6. mo. GSD with inheritated ventrical arrythmia - Page 1

My dog went in to get spayed the other day and the vet called me back right away and said they could not put her under because she had an arrythmia. After a day of research and calls, the vet told me that most likely it was inheritated ventricular arrythmia. She called a researcher at Cornell who had a study of it, but has not heard back yet. Tomorrow she gets a monitor put on her for 24 hours. Has anyone else had or have a dog with this? I'm worried, but hopeful she might outgrow it after 2 years... 
 ninatoby

Its important to determine the exact kind of vent.arrythmia. Some types may be relatively benign, others can be quite dangerous. If it cannot be converted to sinus rythm...your dog may not be able to work, for exertion will only make it worse, leading to heart failure.

It is important to not automatically assume that it is the inherited form without looking for possible underlying causes. Has you dog had some labwork to make sure that there is no reason for inflammation, that the dogs electrolytes are normal and that there are no tick borne diseases? Do we know that there is no underlying structural heart disease? The holter monitor (24 hour ECG) is important. We need to see how common the ventricular beats are, do they occur when we would expect to see the inherited form (ie. worse when the dog is sleeping) and to see if the dog will require medications. If this is the inherited form, there is the potential risk for sudden death, usually occurring most frequently at night. The older the puppy gets, the less risk there will be. If the dog makes it to 18-24 months, then they grow out of the arrhythmia for the most part. If this is the inherited form, please make sure to tell your breeder because the other puppies will also be at risk.
Best of luck.

There's a fair amount of good info in this old discussion.

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/forum.read?mnr=12047&pagen=1

Christine

Copied and pasted from the duplicate thread.

6 mo. GSD diagnosed with Inheritated Ventricular Arrythmia by macrowe1 on 07 February 2012 - 01:02 (userip: 68.186.204.34)	macrowe1 Post: 24 of 26 Joined: Fri Oct 21, 2011 12:49 am Owner edit
I'm so sorry to hear about your baby! Did they not pick that up during like the puppy checkup visits? It seems like if it was a serious arrythmia and genetic they could pick it up during the puppy visits listening to the heart. Have you contacted the breeder about the situation? Maybe they can answer any questions. Plus, if it is genetic, they need to know that it's in their lines. I hope it straightens itself out. Please update us when you find out after the monitor.
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Firstly I am sorry to read about your dog.

The same thing happened to me when I took my dog in to be spayed in 2006 when she was 3 years old. Her pre-check showed her heartbeat to be quite fast but that was always the case with her as she got worked up.

Later that morning I got a call from my vet saying that they'd had to abort the operation as Kira had really started to struggle with her breathing once they started to give her the anaesthetic... she was fully prepped and shaved as well.  As they fought to bring her round, they managed to get an ECG done. Previous to this she'd had 3 full general anaesthetics with no problems.

The ECG was sent to a canine heart specialist and he wanted to see Kira a few days later, whereby he diagnosed she had RBBB - a Right Bundle Branch Block which was causing the arrhythmia.
I couldn't find much on the internet about RBBB in dogs so had to rely on information about it in humans, after seeing the heart specialist he decided that no medication was needed, only 3 monthly ECGs to check that the RBBB wasn't worsening. I was also told to keep an eye on her heartbeat and make sure it didn't drop below 40bpm. I didn't find that the RBBB affected Kira very much, she was already on a self imposed restricted exercise regime because of severe HD.

Just before Xmas 2010 I had taken her to my vet for her 3 monthly ECG, he sent it off to the heart specialist for a report and it came back that it had gone, somehow it had righted itself and there was no need for anymore ECGs. 

Last April not long after her 8th birthday she developed pyometra [diagnosed by x-ray under anaesthetic] and we had to rush her to Liverpool Small Animal Teaching Hospital for the op rather than my vet do it because of the previous problem with an anaesthetic and she went through full cardiology tests first and was deemed OK to have an anaesthetic and her hugely engorged uterus was removed successfully. LSATH could see no signs of the RBBB, yet in 2006 it was very visible on her ECGs. In November last year she had another anaesthetic for an x-ray to be taken on her shoulder/elbow and she was diagnosed with arthritis in her elbow which probably started as an inherited ED. She is now approaching her 9th birthday and is fit and healthy bar her joints. 

So hopefully ninatoby, your girl might be diagnosed with something similar and that she does outgrow it... good luck

In the event you need a referral to a veterinary cardiologist, you can go to the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine website to find the nearest specialist to you. Go to www.ACVIM.org and click on "find a specialist". You will need to enter what speciality you are looking for and a state.

PS. a right bundle branch block is technically a form of conduction aberrancy and not an arrhythmia. However this conduction abnormality is very often mistaken for a ventricular arrhythmia because the complexes look the same. It would be great if that was all this was. Fortunately, a RBBB is often a benign finding and just occasionally an indication of a diseased conduction system resulting in worsening heart block.

Thanks everyone for replies!  I took Nina in and she got her heart monitor on today.  I mentioned to the receptionist about taking bloodtest to check for other issues.  our other dog DID have a tick on him last week.  When I picked  her up, they said they are going to take a urine sample tomorrow bc she urinated alot and it had a strong smell.  Don't think this has any connection, but I have noticed that the past few days she has been doing that.  Will hopefully know more when monitor is looked at.  Cornell has not returned my vets phone call yet...

Thanks GinaBel for the advice on cardio vet.  My vet did suggest going to University of Florida Vet.  I think she was hoping for direction from specialist on this disorder at Cornell Univ.  They ARE sending results to U of F for evaluation.