Cardiology

At the Sandhole Veterinary Centre one of our vets, Ian Johnson, holds the RCVS Certificate of Veterinary Cardiology (CertVC). This is a post-graduate qualification which can take up to 5 years to achieve.

Because of this, we see and treat a lot of dogs and cats with heart disease. We see animals for a number of different reasons:
 

• Routine examinations (to help identify heart disease before it causes your pet more problems)
• Monitoring of heart function in those breeds more likely to develop heart problems (such as Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Boxers and Great Danes)
• Investigation of a heart “murmur”
• Investigation into any potential signs of heart disease – such as slowing down/lethargy, coughing or collapsing
• Referrals of more complicated heart cases from other veterinary practices

We can tell a lot from just examining your animal and listening to his/her heart. To help your pet more, and to see what (if any) treatment is required, it is important to get the correct diagnosis. In order to look into the cause in more detail we have a number of different options available to us (of which one or more may be required)

Ultrasound:

An ultrasound of the heart (an “echocardiogram”) can be performed in a majority of animals without any need for sedation or anaesthetic, making it an ideal way of giving us more information. It allows us to look at how well the heart is beating, how big the heart is and whether there are any problems with it. Our special ultrasound machine also shows us how the blood is flowing within the heart. We can even show you the pictures of your animal’s heart when we discuss the results.


 

The ultrasound shown right  shows a leak of blood through a heart valve (identifying the cause of this dog’s heart murmur).

ECG

An ECG shows us the rhythm of your pet’s heart as well as information about the size of it. It can help us identify if the heart is beating in an abnormal way (you may not have noticed any signs of this at all). Again, this can be performed without any sedation or anaesthetics. We also have access to ECGs which can record your dog’s heart rhythm for up to 1 week while he is at home with you doing everything as normal! These are especially useful for dogs that become weak or collapse. This is called a Holter monitor 

The Holter monitor is a device that monitors the heart over a set period of time, usually 24 hours. It provides very useful information about the function of the heart over time. A gallery of the fitting of a Hotler monitor can be seen here

Video of Holter Monitor in situ



 

This ECG readout shows an irregular heartbeat

X-rays

X-rays allow us to see the size and shape of the heart as well as the lungs and often requires a sedation or anaesthetic. With more advanced heart disease, fluid can build-up both within and around the lungs and can cause coughing and difficulty breathing. It is also common for older dogs and cats to get coughing and breathing problems for other reasons than heart disease, and x-rays help to tell us the cause

This xray is showing a dog with an enlarged heart