Oh, Corinne, I'm sorry to hear this! I used to work for a pacemaker company in the sales field and I would donate my soon-to-expire pacers (but they still have 7-10 years of life in the pacer) to Vet hospitals.
Since she has AV block, what happens is that the sinus node, our natural "pacer" cannot communicate w/ her ventricles and tell them to "get going". So, let's say she starts to run - her sinus node in the atrium says "let's beat faster" but it can't communicate with the ventricles so the ventricles just "sit" in what is called an "escape rhythm" - basically a slow, constant rhythm unaffected by activity needs.
A pacemaker could be set at an "average" pace in the ventricles so that she wouldn't just sit at a the slow rhythm. Does this make sense to you?
Anyway, it might be something to look into - they can def. be implanted into dogs. As a favor, I used to go to the Vet hospitals to do "pacer checks" every 6mths or so, since they need to tested and checked, and I that was the favorite part of my job. Keep me posted!
Ann
__________________ ~ A friend told me I was delusional. I nearly fell off my unicorn. ~
°¨¨¨°ºOº°¨¨¨° Ann | Pfeiffer | Marcel Verdel Purcell | Wylie | Artie °¨¨¨°ºOº°¨¨¨° |