East Coast Veterinary Cardiology

It's been great traveling to so many wonderful veterinary hospitals all over Nova Scotia over the past two months and meeting their amazing staff and patients! I look forward to continuing to meet and collaborate with more Nova Scotia veterinarians as we enhance the quality of lives of pets with heart disease! Thanks to Fall River Animal Hospital for their recent consultations! Mobile cardiology consultations can be scheduled by veterinarians by calling 902-943-1130 or via email [email protected]

I'm sure that many vet offices have been inundated with phone calls recently as a result of the media frenzy regarding grain free foods and the potential association with development of canine DCM. There is still much for us to learn and understand on how this is all happening in the affected dogs, but this article summarizes things quite nicely. It's a good review so you are better prepared for the next client phone call!

FDA Releases Update on Grain Free diets and Development of DCM: In the past year, the FDA with the assistance of veterinary cardiologists and nutritionists, have been investigating an increase in reported cases of dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in dogs fed a diet labeled as grain free. Yesterday, the FDA released an update with more information from the cases collected over the past year, including brands more commonly implicated in animals developing DCM, as well as the commo...n ingredients in these particular cases. The underlying mechanism is still not defined in terms of why these diets lead to the development of DCM but research continues. https://www.fda.gov//fda-investigation-potential-link-betw Common ingredients were legumes that have been used to replace the grains in these diets, namely peas and lentils. In the interim, until a mechanism is determined, we recommend to veterinarians that dogs with known heart disease should NOT be fed a diet with a high lentil/pea content. If you have a patient who has been fed one of these diets and is exhibiting clinical signs of heart disease (exercise intolerance, labored breathing, coughing) and/or has developed a new heart murmur, immediate cardiac assessment is recommended (thoracic radiographs, echocardiography). If you are a veterinarian and are interested in learning more, please don't hesitate to contact us! We will continue to update you as more information is released from the FDA.

ACVIM updates consensus statement on the diagnosis and management of myxomatous mitral valve disease in dogs: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvim.15488 The original consensus statement first published in 2009 has been updated to reflect data from the EPIC study which revealed benefit for the use of Vetmedin (pimobendan) therapy in dogs with moderate left sided heart enlargement secondary to degenerative myxomatous mitral valve disease. If you are a veterinarian and are interested in learning more about the diagnosis and management of canine mitral valve disease, please message us!

Attention Nova Scotia veterinarians: East Coast Veterinary Cardiology (ECVC) is now scheduling mobile, full-service cardiology consultations! We travel to your hospital to provide in-house comprehensive and non-invasive cardiac diagnostics (cardiovascular physical examination, echocardiography, electrocardiography, Holter monitoring, Doppler blood pressure and thoracic radiograph interpretation). Having us come to your practice reduces travel time for access to specialty c...ardiac care for your client and keeps you actively involved in the continued case management of your patient. Consultations can be scheduled online for registered practices or over the phone. If you are a veterinarian interested in scheduling our mobile cardiac services or wish to register for online access, please call us at 902-943-1130 or email [email protected]. We are very happy to schedule a time to visit your hospital to discuss services in more detail so please reach out! We look forward to collaborating with you soon! Pet owners: as this is a service for veterinarians only, we are unable to take phone calls or schedule consultations directly with pet owners. Interested pet owners are encouraged to speak to their family veterinarian if a cardiac evaluation is appropriate for their pet.

Mitral valve disease update for veterinarians! Please stay tuned to our Facebook page as we plan to post information for veterinarians (practice pearls, disease updates, cases, etc.). As mitral valve disease is the most common form of acquired cardiac disease diagnosed in canines, we thought this was a good place to start! For more information about mitral valve disease (in case you need a refresher!), check out our website: https://www.eastcoastheartvet.ca/mitral-valve-dis...ease/ Mitral valve disease (or mitral valve prolapse) is common in people and is generally managed surgically where the valve leaflets/chords are repaired to reduce severity of mitral regurgitation. In veterinary medicine, we generally manage these patients medically with many patients succumbing to congestive heart failure (CHF). In recent years, there has been increased interest in providing surgical options for animals - Dr. Uechi in Japan has some of the best outcomes for mitral valve repair in dogs but unfortunately pet owners from North America would have to travel to him in Japan or France for this specialized surgery. Starting this summer, the University of Florida veterinary teaching hospital is bringing Dr. Uechi to North America to offer this surgery to affected dogs. The aim of this open heart surgery is to reconstruct the mitral valve, therefore reducing the severity of the mitral regurgitation and arresting/delaying progression of the disease. Many dogs who were on therapy for CHF were able to stop many, if not most, of their cardiac medications following a successful surgery. The drawback for this type of surgery is unfortunately the expense - it is expected to cost tens of thousands of dollars given the expertise required (open heart surgery, bypass machine, post operative care). If you are interested in learning more, check out the University of Florida's website! https://smallanimal.vethospital.ufl.edu//mitral-valve-rep/

Attention Nova Scotia veterinarians: East Coast Veterinary Cardiology (ECVC) is now scheduling mobile, full-service cardiology consultations! We travel to your hospital to provide in-house comprehensive and non-invasive cardiac diagnostics (cardiovascular physical examination, echocardiography, electrocardiography, Holter monitoring, Doppler blood pressure and thoracic radiograph interpretation). Having us come to your practice reduces travel time for access to specialty c...ardiac care for your client and keeps you actively involved in the continued case management of your patient. Consultations can be scheduled online for registered practices or over the phone. If you are a veterinarian interested in scheduling our mobile cardiac services or wish to register for online access, please call us at 902-943-1130 or email [email protected]. We are very happy to schedule a time to visit your hospital to discuss services in more detail so please reach out! We look forward to collaborating with you soon! Pet owners: as this is a service for veterinarians only, we are unable to take phone calls or schedule consultations directly with pet owners. Interested pet owners are encouraged to speak to their family veterinarian if a cardiac evaluation is appropriate for their pet.

You may have noticed a recent change to our name - we had our original name (Coastal Veterinary Cardiology) approved by the appropriate governing bodies in Nova Scotia in January 2019; unfortunately, circumstances beyond our control after our recent launch necessitated a name change to East Coast Veterinary Cardiology - although initially a little disappointing, we are very excited with our new business name as it reflects our Maritime location! This also gives us an opport...unity to chat about our logo - designed by Elizabeth Creative (http://elizabethcreative.com), we love how the logo ties together an ECG wave with ocean waves (some have pointed out the ECG wave resembles a sailboat!). We are currently en-route to Nova Scotia (via Denver, Colorado) and are on track for a start date of June 10th. We are very excited by the feedback received to date and continue to look forward to collaborate with veterinarians and pet owners in Nova Scotia!

Coming June 10, 2019! We are excited to collaborate soon with veterinarians in Nova Scotia. In the meantime check out our website at www.eastcoastheartvet.ca to learn more about our mobile cardiology services.