01/06/2026
Please Share——
Appointments for this week will be canceled.
Yesterday my dog, Ruby, went to the UW- Madison, to see a cardiologist for her progressing Mitral Valve Disease.
She has a very enlarged heart, ruptured cords, and a very thick mitral valve.
Typically in these situations dogs are treated for their symptoms, diuretics, ace inhibitors, Vetmedin, the cardiologist suggested we increase her diuretic, potentially leading to kidney damage.
However, this year, Entresto has been made generic making it more accessible for people (or dogs) without insurance. Entresto is NOT a cure for MVD, but limited studies have shown there is a great chance for heart shrinking, heart remodeling, helping arrhythmias, having the kidneys and heart “talk” to each other, and in people they’ve greatly improved quality of life and reduced death and hospitalization due to heart disease (dogs too).
I am positive she will be the first dog in the UP to be trialing Entresto, and she is the 3rd or 4th dog at UW Madison to be trialing Entresto. It is used off label for dogs.
Research is limited, but it’s considered generally safe. We are hopeful that Rubys fight against MVD will educate our veterinarians and dog owners across the world (and locally) that MVD can be fought with improved quality of life.
If anyone would like more information on what we’re trying, I’d be happy to talk with anyone about it and how we got here.
Next week she will get bloodwork and x-rays and at that time I will know more about her condition and can make better choices moving forward. She needs to be closely monitored for the first week of starting Entresto, I will be checking her blood pressure at home and keeping her calm. I hope she can be a good statistic for dogs with MVD everywhere.
Please share this post, I will keep you all updated! Hopefully we will be lucky enough to see improvement quickly, like it has done for so many dogs already.
If anyone wants more infomation, please message me on here or my personal facebook Haylee Argall
The treatment and check ups are not cheap, and I am not comfortable stressing her out with people coming and going while we see how she reacts to this medication, next week we will know how she reacts and can go from there. Dogs are seeing improvement in as little as a few days, and 1-2 weeks showing improvement on radiographs, and 4 weeks showing significant improvement that continues to improve sometimes for months.
CHF can still come back, it does not cure MVD. But there are some dogs coming out of CHF for YEARS, we only hope Ruby can have the same good luck as many others!
Thank you all for understanding. It was not an easy decision. I hope we can regroup over the next couple of days as we see how she does!
If you are on the books for this week and your dog requires grooming and cannot wait (I know some of you were moved already), I highly recommend Nikki at Doggie Styles, Emily Hendrickson at Petsmart or Rick at Tacomo.
I hope to give you all a positive update sometime later this week! I have to try, and I will always do what’s best for all our furry friends, mine or yours. ❤️ 🐾
