Congestive Heart Failure in Dogs -A Prospective study Varshney J.P., Medicine Consultant, Deshmukh V.V., Veterinary Pathologist, Chaudhary P.S., Veterinary Surgeon Nandini Veterinary Hospital, Shree Surat Panjrapole Ghod Dod Road, Surat – 395 007 (Gujarat) Online published on 24 January, 2012. Abstract Fifty seven dogs diagnosed with congestive heart failure, employing history, clinical signs, radiography and electro-cardiography were studied for historical and clinical variants; epidemiological, radiographic and electrocardiographic changes; and treatment response. Large and giant breeds (Doberman, Labrador, Great Dane, German Shepherd, Mastiff and Boxer) had higher incidence (91.22%) and males (10.4:1) were more predisposed. Dogs older than 3 years were more affected. The most common symptoms associated with congestive heart failure in dogs were weakness, shortness of breath, cardiac gallops or arrhythmias. Mortality was high in dogs with clinical severity of scale - 4. Electrocardiograms were abnormal in most of the cases. Thoracic radiography lacked correlation with clinical signs and prognosis in many cases. Survival time of dogs, undergone therapy, varied from 6 to 14 months and was not correlated with the clinical severity at the time of diagnosis. Though, the dogs responded favourably during initial phase, deterioted at different points of time after 6 months therapy making the prognosis poor. Top Keywords Cardiomyopathy, congestive heart failure, electrocardiogram, radiography. Top |