Mandy's Mission

This is Mandy

She passed away a few years ago as a result of a mitral valve disease. Today, she could be saved using a surgical procedure developed in Japan and perfected by a wonderful doctor–Masami Uechi.

Her parents–Vital Planet founders, Brenda and Stan Watson–are determined to bring this life saving surgery to the University of Florida where Dr. Uechi is working with Dr. Simon Swift. Dr. Uechi and Dr. Swift are dedicated to making this surgery available so that all dogs do not have to experience the results of this disease.

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Mitral Valve Disease in Dogs

Degenerative Mitral Valve Disease is an acquired disease, responsible for 75% of all canine heart disease. The good news is a team in Japan has developed the ability to perform a surgical repair procedure of the valve via cardiac bypass in dogs, presently achieving a success rate of 87%! The dogs are often able to discontinue all medications after surgery. Unfortunately, the Japanese surgical team are unable to visit the United States regularly.  We really have a need for a successful open-heart program to perform this surgery in the United States.

More good news, at the University of Florida, they have a Veterinary Cardiology team  willing to undertake the training necessary to become proficient at mitral valve repair. This is where you can help! Funding will allow UF to establish this program to perform repair of congenital and acquired heart diseases in dogs that would otherwise have a poor prognosis.

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Video

Drs. Masami Uechi and Sayaka Takeuchi – Jasmine Clinic Japan

Dr. Uechi has successfully performed over 1,000 mitral valve surgeries with over a 92% success rate. We now need to bring this successful surgery to the United States and save many more lives.

For more information on Degenerative Mitral Valve Disease in Dogs please visit Mighty Hearts Project .

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