Heart Testing

Event held at Maybole, Ayrshire
Saturday 6th September 2008.

The event was fully attended all 15 places were taken.

The Heart Testing Initiative is designed to offer all wolfhound owners regular heart screening at very accessible rates and at the same time provide valuable information for ongoing research in heart disease in Irish Wolfhounds carried out by Dr Serens Brownlie.

Dr Brownlie has been conducting her research for many years and will continue to do so by attending breed club shows and occasional weekends at breeder's premises.

The main areas of concern are AF (Atrial Fibrillation) and DCM (Dilated Cardiomyopathy) and how they are inherited. For this we need to test far more dogs, and on a yearly basis, to build a more complete picture. In particular, we need to see older dogs with healthy hearts.

The screening is non-invasive and includes a stethoscope examination, an ECG (which usually requires your dog to lie on the floor) and an ultrasound scan (with the dog standing - there is no need to shave or sedate the dog). All information provided and results are confidential and are forwrded to Dr Brownlie to add to the database. Certificates are provided for owners to give to their own vets and any dogs requiring further investigation/treatment are referred back to their own vets.

Regular heart testing is recommended as the check-up only confirms the state of the dog's heart at that particular time, but it cannot guarantee that the dog's heart will remain unaffected in the future. The advantage of testing is that full screening can identify heart disease before clinical signs have presented, and with early intervention and modern drugs there is a possibility of normal life expectancy being attained and a good quality of life for your dog for the longest time.