In conclusion we would urgently recommend for you to get a (preventive) heart ultrasound for your dog.

 

If you decide to get an ultrasound we would like to advise three things:

 

  1. Search for a cardiologist from Collegium Cardiologicum e.V.. You can find a list of members here. We personally had great experiences with those specialized animal-cardiologists and would let one of them do another ultrasound again at any time.
  2. Let the cardiologist do an official breeding examination for the Collogium Cardiologicum e.V. (even though you’re not planning on breeding). Those breeding examinations are a little bit more expensive as regular ultrasounds but they have the benefit that you’ll get an official finding-sheet with an official pedigree, chipnumber and your signature. Also the examination itself is a little more detailed than a regular ultrasound. The official finding-sheet is going to be sent to you as well as your association so that it can directly be noted in the database of your dog. Furthermore these findings are going to be archived by the Collegium Cardiologicum e.V. as well. We really would like to recommend this to you because only with the full examination the heart ultrasound makes 100% sense and you have gotten it clarified and documented the best way possible.
  3. Please make sure that a copy of the official finding sheet of the Collegium Cardiologicum e.V. will be sent to your breeding association. Either by your cardiologist or by yourself. In this regard you also should ask for registration of the medical findings (whether positive or negative) in the database of your association. This is necessary in order to ensure that a representative impression of the heart health in Labrador Retriever can emerge little by little.

 

Our opinion: Rather getting it done one time right than twice half-hearted.

 

A heart ultrasound findings sheet from the Collegium Cardiologicum e.V. looks like this:

Bysterstorff's Avalon Artus, findings: degree 0                   Bysterstorff's Beam me up Schröder, findings: tvd, degree 3

In the first paragraph the facts including the studbook number and chip number as well as date of litter, weight and sex of the animal are documented.

 

In the second paragraph you find the data from the owners, whose signature confirmed that at time of the examination the animal wasn’t under any type of medication which could influence the findings from the heart ultrasound.

 

In the third Paragraph the values from the heart ultrasound (auscultation, ECG, holter, echocardiology) are listed which are evaluated in paragraph four.

In the last paragraph you find the final judgement of the up-to-date (up to the time of examination) constitution of the animal.

 

 

Important information for final judgement ('Beurteilung/judgement'):

 

Because a final judgement 'degree 0, no or minimal cardiovascular change' raises the question if the dog has either no change or minimal cardiovascular changes (and if the latter how to interpret it) we went to see what the Collegium Cardiologicum e.V. has to say about that.

 

Dr. vet. Med. Kresken, 1. Chairman of the Collegium Cardiologicum e.V. board, explained us how to comprehend the final judgement 'degree 0, no or minimal cardiovascular change':

 

The final judgement 'degree 0' is given either if:

 

  • there are no phenotype conspicuousness

or if:

  • there are phenotype conspicuousness (minimal cardiovascular changes), which up to the time of examination are without any clinical significance for the regarding dog.

 

The findings of a phenotypical minimal cardiovascular changed heart, which up to the time of examination however doesn’t conclude any health impairments for the regarding dog, are considered irrelevant for health (up to the time of examination concerning the regarding dog). That’s why a phenotypical minimal “defective” heart is evaluated with 'degree 0'.

Only with a final judgement 'degree 1' or worse the judgment is up to the time of examination clinical relevant for the regarding dog.

This final judgement contains no statement about the type of the existing phenotype conspicuousness as well as their heredity. Statements in this regard only can be found in the fourth paragraph "results of cardiovascular examination".

 

Depending on the type and severity of the phenotype conspicuousness a recommendation for recheck in the near or distant future will be given. The final judgement then would be recorded again, concerning the constitution of the dog at that time.