There are lots of clues on history such as being tired after a little bit of exercise, coughing after exercise and so forth.

We will be giving your pet a good general exam that will include listening carefully to your pet’s heart and lungs, feeling the quality of the pulse, checking the color and nature of the mucus membranes, checking the tiny vessels in the eyes, palpating the abdomen, and maybe rechecking everything after exercise.

We will also be asking a lot of questions that will help us with the diagnoisis and hopefully prevent us from going down some expensive false trails.  (such as mistaking indigestion for heart disease and vice versa)

It’s interesting that certain breeds are more likely to have certain types of heart disease:

Murmers:  Cockers, Poodles, Schnauzers, Dachshunds, Chihuahuas, Pomeranians, and Min. Pinschers

Myocarditis:  Boxers, St Bernards, and German Shorthair Pointers

Cardiomyopathy:  large breeds of dogs

Heart base tumors:  Boston Terriers, Boxers, and English Bulldogs

Various Congential Heart Problems:  Poodle, Collies, Poms, Sheperds, Eng. Bulldogs, Schnauzers, Pointers, Keeshonds, Fox Terriers, Irish Setters, and Weimaraners.

Once heart disease is suspected, your vet will discuss and offer and least some of the following laboratory and imaging choices:

A.  Rule out heartworm disease with an elisa test:

B.  CBC and Chemistry;  this is important because so often heart disease is seen in association with other diseases…especially kidney and liver diseases.

C.  Radiographs; to see if the heart is enlarged typical of certain types of heart disease, to see if there are tumors, to see if the lungs are very congested, and to see if there is fluid around the heart.

D.  Urinalysis:  This test is not likely to tell us anything specific about the heart, but it’s included in the work up of  pets suspected of serious disease.

Why?  Because most serious diseases also involve other organ systems and this fairly inexpensive test of urine gives us a good feel for the heatlh of the kidneys and bladder as well as hints about pancreatic, liver, and gall bladder health.  It helps with our asscessment of tissue hydration too.

E.  EKG:  EKG’s help us rule out cardiac blocks and arrthymias, electrical conduction problems of the heart, and also are pretty good at indicating cardiac enlargement.

If your vet, like me, is not expert at reading EKG’s…or chest x-rays, for that matter, with the modern miracle of the digital age, we can have an expert read your pet’s EKG or X-ray fro a remote location through the phone lines!

This is pretty amazing, but still fairly expensive.

F.  Echo, Ultra Sound, Angiograms, MRI’s, Cat Scans, and other types of Imaging:  All this is now available in veterinary medicine, although usually a trip to a specialist facility is necessary.

As you might suspect, while many heart problems can be greatly improved with inexpensive medicine and nutritional support, the best available testing and treatment for heart disease can be quite expensive.

I mention this for three reasons:

One:  To prepare you to think realistically.  Heart

disease is farily common and often stikes

without much warning.

Two:  To motivate you to take the trouble and

relatively minor expense of providing

a good lean diet, lots of exercise, and

heartworm preventive.

Three:  To consider Pet Health Insurance.  It sure is

nice to have when your beloved pet needs it.