Am I worrying un-necessarily ?

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BBH

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I have just read that my girls sister had died of a heart attack and she was only 3 yrs old. I am now worrying that it may be congenital and my dog could have a bad heart. Is this likely ?

Also do dogs need an annual booster ?

My dogs have always had boosters but I read an article questioning whether it was necessary as it can 'overload' their system. Clearly I want to do right by her but i'm now worried about her health.
 
If your dog has been having annual innoculations, your vet will have taken the opportunity to listen to her heart and should have warned you if they could hear a problem that might need to be investigated. So I think you are probably worrying unduly.

As for whether you need annual boosters, you should speak to your own vet and make a decision, maybe based on where you live and walk your dog. I personally don't have annual boosters, but it's personal choice.
 
Re boosters - it also depends on what you do with your dog. Certainly, the training classes I am involved with require all dogs to have up to date vaccinations to participate.
 
Heart disease does run in families, Dobermanns have it and they are running tests & trials on dogs that have signed up for it.

What breed is your dog?

As for vacinating your dog I would agree with Spud much as I hate the whole concept with over loading your dog. I do believe vets can blood test for antibodies and depending with what you want to do it you can choose not to have them vacinated. But if you want to put your dog in kennels they will not accept unless they are up to date with their vacinations.

I think you have to speak to your vet about your concerns.
 
She was from a puppy farm/backyard breeder, via rescue, wasn't she? Mastiff or bullmastiff? Forgive me if I am mixing you up with someone else.
TBH if it is possible if I owned the sister, I would notify anyone and everyone who has a close relative of the deceased dog, if that is possible and if there are issues in the lines then try and get the place she came from closed down.
This is why I bloody hate puppy farms :( just churn them out for cash and sod health/the consequences :(

Your vet should be able to advise.
 
Yes CC you're right she's a rescue bullmastiff.

She was a rescue and came in with her sister from a lady that bought them to breed from. I don't know how she acquired them originally tbh or if they were from puppy farms.

I think i'm getting things a little out of context because i lost my other dog in january from a heart attack at 7 and its all a bit raw the thought of losing her aswell.

When i'm less anxious I remember that after she was returned from being lost I took her for a vet check and all was well and she is due her booster in Aug so will ask again.

Also both these girls were rescued from kennels with very little stimulation or company and her sister was rehomed a few months ago to a family with 2 young kids and part of me wonders if joining a chaotic family after her life of solitude was too much.

I don't know really.
 
I lost my boy Hector at 5 he just quickly died in the night (literally a few minutes) and had shown no signs of illness prior, the vet suspected heart attack or possible brain issue given the circumstances. We considered a post mortem as we also have his litter sibling, but the vet felt it probably wouldn't be conclusive and reassured us that just because they are siblings doesn't necessarily mean they'd both be effected with same issues and gave our boy Throp a through check over at his booster the following week for our benefit. Hector was a blood donor so had a quarterly check up when he donated without any issues being picked up, i try to just enjoy my time with Throp rather than worry about what may happen.
 
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