How do people feel about a heart testing day?

would there be any intrest in something like this?

I would support that idea having had a Deery die of heart disease, infact he did take part in a study before he died organised I think by the club at Jacqui Murrays place, although I never heard what the results were!
Also it would be tricky finding somewhere central that would suit all!

It would be down the south area,
its only an idea at the moment - as would need to see how many were intrested.

I wish I was a bit closer then I would definately be interested as we also lost a dog to DCM a couple of years ago. I wish there was something like that over here but as far as I know there isn't.

Pam

I dont think there are many places that do it for deerhounds,
if you own a wolfhound on the other hand, then its endless the amount of research
and tests that are organised.

Have you asked anyone in the Deerhound club? I think they were behind the survey I was involved with? I am not a member now but I was back then. But there might be something going on, does anyone know?

If your Dog does have this heart disease, is it treatable? If it isn;t, then I wouldn't want to know I don't think, unless I was breeding, then I am not. But if it is a treatable condition then of course I would want to know and get him the proper treatment.

If your Dog does have this heart disease, is it treatable? If it isn;t, then I wouldn't want to know I don't think, unless I was breeding, then I am not. But if it is a treatable condition then of course I would want to know and get him the proper treatment.

From what i know - the club are trying to sort something out,
but it would be for dogs over 5 years i think, i have let sid know what we intend to
sort out and its fine.

What we want to do is like a socal day, it would be for any age deerhound
you come along have them heart tested, have some grub, chat etc
if the DH/C want any data or anything like that, they would be welcome to it,
the main aim would be to reduce the cost for everyone, as not everyone can afford
the price some of the specalist's charge and possably gather info.

but that would only happen if we can get enough people intrested,
virtualy everything is sorted, we can get the specalist who would come for the day
with all the equipment needed, we have a venue- just need people.

Unfortunaly with out a few people intrested in doing this, it wont go ahead.

If your Dog does have this heart disease, is it treatable? If it isn;t, then I wouldn't want to know I don't think, unless I was breeding, then I am not. But if it is a treatable condition then of course I would want to know and get him the proper treatment.

Lurch8252 wrote:


Tbh there is no cure, but there is treatment.
www.rvc.ac.uk/supervets/d...diomyopathy.pdf



I dont intend to breed from layla - but with her brother suddenly dropping dead
i have thought more about getting her tested, if there is any abnormalitys
then they can be picked up and either kept an eye on or treatment started
before the problem gets worse.

Thats how i see it anyway.

I am interested as I have had two dogs with DCM. I can also find out with the specialist who treated Wallace if he would be interested and at what the charge would be for a group. It is in Kent. But he was excellent with both my dogs and I did get the maximum number of years with Wallace which we both enjoyed.

We attended the heart and blood pressure testing at Jacqui's almost every time and although our dogs were all okay one did have a problem after being knocked out for stitches. Without Angela's sound advice on excerise (the vets advice was none at all) Brax may well have lived his short life a very bored dog (he died at 6 of bone cancer). She also discovered that Deerhounds were very different from other breeds and she reckoned if one of our girls was a human her veins would have exploded as her pressure was so high - by the way she died of old age at 12+ and was still chasing squirrels up trees a month prior. So we would definately be up for it if it was reasonable local. It was also great for socialising the dogs and humans alike which you cant get enough of eh! Joyx

PLease let us know JOY, about your hound who got a problem after being under a general anasthetic - because the same thing happened to my Dougal - he was very ill with a gut problem and was filled up with a multitude of drugs and it was after that, his heart arythmia started. This seemed very alarming to me.
As for treatment, Dougal was put on a strong dose of Digoxin which did not suit him at all, he went very lethargic and miserable and also got deerhound neck while under these drugs. All joy in life left him. I took him to another vet who also dabbled in homeopathy, she told me straight that his heart could not be fixed, so there was no point in trying to fix it, but the drugs were having a dreadful effect on him. So we took him off all the drugs and he lasted another 3 years quite happily on convalaria (Lily of the valley) which is a heart tonic. I shall always be grateful to her for doing this, as it brought his quality of life back, he died aged just 7 but was a happy dog.

Ref knowing - well actually you should know really - as I used to take Dougie lure coursing and climbing munros etc with me! I could have killed him if I hadnt found out! He definately slowed down a bit latterly but at least I didnt put him under any unnecessary strain!

I think hounds in genral are different from other breeds
there blood values for instance are different, its why some vets unless they know
sometimes end up diagnosing the wrong ailment.

I have to say I have read this thread with great interest! In my intro I asked about heavy panting after exercise and I had wondered about his heart but figured that the vet would have picked up any irregularities by now?

Fin wrote:


It would depend - if theres irregularatys, like murmer or something like that
then yep they might pick up on it, im saying might as ive seen some vets not pick up on murmers
but when the dogs seen another vet, they have picked up on it stright away.

The conditions that D/H suffer from, from what ive read they start off
with something underlying first, that weekens the heart muscle,
that weekining if im right, vets dont pick up on.

Amazing...but not surprising that once again,the KC and The Deerhound Club dont seem to have any input or information on this topic..and once again it is down to individuals to do the leg-work and set up a scheme by themselves..
Shame on them...

To be fair HB - the club are trying to organise something,
but it takes time and money to do it, and for them to organise things they need people to say they would attend it, lack of responce holds things up, theres no point them putting
something on, if no one attends - its one of the resions i asked on hear if people would be intrested in us organiseing something for all ages- if not many are intrested, then it wont happen simple as, were not going to waste money, organising something, then no one turn up.

the tests the club are trying to organise will probably be for dogs 5 and over,
which is not what some of us want, as younger dogs are dieing aswell,
from heart problems.

The problem is not many people report it when their dogs dies of heart related problems
especaly when they die young, so theres no real statistics(sp)of it happening,
if people did report it, then more would be done.

Sorry, long post

My brother has Bryns sister and he has had huge problems with the vet regarding heart problems.
She was acting strange, as if she was in season (she was 'done' at a very early age, on the advice of the vet) The vet did loads of tests and gave ABs saying it was urine infection. She was at the vets about three more times within a week (so they could do more test) and then they said they thought she 'might' have a heart problem. One vet then said she DID have a heart problem and she was back to the vets for more tests and more examinations.

I asked him to find out what grade of heart murmur she had. (By now I was angry that she had been put through so much without anyone saying what they planned to do about it, or sending her to the university vet for proper testing)

They eventualy sent her to the university and she was fitted with a heart monitor. The results of this were inconclusive and the test was repeated.

The insurance have paid a lot of money for all this testing, as has my brother. I told him to stop it as the poor dog is a nervous wreck from so many stays at the vets, being jabbed and prodded and kept in a cage. The scabs she got where the monitoring equipment was attached to her, have taken ages to heal and she has lost all condition she had.

Some folk have said the original vet may have left something behind when she was spayed, this would have caused the original problem or maybe it was just a urine infection. The problem is that the continual 'TESTING' has left her a different dog.

She will not be returning to the vet unless she is injured. I feel it will take months for her to recover from her experience. My brother did what he thought was best, he has always taken the vets advice. I wonder if so many tests would have been necessary if there had been no insurance to pay for them.

None of the other pups from this litter have shown any signs of heart problems. They were all vetted as pups and I would be reluctant to put any dog through what my brothers dog suffered.

The reason there was no answer from the tests was because any problem there may (or may not) be, was so minor or intermittent it failed to register on their equipment.