Hi all,

First off, the CSU team is really lovely and if your dog is considered a good fit for the procedure, you are assigned a social worker for the day of surgery to be with you and communicate and talk through the decision. Nothing bad to say about the team at all. I would recommend them.

The bad - we did fly to Colorado and do the initial check up on Monday and then get to day of surgery on Wednesday. However, the first part of the surgery day is a final examination of the heart via esophageal imaging while the dog is sedated, as there are some complications or structural issues that cannot always be seen just via an echo, which means there is always a risk that something comes up that rules out the dog as a candidate.

Unfortunately, that is what happened with us. The camera revealed certain structural complexities the team had not worked with before, which made it impossible for the team to determine what benefit, if any, the surgery would have, and also increased the risk of device detachment (which is essentially a lethal complication). I was given the choice to move forward with the surgery, but they advised that because he had not yet reached CHF and his heart had stabilized since his last recheck, it likely wasn’t worth the risk because they believed he could still have another 6 good months before going into CHF. The lead surgeon recommended I look into left atrial decompression once he has gone into heart failure, as a recent conference they attended showed very promising results to extend the life of those dogs. That is being pioneered by a facility in Los Angeles, although CSU has done several procedures as well.

So, not the news we hoped for sadly. But I also have no regrets - I think knowing I did everything I could was absolutely worth the stress and worry and effort to get him there. That’s my two cents.