Esther Johannessohn knows Chihuahuas.
Breeding the dogs is a family affair, and the puppies are raised in her home in Lengby, MN. So when she was holding 3-week-old Spunky, she knew something was not right. She could feel Spunky’s heart thumping under her fingers.
“I knew that wasn’t normal,” Johannessohn remembers. “I had a really bad feeling about it,”
Spunky nursed and played with her siblings and eventually ate food. Everything appeared normal, except her heartbeat.
When Stacey Hughes and her family in Aitkin, MN, adopted their springerdoodle, Millie, her energy was “off the charts,” but she soon found herself in the same position as the Johannessohns.
Neither Millie nor Spunky had any observable physical effects, but both were diagnosed with patent ductus arteriosus (PDA), a congenital heart condition in which a blood vessel that normally closes after birth remains open. It’s the most common congenital heart condition in dogs, and if left untreated, it’s fatal.
Johannessohn’s veterinarian said the condition may improve, but that was doubtful.
Seeking specialty care
Both Hughes and Johannessohn were told their dogs would need surgery to close the vessel in their hearts. Both were told to go to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center’s (VMC) Lewis Small Animal Hospital.
Little did either of them know that one of the hospital’s cardiology residents, Joe Herbert, was working on research related to PDA. Even more, he had secured a novel device that would allow cardiologists at the VMC to perform a non-invasive PDA surgery on the smallest of puppies, something that had only recently become possible.
“Traditionally, the device most people know of can only be used in dogs that weigh at least 7.5 pounds. That’s a problem when we’re talking about these really small breeds. Some Chihuahuas don’t reach 7.5 pounds when they’re full-grown,” Herbert says.
Back in the early 2000s, former University of Minnesota faculty member and veterinary cardiologist Anthony Tobias co-developed the first-ever non-invasive device to correct PDA. Two decades later, the Veterinary Medical Center was the first place in North America to use the most up-to-date tool, the Vet-PDA OccludeR, a piece of equipment donated by a Spanish medical device manufacturer, thanks to the research from Herbert and Chris Stauthammer, a professor of cardiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine who tested Tobias’ first-generation device during his own residency.
Instead of opening the chest cavity and tying off the blood vessel, the novel devices allow for a non-invasive fix in tiny dogs. The smallest ever operated on was 1.3 pounds—about the same as a loaf of bread.
To do so, the cardiologist feeds a catheter through a vein in the thigh and uses that, and live X-ray images, to close off the valve without a suture. The process leaves only a tiny prick on the dog’s leg.
Cutting medical costs
Without the donated Vet-PDA Occlude device, surgery for each dog would have run well into the thousands of dollars.
“Because these were donated to us, we could cut $1,000–1,500 off the bill,” Herbert says.
After reading Spunky’s case, he made a personal phone call to Johannessohn asking her if she would be interested in having the 4-month-old puppy try a brand new procedure. In June, Spunky was the first patient to undergo a non-invasive PDA surgery at the VMC using the new equipment. Millie followed in September. Today, both girls are happy and healthy.
This story was adapted from the original at the College of Veterinary Medicine.
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