A new alternative to open-heart surgery for mitral valve disease in dogs.

Mitral valve disease is the most common heart condition affecting dogs, particularly small breeds, and for many families it comes with an impossible choice. Medication can slow progression but does not fix the underlying problem, while open heart surgery is invasive, expensive, and available at only a handful of specialized centers. For most dogs, there has simply been no middle ground.

We are a Colorado based startup working alongside leading veterinary cardiologists, surgeons, and engineers to develop a minimally invasive mitral valve repair system designed specifically for dogs. Our goal is simple and urgent, help dogs with degenerative mitral valve disease live longer, healthier lives without the trauma of major surgery.

Degenerative Mitral Valve Disease, also known as Myxomatous Mitral Valve Disease or Mitral Valve Disease, causes the mitral valve to leak, forcing the heart to work harder over time. As the disease progresses, dogs develop fatigue, coughing, breathing difficulty, and eventually heart failure. While medications can improve quality of life, they cannot repair the damaged valve.

Our solution addresses the root cause.

Tangible Vet Tech is developing a transcatheter edge to edge repair system, commonly referred to as TEER, adapted specifically for canine anatomy. Unlike open heart surgery, our approach is fully transvenous, delivered through the jugular vein, eliminating the need to open the chest or stop the heart. This allows the valve to be repaired on a beating heart using catheter based techniques already familiar to veterinary cardiologists.

What makes our approach truly different is how it is built. Canine hearts vary dramatically in size and shape, from a two kilogram Chihuahua to a forty kilogram Labrador. Human devices cannot simply be scaled down. Our system is designed from the ground up for dogs, leveraging advanced imaging, patient specific design, and high fidelity advanced fabrication to create implants optimized for small, delicate, and highly variable anatomy.

By combining minimally invasive delivery with precision engineered, dog specific devices, we aim to expand access to life saving valve repair, reduce recovery time, and offer families a treatment option that was previously out of reach.