rottweiler arrhythmias

Re: rottweiler arrhythmias

danny holmes — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 22:04:44 GMT

Mike,

The Rottie was 5-6 years old. Ive sent the heart and lungs to UCD for postmortem and on gross, (as I thought) there was no sign of DCM. Certainly my ultrasound exam gave no indication of DCM. They 've promised histo exams of the conduction system next week.

I will let you know if they find any pathology.

Danny

Re: rottweiler arrhythmias

Mike Martin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:01:19 GMT

It's an observant owner that notices an irregular heart beat without a prompt by symptoms. The VT would explain your treatment and initial good response to treatment. Unfortunately sudden death is not uncommon despite treatment, even then there is no clear published evidence that anti-arrhythmic drugs are effective. There is good medical evidence that infamously shows some anti-arrhythmics can cause more sudden death in people. However despite that, our treatment would have been the same as yours.

The malignant arrhythmias in GSDs is an inherited condition, seen in young dogs <1 year of age. What age was this dog? Rotties are not the most common breed we see and after a quick look thro my database, we've seen them for both respiratory (eg. PIE) and cardiac disease (congenital and acquired). So quite a mix. Of the adults with arrhythmias, they have mostly had DCM.

Re: rottweiler arrhythmias

danny holmes — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:50:26 GMT

Mike

Apologies. For fibrillation read tachycardia. There was R on T phenomena present during these bursts. The dog presented because the owner felt these abnormally fast and "violent" heart beats and recognised them as new over a 2-3 day period. There was no history of collapse.

Danny

Re: rottweiler arrhythmias

Mike Martin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:37:24 GMT

I guess I'm uncertain I understand what you're describing, as you might be mixing up the terminology. Ventricular fibrillation (VF) normally leads to sudden death. It would rarely revert to normal without electrical defib. So I wonder if you mean atrial fibrillation (AF)? But one would not normally give lidocaine for AF. Hence my confusion.

You've also not explained why the dog presented? I'm guessing it was collapsing, as it was clinically normal?

Re: rottweiler arrhythmias

danny holmes — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:19:17 GMT

Mike,

Unfortunately I had a battery die in my ecg monitor after tracing and I was unable to recover it to my computer. Have you any comment on the general query?

Danny

Re: rottweiler arrhythmias

Mike Martin — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:18:37 GMT

Hi Danny,

Any chance you could post the ECG tracings?