julie B. from San Diego, CA