Vicki
Administrator
Keeping pace with a dog's life
written by: Jeffrey Wolf written by: Dave Delozier
FORT COLLINS - All too often at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University, pets provide valuable medical advances that benefit humans. Some of the cancer treatments now used on humans began at CSU in form of clinical trials on dogs.
Now the favor is being returned.
A tried and true treatment used for humans with slow heart rates is being used on pets: pacemakers.
"We're buying them a normal life by putting the pacemaker in," Dr. Jan Bright, a professor of cardiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, said.
Bright recently placed a pacemaker in Raven, a 3-year-old poodle owned by Mary Gabler. Raven started showing symptoms of a slow heart rate this past January.
"After we would come home from a walk or a hike, she would start to stumble and the she would fall over and would only be out for a couple of seconds," Gabler said.
The fainting is caused by lack of blood flow associated with a slow heart rate.
Like a lot of pet owners, Gabler wanted to give Raven her best chance for survival and that meant a pacemaker. With a pacemaker, dogs like Raven can expect to live a normal life.
New pacemakers can be very expensive however, ranging from $3,500 to $7,500. Fortunately for pet owners like Gabler, a more affordable alternative exists in the form of donated older pacemakers that are collected by the American College of Veterinary Medicine.
"They get pacemakers donated by the manufacturers and these pacemakers are not suitable for use in humans because they've expired," Bright said.
Once the batteries in a pacemaker reach a certain age they can not be used by humans.
Bright also receives pacemakers that were previously used by humans that still have considerable battery life left.
"Nothing is wrong with them. Their battery life probably isn't quite as long as the brand new ones, but our patients don't have to live as long usually, so it works out perfectly," Bright said.
The used pacemakers cost around $500, but there is also a fee for minimally invasive surgery to place the devise in the pet. This program helped make it possible for Gabler to afford the pacemaker for Raven.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it. I would have had to have given her the best quality of life that I know and she probably wouldn't be here in a year or so," Gabler said.
Instead Raven's future is far different.
"This will give Raven a full life. She will hopefully live until she is 11 or 12," Gabler said.
http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=144929
written by: Jeffrey Wolf written by: Dave Delozier
FORT COLLINS - All too often at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University, pets provide valuable medical advances that benefit humans. Some of the cancer treatments now used on humans began at CSU in form of clinical trials on dogs.
Now the favor is being returned.
A tried and true treatment used for humans with slow heart rates is being used on pets: pacemakers.
"We're buying them a normal life by putting the pacemaker in," Dr. Jan Bright, a professor of cardiology at the College of Veterinary Medicine, said.
Bright recently placed a pacemaker in Raven, a 3-year-old poodle owned by Mary Gabler. Raven started showing symptoms of a slow heart rate this past January.
"After we would come home from a walk or a hike, she would start to stumble and the she would fall over and would only be out for a couple of seconds," Gabler said.
The fainting is caused by lack of blood flow associated with a slow heart rate.
Like a lot of pet owners, Gabler wanted to give Raven her best chance for survival and that meant a pacemaker. With a pacemaker, dogs like Raven can expect to live a normal life.
New pacemakers can be very expensive however, ranging from $3,500 to $7,500. Fortunately for pet owners like Gabler, a more affordable alternative exists in the form of donated older pacemakers that are collected by the American College of Veterinary Medicine.
"They get pacemakers donated by the manufacturers and these pacemakers are not suitable for use in humans because they've expired," Bright said.
Once the batteries in a pacemaker reach a certain age they can not be used by humans.
Bright also receives pacemakers that were previously used by humans that still have considerable battery life left.
"Nothing is wrong with them. Their battery life probably isn't quite as long as the brand new ones, but our patients don't have to live as long usually, so it works out perfectly," Bright said.
The used pacemakers cost around $500, but there is also a fee for minimally invasive surgery to place the devise in the pet. This program helped make it possible for Gabler to afford the pacemaker for Raven.
"I wouldn't have been able to do it. I would have had to have given her the best quality of life that I know and she probably wouldn't be here in a year or so," Gabler said.
Instead Raven's future is far different.
"This will give Raven a full life. She will hopefully live until she is 11 or 12," Gabler said.
http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=144929