A British vet has revealed four dog breeds that are prone to heart disease and what you can do if your dog is among them.
Content creator @ben.the.vet shared the list in a video on TikTok, where he has more than 208,600 followers.
She often creates clips that share useful information about how to care for animals responsibly and about the different health challenges faced by different species and breeds.
Discussing heart disease in dogs, Ben said, “I’ll start with Dobermanns, because it’s actually a pretty shocking statistic that over 58 percent of Dobermanns over the age of seven have dilated cardiomyopathy.”
“It is a disease in which the muscle in the heart wall begins to weaken, which ends up causing heart failure, but also a high risk of sudden death.”
Ben the vet (pictured) listed four dog breeds that are at higher risk of heart disease in a video on TikTok
Unfortunately, there are often no signs of the problem and “the dog can drop dead in the park,” he said.
Ben advised people who have Dobermans to talk to their vet about examining their dogs from an early age, ideally around two or three years old.
This, he explained, is because if detected early, medications can be administered to delay the onset of any problem.
Moving on to the next breed, the vet listed the boxers.
He explained: ‘TThe reason I have included them is because, unfortunately, there are several different heart conditions for which they are considered high risk.
‘One is a congenital problem with aortic or subaortic stenosis, where a narrowing develops again at the place where blood leaves the heart to the rest of the body.
‘Most cases are mild and there are no clinical signs, we may only hear a heart murmur on veterinary examination.
“But in severe cases, it can lead to collapse during exercise and even sudden death.”
Among the breeds the vet (pictured) listed were Dobermanns, boxers, Cavalier King Charles spaniels and golden retrievers.
However, he continued, this is something that breeders are very aware of, and in some countries (including France) its “prevalence has been shown to be decreasing significantly because breeding dogs have been tested.”
Ben added: “They also have a three per cent prevalence of pulmonary stenosis, which is a narrowing of the outlet from the heart to the lungs, and they are also at high risk of dilated cardiomyopathy, the same condition that affects Dobermanns.”
The third breed he listed was the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, and he said, “I’ve talked a lot about them before, (they are) amazing little dogs, (but they have) terrible hearts.”
‘By the age of 10, up to 90 percent of Cavalier King Charles Spaniels suffer from mitral valve disease, which is a condition in which one of the heart valves begins to degenerate and leak.
“This is usually initially detected with a heart murmur, but over time it can cause the dog to suffer heart failure, coughing and breathing abnormalities and is sadly the cause of death for many gentlemen.”
He noted that there are medications that can help slow the progression of the disease, but this depends on the stage of the disease the dog is in.
Ben advised people with cavaliers with murmurs to discuss this with their vet if they haven’t already.
Among the breeds listed were Dobermanns (pictured). According to Ben, more than 58 percent of Dobermanns over the age of seven suffer from a condition called dilated cardiomyopathy.
The fourth and final breed he listed in the video was golden retrievers.
“(This is not because they are at enormously high risk for any particular heart problem, but because there is a condition called pericardial effusion, which is generally very rare, but at one referral center they found that a third of dogs that They were treated with this condition were golden retrievers, which is really interesting.’
Explaining what pericardial effusion is, Ben said: “It is a condition where fluid builds up in the sac surrounding the heart.
“It often builds up slowly, gradually reaching a point where the heart cannot pump blood very effectively, and this can manifest itself as the dog becomes increasingly weaker and eventually collapses.”
Ben concluded: “I have only seen two cases of this condition and interestingly they were both golden retrievers.”
