+++ You live(d) together with a heart sick Labrador Retriever? Please get in touch with us! +++

Today we had to put two tricuspid valve dysplasia affected dogs on our list of affected dogs - the half brothers 'Jarlein King of Rock' and 'Mysis Toffee Coffee'.

When I looked at Friggas's cardiological findings (tricuspid valve dysplasia with severe tricuspid valve insufficiency, created by Dr. Carsten Schmidt, CC cardiologist) two sentences were immediately catching my eye:

"The patient's heart disease is a congenital heart disease, the occurrence of which is known to cause racial predisposition in Labrador Retriever."

"The bitch should not be used for breeding, mother and father should not be mated again."

Considering that the findings were made in 2003, and such an assessment was made more than 14 years ago, it is all the more incomprehensible to us why the DRC and LCD still pay so little attention to this topic.

On the other hand, this finding once again encourages us to continue to dedicate all our heart blood to the Labrador Retriever with regard to the information about tricuspid dysplasia and other heart diseases.

After the TD-dog Frigga was introduced in the current issue of the DRC club magazine under the heading "Over 10 - beloved grey snout", we have contacted her owner and were able to put Frigga on our list of affected dogs.

Despite their tricuspid valve dysplasia, Frigga has reached a proud age of 15 years and is therefore a big exception among the TD-dogs known to us so far. That's why we are all the more pleased for her and her owners, to whom we would like to extend our sincere thanks for their openness and support.

At the moment I'm only slow to process my to-do list, but that's the way it is sometimes in life.

I am all the more pleased, that I have finally managed to compile the update to Inouk and put it online.

You can find the report of Inouk's owners on his site under the process reports.

My guest contribution was also published on the „Partner-Labrador“-Blog under the alluring title ‚The story of Schröders fighter heart‘.

We‘re very happy about that platform and the additional linking of the research project. 

You find the text right here.

Today W-Numerus IV ex Chelsea alias Oskar celebrates his 5th birthday and Artus sends all the best wishes on behalf of all of us!

Dear Oskar, let yourself get celebrated and keep your pecker up!!

Today Ashford Castle Babbit alias Löbl celebrates his 4th birthday and we‘re celebrating with him!

Dear Löbl, we wish you all the best for your birthday, especially a lot of strength, energy and joy of life continuously. Keep your pecker up!! 

We were asked to write a guest contribution for the blog of the ‚Sanitätshaus für Tiere‘ (engl.: health care supply store for animals) by Beatrix Müller-Kielmann and now it‘s online.

We‘re very happy about that given platform and the interest in our work. Thank you! 

You find it right here.

Today the tricuspid valve dysplasia was a topic at 'Hautnah: Die Tierklinik' on VOX.

Marley, a 13 months old Labrador Retriever, was introduced with severe tricuspid valve dysplasia and already 4l accumulation of water in his stomach. 

We wish all the best to Marley and his familiy and cross our fingers, toes and paws, that the medication helps to give Marley very wonderful years with his people.

Once again we had to add another 'tvd-dog' to our list of affected dogs. You find all the data about Yoshi of Farley Hill *Grizzly* (*27.12.2016) right here on our list.

We would like to very much thank the owners of Grizzly for their trust and support. And we really wish Grizzly many many many happy and carefree dog years with his family. Keep your pecker up, sweet brown bear. 

Today our heartdog Schröder would have become 6 years old. To esteem this day in memory of him, we traveled to the Baltic Sea, where he swam for the very first time in those days.

There we first celebrated Schrödis birthday with the animals of the animal shelter Rostock Laage. Because of the great support of many kind animal friends, we were able to hand over a huge amount of presents. Some photos and a short report can be found here.

Afterwards we drove to Warnemünde and scattered his ashes along the sea. A short video and a few lines you can find on Schrödis page at the progress reports.

Practically doubly delayed I finally managed to update Pinos progress report. You can find it on his page right here.

Today I just want to say unabashedly, what I think. Usually I tried to write possibly diplomatic and carefully... But let us be quiet honest, for what reason? My opinion is not based on any rumors or half-truths. My opinion is based on facts and painful experiences. Maybe not everybody wants to hear the truth, but what have we to lose? Some likes or followers on our facebook-page? Feasible... and actually that would be a pity for the invested time and the effort, we voluntary put into this for the last 4 years. But primarily it would be sad... sad for this beautiful breed we all love that much! Personally, we have nothing to lose in this regard – we lost our heartdogs already and no commitment in the world can bring them back to us. No like can ease the indescribable pain one has to bear, when an incurable disease just takes away your beloved friend after less than 5 and 6 years. No new follower can undo that it always feels like a slap into your own face, when those responsible from the associations just ignore or, even worse, understate this disease, that took away your best friend. And I am sure, that I am not just speaking for Silvia and myself, but for all the other owners of affected heartdogs.

That’s why I here and now once again want to state clearly and urgently what the tricuspid valve dysplasia could mean for the breed of Labrador Retriever and why it really is necessary in our view to get to the bottom of this disease.

For the tricuspid valve dysplasia „in Labrador Retriever [...] an explicit breed disposition with familial accumulation“ exists and „a genetic cause of the tvd on chromosome 9 is assumed“.

That is described in various scientific sources (here) and most recently in the reference book „Praxis der Kardiologie Hund und Katze“, edition 2017, by Dr. Jan-Gerd Kresken (source of the upper cite).

Of cause one can click off my text eye rolling, disavow and argue, that the official case numbers are relatively low. But this overlooks a few very important points in my opinion...

To judge whether a certain problem actually represents a significant problem in regard to the overall population concerned or not, it not only requires some incidental findings but focused mass screening with an average sample. A basis for this could be provided by the Three Phase Model, developed by the VDH e.V. in cooperation with the Collegium Cardiologicum e.V.. However this needs a cooperation by the dog owners, breeders and primarily the associations. Especially on the latter we do wait in vain.

The fact, that there is a problem (or simply not), cannot be changed by repression. Conversely: If there is a problem, continuous repression only contributes to deeper and deeper manifestation over time and maybe it developes to a – possibly not at all containable –  problem all the more. Additionally, repressing a potential problem becomes all the more dangerous, if (as for the tricuspid valve dyspasia) an autosomal dominant heredity disease with reduced penetrance is described in regard to the underlying genetics [Andelfinger et al. (2003)].

Because I believe, that the majority of our readers and especially those responsible from the associations haven’t understood yet what these kind of heredity means, I would like to explain it once again, as precisely as possible...

You can find the detailled explanations including schematic diagramms in our new subitem 'TVD - Information about inheritance'.

"I really don’t know, how to start this text today... It was such a huge shock and pulled the rug out from under our feet, that it is difficult to bear, writing anything at all. After this first lines you surely fear what I sadly have to tell you today.

Our beloved heartdog Schröder passed away on Tuesday last week, on 25th April, at the age of 5 years, 9 month and 17 days..."

You can read my entire good-bye text right here.

Once again we had to add one further heartdog to our list of affected dogs.

"RP MacMurphey" (AKC, 10.09.2016) also suffers from severe tricuspid valve dysplasia.

We feel so sorry for this sweet little boy! But we also know, that he found a really wonderful family, that adores him and does it's best to give him a happy dogs life.

Beth, thank you so much for your support!

The owner of 'Inouk Von der Kuhblanker Heide' *Inouk* also send a progress report to us.

As of now, you can find the story of Inouk on his page at the progress reports.

Dear Gabi and Dieter, thank you very much for your support!

The owner of 'Hanno Vom Fallenbergs-Hof' *Chewy* wrote some progress report for our homepage.

Now you can find Chewys story on his page right here.

Thank you, Eva, for your support!

This very day, 1 year ago, our heartdog Nevio is gone forever. You find a video with some pictures from his life on Nevios page at the progress reports. 

Once again we received a message about another heart dog.

Inouk Von der Kuhblanker Heide (DRC, 30.03.2016) also suffers from tricuspid valve dysplasia.

We thank his owners very much for their trust and support. And we wish Inouk with all our hearts, that he won't give up and may enjoy many many many happy years with his family and his dog buddy Elmo. 

The owner of Keena send us an update. We are very happy to hear, that Keena is doing quiet good.

You can find the update on Keenas page under the progress reports.

Daniela, thank you for keeping us up to date. We wish you many many more happy years. 

The lovely Ally Tanonur from LikeMag wrote a wonderful article about our heartdog Schröder.

You find this article right here.

Dear Ally...we thank you from our hearts, that you dedicate yourself to our initiative! Feel hugged from me and lovingly licked by Schröder. 

Once again we had to extend our list and add one further Labrador Retriever suffering from a heart disease.

A truely heart-felt thanks to the owner of Hanno Vom Fallenbergs-Hof *Chewy* (*21.04.208, LCD) for her confidence and support.

Chewy, we wish you all the best, especially many many wonderful and cheerful years with your family.

If something annoyes me, it has to be changed, quickly!

I cleaned up our list of affected dogs and created virtual index cards. Finally, there is order.

I hope, you like it as much as Silvia and I do.

Having increasingly received requests by dog owners whose Labrador Retrievers suffer from different cardiac diseases than tricuspid valve dysplasia, we noticed that these dog owners only have a few possibilities to inform themselves about the complaint of their dear four-legged friends. For that reason we decided to go a step further:

The action group concerning 'tricuspid valve dysplasia in Labrador Retriever'

changes to the action group concerning 'heart health in Labrador Retriever'.

After consulting Dr. Kresken from the Collegium Cardiologicum e.V. we expanded our repertoire (initially) concerning the PDA, DCM, pulmonary and aortic stenosis as well as the pericardial effusion. Of cause we also give you our advice and support if your Labrador Retriever suffers from any other heart disease. Please feel free to contact us at any time.

In the course of remodeling our homepage we also opened our list of affected dogs concerning all heart-relaxed diseases. In the last month we had to add six more Labrador Retriever – including four dogs with tricuspid valve dysplasia, one dog with a subaortic stenosis and one dog with an AV-block.

On this occasion we would like to sincerely thank the owners of Summer, Brooklyn, Pino, Emma as well as Trooper & Crosby for their trust and support!

In addition the owners of Brooklyn and Pino both wrote a text for our homepage. You find the stories of the two heartdogs on their pages under the progress reports.

Furthermore Dr. Kattinger was so kind to do another detailed cardiac examination on Schröder at her own's expense and gave us the possibility of filming this examination for the relaunch of our homepage. Unfortunately you can watch the video footage only in german at present, but we will solve this problem as soon as possible.  

Besides the detailed information about the possible heart diseases in Labrador Retriever we also added 16 disease patterns to our excursion, which also can play a role to Labrador Retriever.

Because we planned to extend our initiative to include further heart diseases, the name of our domain didn't fit any longer and we decided to even change it. From now on you find us in english or german under: 

www.heartdogs.info

or

www.herzhunde.info

We are very proud and happy to finally present our new homepage to you! And we hope you like it as much as we do. It was a lot of tough work – even harder then we expected in our first planning ten month ago. And we could never have done it without the sensational support of many kind dog lovers. For this reason we want to express our deep gratitude to... 

• Dr. Kresken for the impulse to this relaunch
• Alina for the great graphic design
• Carla for the many english translations
• Marcy for proofreading of the english homepage
• Kathrin for proofreading of the german homepage
• Hanna for specialist support concerning the clinical pictures
• Lucas for his help concerning the content-related research, the drawings and translation of the subtitels for the video footage
• Dr. Kattinger for the possibility of filming a cardiac examination
• Ally for her work as camerawoman
• Stephan for his advice concerning the layout
• Jacqui for the wonderful picture on our cover page
• Sophies husband for steady brainstorming, proofreading and support

Without your help the new homepage wouldn't have become what it's now. Thank you so much!