RE: 8 month old 4.5kg cross breed dog with arrhythmia

hilary warner — Sun, 23 Jan 2022 13:27:39 GMT

Update- Lost to follow up.

RE: 8 month old 4.5kg cross breed dog with arrhythmia

hilary warner — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 21:30:08 GMT

Thank you,

Has always lived in the UK and the dogs father who is 6 has a heart problem and is on medication- the owner is going to investigate this a little further first and has declined the Holter but I will keep this in mind, and if I hear/know more will update the post.

Seasons Greetings

RE: 8 month old 4.5kg cross breed dog with arrhythmia

Mark Patteson — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 09:58:55 GMT

It is unusual to find ventricular arrhythmias (VAs) in a dog of this age - which I guess is why you posted this!
yes they are monomorphic and not very premature eiterh so that means that they wil be less haemodynamic or risky than some - but the issue is we have such a short trace that no one can tell how frequent these are, or if threre are runs of ventricualr tachycardia (or long periods of normality) at other times
so yes a Holter woudl be really helpful
You might expect me to say that since we run a Holter rental/interpretation service https://heartvets.co.uk/diagnostics-service/holter-monitoring/ but the reality is that that is what I would do one if it was with us
Ideally order sharpish because Christmas will slow the process up, we can analyse up to 24/12.
its hard to comment on your echo without seeing it, but if systolic function is normal that does make it easier to treat the arrhytmia should it be needed.

the other issue is why is the arrhythmia there? if the dog is not sick, systemic diease is less likely but myocarditis is stil possible. I n a young dog ideally I would check tropinin I and possibly a range of infections such as toxo and parasitic bourne disease

2 left field questions
Is the dog imported?
does the owner have Covid?

Myocarditis is frustrating to look for and we dont have many hard and fast rules, but I think in a young dog its a more important rule our than in an older dog that is more likely to have primary mycardial disease.
we do see some young dogs with arrhythmias like this that we remain unsure of an aetiology so its down to the Holter as to assess the risk / benefits of treatment vs no treatment

I hope thats some help, these are never easy

Dr Mark Patteson MA VetMB PhD DVC CertVR FRCVS

RCVS Recognised Specialist in Veterinary Cardiology