ultra sound scan from the heart??

[yvonne]

just want your opinion , lately some young gordons , one elderly gordon and one english died suddenly , when they where running around the heart suddenly stopped beating.


do you think that it would be wise to make ultra sound echo''s from the heart for young dogs , or only for the one your breeding with , in case it could be inheritated?

[Susan Stone]

Hello Yvonne
(thought I'd copy & paste my reply also)
What a terrible thing to experience - especially in young dogs. Do you have any more information as to the cause? I know there are various kinds of heart disease and some breeds have specific tests that must be done. I am thinking of Cavaliers, Boxers, Great Danes, and also the swiss breed Appenzeller Senennhund. These specific heart problems are considered genetic.
I think vets routinely check the heart of puppies the first time they are presented.
I have heard some setters suffer from an 'enlarged heart' when they get older, similar to athletes...

[yvonne]

no , i haven't , none of the owners did a autopsion to see what cause the heart faillure , but the dogs where very young , between 15 months and 3 years of age , the elderly dog was 7 and it seems to me that you see this more often now a days then in the past , would be interesting to hear if it is/was inheritated and what would you do with the litter mates , would you test them?

[Susan Stone]

There are so many heart diseases with dfferent symptoms and different genetic backgrounds. According to 'google' one called DCM seems known in setters - is that what we know as 'sports' heart?

I have experienced a friend loosing their 2 year old Newfoundland to heart failure. It turned out that both mother and brother had heart trouble, the brother died shortly after. In Newfoundlands I believe they have discovered the problem to be autosomal dominant but not necessarily showing itself from an early age... Serious breeders of Newfoundlands have there dogs examined by a cardiologist.

Difficult to say if the problem is inherited as you don't really know what the exact problem is. Of course it would be a good thing to test siblings and parents - but is that feasible? The ideal would be if this kind of problem were recorded by the breed clubs. An increase of cases would then show up and necessary measures could be taken.