TANGIBLE INDUSTRIES

Clinical perspective:
This is a progressive disease. Once it worsens to a certain stage, it significantly limits a dog’s lifespan — often reducing it to 6-12 months after symptomatic onset. Standard medications can relieve symptoms, but cannot fix the valve.

Human perspective:
When your dog is diagnosed, it can feel overwhelming like a clock is ticking. You might wonder: “What can I do now?” You are not alone — and neither is your dog.

TEER offers a less-invasive solution, repairing the valve through a catheter instead of open surgery. In human medicine, it has revolutionized care. At Tangible Vet Tech, we are adapting and improving this approach for dogs — developing The Belka Series, a 3D-printed, hemocompatible mitral repair system tailored for small-breed canine hearts.
Our goal: to make advanced heart repair accessible, affordable, and compassionate.

Our Work

We are in the pre-clinical phase, moving rapidly toward real-world use.
• Working with veterinary cardiologists at Colorado State University
• Testing in a state-of-the-art cardiac simulator
• Refining device geometry for canine anatomy
• Preparing for first-in-dog catheter-feasibility procedures

A solution that can reach more dogs.
The challenge today is not just technical; it’s accessibility.
• Open-heart surgery is available only at a handful of locations worldwide.
• Most families cannot access it.
• Many dogs are too old or too fragile to undergo it.

Our goal is to ensure:
• More dogs get treated
• Earlier in disease progression
• With lower risk
• And broader geographic access

This is how we change the standard of care for dogs.

Dog owners may sign up for updates or express interest in clinical participation here:

The Belka Series

Throughout history, dogs have been silent pioneers of human discovery, from the first heart surgeries in the 1940s, to the early space missions, to today’s breakthroughs in genetics and neuroscience.

We remember Laika, Belka, Strelka, Pavlov’s dogs, and the countless unnamed animals who shaped our understanding of physiology, behavior, and the human heart itself.

At Tangible Vet Tech, we believe the next era of science belongs to them. Our mission is to transform the legacy of animal research into a new paradigm of animal healing, one where dogs are no longer the subjects of experimentation, but the beneficiaries of innovation

Named in honor of Belka, one of the first dogs to return safely from space, The Belka Series represents a new era of compassionate science — where technology that once depended on dogs now exists to save them.

Our hemocompatible, patient-specific mitral repair system merges the best of computational modeling, 3D printing, and catheter design to restore healthy valve function in small-breed dogs.

From orbit to operating room, Belka’s legacy lives on in every heartbeat we help restore.

A gentler alternative to open-heart surgery

Instead of opening the chest, our approach repairs the valve through a catheter, a tiny tube inserted into a vein.

This means:

no opening of the chest
shorter recovery
less risk
more dogs eligible for treatment
potentially far lower cost than open-heart surgery

This approach, called TEER — Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair, has transformed heart repair in human medicine. We are adapting and improving it specifically for canine hearts.

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Understanding TEER in Dogs

Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (TEER): A Lifeline for the Canine Heart Degenerative mitral valve disease (MMVD) affects over 8 million dogs in the U.S., especially small breeds such as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Dachshunds, Toy Poodles, and Chihuahuas.

Our Work

Dog owners may sign up for updates or express interest in clinical participation here:

The Belka Series

A gentler alternative to open-heart surgery

Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (TEER): A Lifeline for the Canine Heart
Degenerative mitral valve disease (MMVD) affects over 8 million dogs in the U.S., especially small breeds such as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Dachshunds, Toy Poodles, and Chihuahuas.