Cindy said: <After the vet checked her over, he said that in his opinion one of the tendons around the mitro valve had ruptured. This would explain the sudden collapse and the weakness she was having.
She is almost 14 years old (Dec) and has been diagnosed last Oct with a grade 3/4 murmur. My vet says the murmur is the same.> Cindy, I am very sorry this happened to Sabrina. I know how special she must be to you at almost 14 years old. My Savannah collapsed one evening, and I rushed her to the ER thinking it was a ruptured chorda tendineae. The vet did not think so. After much testing in the weeks to come, it turned out to be cancer. I'm not suggesting that Sabrina has cancer, just that it might not necessarily be her heart. I hope Sabrina is doing well this evening. (I love the name Sabrina. I have a cat with that name.) Re: Ruptured Chorda Tendineae: In the textbook, "Small Animal Cardiology Secrets," by Jonathan A. Abbott, DVM, he says: "What catastrophes can explain sudden clinical deterioration in patients with MVD? It should be recognized that CHF in veterinary patients often has an apparently sudden onset. Many pet dogs are relatively sedentary; because of this, cardiac disease can progress unnoticed until a piont when even minimal exertion results in severe dyspnea. Additionally, subtle changes in respiratory rate and character can be difficult for owners to recognize. These and possibly other factors delay recognition of CHF in animals until it is well advanced. However, patients with MVD are subject to catastrophes that can result in acute decompensation. Rupture of a chorda tendineae is a relatively common acute complication of MVD; the severity of the resultant clinical signs is dependent on the functional importance of the ruptured chord and the compliance of the left atrium. Rupture of a first-order mitral chorda tendineae causes acute and severe mitral valve regurgitation and the resultant increase in left atrial pressure may result in fulminant pulmonary edema that is refractory to medical therapy. If a third-order chord ruptures in a patient with a compliant and capacious atrium, it may go undetected. In fact, ruptured chordae are sometimes found on postmortem examination of patients with MVD that succumb to extracardiac disease. Rupture of mitral chordae is most common in patients that have preexisting mitral valve regurgitation and associated cardiac enlargement. The result is clinical decompensation, the severity of which is determined by factors stated above. Occasionally, rupture of a first-order mitral valve chorda is observed in patients that have only mild mitral valve disease. In these cases, the acute elevation in left atrial pressure is catastrophic and severe pulmonary edema results. This is one of the few clinical scenarios in veterinary medicine that results in truly acute heart failure; radiographically, the cardiac silhouette is only minimally enlarged in the presence of florid edema. Sometimes the pulmonary hypertension that develops subsequent to acute increases in left atrial pressure can result in right-sided CHF manifest clinically as ascites. Rupture of the left atrium is an uncommon complication of MVD. Although surgical treatment of atrial rupture has been described, most often the result is death due to tamponade. Rarely, rupture of the atrial septum results in an acquired atrial septal defect." Carol Richards East Tennessee, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.geocities.com/carolscavaliers/ "My little dog, a heartbeat at my feet." Edith Wharton ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 2002 by its original author.
