Has anyone had an ECG done on their dog?

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But this time I am not panicking I promise :p The vet took 2 x-rays of Islay's heart when she was under the anaesthetic on Tuesday and the heart is definitely enlarged, when Islay was unconscious her heart was apparently beating very fast & they were quite worried about it. There was also some fluid on her lungs.

I now have to measure her resting heart rate & compare it to my other dogs, if I find it is high then she has to go in for an ECG. Has anyone had one of these done? My mum has them done routinely for her dogs as part of a national breed club screening programme for cavaliers, and says that they are quite expensive apart from anything else - eeeek!

Apparently greyhounds tend to suffer from heart rhythm abnormalities rather than mitral valve failure like cavaliers get, but my vet said that she would try an ACEI first rather than Vetmedin which I am used to seeing being used for the cavaliers. Any experiences would be interesting, thanks :)
 
Can they do an ultrasound? Greyhounds are prone to dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) which is easy to pick up on scan and responds better to Vetmedin. It can cause atrial fibrillation which would then be picked up on an ecg and would cause a fast and very irregular heartbeat.
 
Oooo thank you fatpony that is really interesting :) I was expecting them to put her on Vetmedin (it is what my mum's cavaliers are on if they get heart problems) so I was quite surprised when the vet said they would try an ACEI first.

I have taken her resting heart rate three times this afternoon and she is only averaging around 75 beats per minute, which I don't think is fast? The vet gave me a guide of 80bpm as being average. I am about to compare that to Amy's heart rate, as Amy is about the same size and weight - it is always useful to have a range of greyhounds for comparison purposes :p :D :D

Not sure if they can do an ultrasound, I will ask the question though, thanks for the tip (I would imagine they can do)
 
Yep, my lad has an arrythmia and bradycardia (not severe, just slightly slower than normal). The ECG cost £80 and he was there all day. He did show some abnormality which the vet thinks might be congenital, but it doesn't need treatment at this stage. We have to watch for any changes (intolerance to exercise, choking when eating etc) and if we notice anything, we have to take him back for a checkup and possibly medication. The vet was happy that he's bradycardic rather than tachycardic, as it's a better sign and is likely to cause less trouble.

There's a chance he could just drop dead; I did investigate this, but found that the majority of deaths due to this kind of thing happen while the dog is asleep and are effectively painless. So I just hug him a bit more than I used to!

Edited to say mine is a German Shepherd and he's 5.
 
Crumbs that is young SadKen :( I have checked all the dogs heart rates over the weekend and Islay's is definitely faster, so I am waiting for my vet to call me back today to decide where we go from here. I imagine that the vet will insist on an ECG, although I'm not quite sure what that will show that we don't already know? Hopefully it will just be a case of putting her on some medication, her exercise tolerance levels really are not good which I had thought was because she was getting older - now I know about her heart I'm not so sure :(
 
The ECG will tell you a lot more about why the heart is doing what it's doing, so I'd imagine that's why the vet will want to check it. It can be very helpful - in our case, it verified what the vet thought, but the arrythmia was so incidental that it was quite reassuring and the vet decided not to medicate.

My lad was a little monster as a pup, I couldn't exercise him enough until he was about 3. He's definitely calmed down. Like you, I thought this was just him growing up, and I do have a different perspective on it now! He can't run as far and as fast, and at a sustained level like my younger one can. I did treat him like a china cup for a while after I found out! Having said that, he's a BIG dog, and he'll do 10 miles at a steady trot, no worries (or 3 miles at a sprint!). little one's different; anything less than flat out isn't fast enough, but he's like a bloomin' machine.

Anyway - I think best thing is to do the ECG if you're worried, and that'll let you and the vet know what you're dealing with. It doesn't have to be terrible, they do medicate if it's heart failure, and you keep an eye on it. It benefits from treatment - so deep breaths, and let's find out what's wrong!

If you can, it might well be worth posting on here what it turned out to be. I googled like mad for ECG threads a little while ago when my lad was going, and didn't find anything - so it might be helpful in future. Fingers x'd for a good outcome for Islay.
 
Thank you again Sad Ken - I didn't get a call from the vet today so will hopefully hear from her tomorrow, but I will update and let you know the outcome :) Thank you for the crossed fingers as well :)
 
A quick update: I finally got to speak to my vet today, we have decided that as Islay's heart rate is not particularly fast at the moment (84 bpm) we will trial her on some medication to see if that changes her exercise tolerance levels and encourages her to gain a bit of weight. Those are the only symptoms I have seen with her so far, there is no heart cough or anything else to notice, so the vet felt that an ECG or scan wasn't needed at the moment.

I want to get the balance right between helping Islay as much as I can, and not giving her unnecessary medication, but the vet said that she didnt think the medication (Cardalis) would have any negative effect on Islay so fingers crossed it makes a difference :)
 
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