Dog Heart Screening General

Why is heart screening important?

Any dog may be born with a cardiac disease or develop one later in life.  In both cases it is possible that they will pass on genes, predisposing their offspring to that heart disease.

Who can perform Heart Screening?

VCS holds a list of veterinary cardiologists specifically trained and accredited to heart screen dogs, which can be found on this site.  Only these cardiologists can provide an official heart screening certificate.  For all dogs this is currently a paper certificate with carbon copies (white for the owner, yellow for the screening cardiologist, blue for genetic analysis if applicable and pink for the primary care veterinary surgeon). The paper certificate for Cavalier King Charles Spaniels only is different and there are 3 copies for the owner, Kennel Club and cardiologist.

Please contact the individual cardiologists for details of their appointments & charges.

You will need to provide your registration details for KC registered dogs and ask your usual veterinary surgeon to refer you to your chosen screener.

Different Heart Tests for Certain Breeds

Certain breeds have specific heart testing schemes because there are significant heart diseases prevalent in that breed.  These will have been devised by The Kennel Club, The Veterinary Cardiovascular Society or a specific breed club, separately or working together.   Any scheme will always involve examination and a stethoscope test but may also include tests like echocardiography (Echo Doppler) or an ECG.

Please look at the separate tabs for information on heart testing in the following breeds

Boxer,Bull Terrier and Miniature Bull Terrier, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Deerhound, Doberman, German Wirehaired Pointer, Great Dane, Irish Wolf Hound, Newfoundland, Whippet.

Before breeding VCS recommends that all dogs should be examined and checked using a stethoscope.

If your breed is not mentioned in this list, please refer to the Kennel Club website to check for health information about your breed & also check your UK breed club.

https://www.thekennelclub.org.uk/search/breeds-a-to-z/

• Type in your breed in the KC A-Z list search & click go. Then click on the top of the small information panel about the breed that appears below.
• Under the Health section find the tab for More Health and click on this.
• You can then check for cardiac disease information under the sections ‘Priority health schemes and tests’ and ‘Important health schemes and tests’

Cardiac diseases in some breeds are currently poorly defined so there is little information available. In the future new heart testing schemes may need to be developed as significant cardiac is recognized and studied.