The Heart of the Matter

by Judy Simpson

It is always difficult to have a dog that you love get sick. At a time like this, you do everything you can do, put your trust in your vet and pray a lot. What happens when the system that you trust fails you? What happens when a particular ignorance in the medical community nearly kills your dog, instead of saving it? It's a scary thought, and an even scarier reality. But there is something you can do to boost the odds on your side, and that is to know as much as you can about your breed and, specifically, your dog.

I'm going to tell you three little stories. All are true stories, one happened to me, two happened to close friends and I was involved in those also. I hope you never need the information contained in these three stories, but if you ever do, it might save your dog.

THE GRIZZLE MALE'S STORY

A close friend had a wonderful grizzle male. The foundation sire of her kennel, he embodied everything a saluki should be. He was her boy, her love, her first saluki. He easily gained his bench championship, and then, at three, embarked on the newly organized lure coursing and excelled at it. Atop the Top Ten list for several years, he was a legendary courser. When he was about 6, he dashed out the dog door, banging his back on the top edge. The owner was concerned he might have damaged something and took him to the vet. An X-ray was done. No damage ws present... but... in the course of viewing the X-ray, the vet got rather agitated over his heart. It was greatly enlarged, he said. Enlarged heart, possible cardiomyopathy.

This dog was put on powerful drugs for his heart, his diet was restricted enormously, and he was forbidden to have any type of strenuous exercise. He was instantly retired from the field and the ring and was watched, cosseted, and worried over. He slowly got worse. His physical condition deteriorated. He lost muscle, weight, and vitality. He just began going downhill. Then he got septicemia and very nearly died, partly because of his debilitated physical condition. In the course of treatment for the septicemia, he was taken off all heart drugs, and, surprisingly, showed some small improvement. By this time, he was nearly 10.

KATIE MARIE'S STORY

In the meantime, I had acquired several salukis from this breeder. One was a bitch, Katie Marie, from a totally different bloodline than the breeder's grizzle male. A petite little thing, a black fringed fawn with a face that could certainly launch a thousand ships, she was just two years old then, full of herself, and the spoiled darling of the entire family. She had just completed her first year of lure coursing and had done very well at it. She'd finished her ASFA championship quickly and had hit the Top Ten list. I took her to the National Specialty in June 1987. She became ill and on the way home her condition worsened. We ended up in a big university's veterinary teaching hospital. In the course of their tests, they did an X ray and, once her admitting problem was taken care of, they turned their attention to that X ray. This dog, they announced, has a serious heart condition - an enlarged heart. They did a heart echo and really shook their heads over that. Larger than "normal" chambers, thinner walls, and overall enlarged heart. Her EKG didn't look "normal" either. In fact, nothing in her cardiac system did. What, they asked, was a normal heart rate for her? A sleeping rate? An alert rate? A rate after exercise? Hers, they said, was too low... but how low was low? We didn't know. Nor could I believe this bitch had a major heart problem. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but I would not accept it. Neither would the breeder.

So we went home and began our own investigation. My vet was also a non-believer. He'd taken care of Katie Marie since she was a baby and he'd never found anything to make him believe this. So, with his assistance, we tried to answer some important questions.

The "normals" used by the veterinary profession, we discovered, were based on *non-sighthound* findings. Were sighthounds different? Were *salukis* different? We dragged reluctant dogs into the vet and did X rays, EKGs and the breeder and I both followed dogs around for weeks doing heart rates. We were very surprised by what we found out.

First, Katie Marie's "enlarged heart" was identical to the "enlarged heart" of the breeder's grizzle male. (The breeder became acquainted with my vet during this time and began taking her male to him and they took him off all heart medication and he staged a remarkable comeback!) Secondly, *all* of her coursing dogs, and mine, had hearts just like Katie Marie's! They were all larger. Our few non-coursing salukis had bigger hearts than the "normal" but smaller than the athletic dogs. The heart rates were, compared to the "normal" rates, very low. The recovery rate, after exercise, was astonishing. Our vet wasn't about to believe, and neither were we, that this many salukis, some unrelated to each other, had exactly the same "enlarged" heart.

THE RESULTS

This knowledge helped me -- and devestated the breeder. She had very nearly killed her grizzle male with the high powered heart drugs; she had reduced him to a shadow of himself; she had retired him from the ring and the field at his peak; and it was all for nothing! *He'd never had an enlarged heart.* He'd been robbed of years of coursing, exercising, of eating foods he loved; he'd been restricted from travel and from any excitement. It was a real blow to her. However, we are very glad we learned what we did.

THE GEORGIA DOG SHOW SEMINAR

Years later, we went to a dog show in Georgia and the local saluki club had a vet there doing heart echoes. That evening he gave a seminar on his findings and the first thing he said was that he'd never seen hearts like salukis had. They were the most efficient hearts he'd ever seen. He explained how they had evolved to fulfill the demands of the body to do what the dogs were bred to do. The hearts were large; they could efficiently deliver blood rapidly when the dog was running 40 mph. The recovery time of the heart rate after exercise was amazing. He'd heard there were heart problems in the breed and, of the 30 dogs he had checked, he found only two problems and neither was cardiomyopathy. Both were valve problems. The breeder and I went home, satisfied. His findings bore out our own research.

THE SEVEN MONTH OLD PUPPY'S STORY

Then, a few weeks ago, a close friend called me, very upset over her 7 month old puppy. She'd taken her in to the vet for a little cough. The vet diagnosed bronchitis, but in listening to her, he heard an unusual amount of "heart sound" in her neck -- yet he heard nothing unusual when he listened to her heart. Possibly a murmur, he said. He suggested a heart echo to find out. A week later the echo was done (by another veterinary hospital.) When they phoned the report to my friend, they said: enlarged heart, large chambers, thin walls, etc, etc.... cardiomyopathy. They recommended some powerful heart medications immediately.

MARY DEE SIST, DVM AND THE SALUKI HEART STUDY

My friend, who knew the stories of the two dogs told above, didn't buy it. She called me. My first question was: has this guy ever done an echo on a saluki? Her answer was, "I don't know." I suggested that she take the puppy to someone who *was* an expert on saluki hearts. I directed her to Mary Dee Sist, DVM, who, with a veterinary cardiologist, has worked on a saluki heart study for the last 8 years. My friend called Mary Dee and it was agreed that she would take the puppy to Michigan for tests that weekend. In the meantime, my friend was anguished. This puppy *was* her breeding program -- carefully bred to be her foundation bitch. "Don't despair yet," I told her. "Wait until someone who knows what they're looking at sees her."

Off they went to Michigan. The tests were done and the puppy has a *perfectly normal saluki heart*. There is no evidence of cardiomyopathy or anything else that should not be there! Loud heart sounds in the neck are quite common in some dogs, we learned. This puppy has a very strong, very normal saluki heart.

If my friend had not known about our dogs, she would have never questioned the diagnosis. If she hadn't questioned the diagnosis, she would have started giving this 7 month old puppy the recommended drugs -- powerful drugs that could have damaged her system as they damaged the grizzle male's. My friend would have instantly retired her from showing, would never have coursed her, and would never have let her do anything but sit on the sofa. She would never have been bred, either. This information prevented that from happening.

THE MORAL OF THE THREE STORIES

Yes, these tales have a moral: not every "expert" knows that salukis *are* different. Some don't know there can be trouble with old fashioned anesthesia; many don't know just how different their hearts are, either. But you need to know. Knowledge of your breed, of your dog, is your greatest weapon against mis-diagnosis. Don't take it lying down. Yell for a second opinion and take the dog to someone who really knows about salukis.

It is a sad thing, but true, that Mary Dee's research is turning up some heart problems out there. There are more of them than we would like to hear about. It is also a sad fact that her research is funded strictly by donation and they are now at a standstill because their funds have run out. They can't take any more salukis in the study until some more money comes in. We need to solve this spreading heart problem. We need to take the affected animals out of our breeding programs. We need to remember that not every vet with an echo machine knows about saluki hearts -- that their hearts often do look like cardiomyopathy, when measured against "normal" readings. We also need this research to continue. I urge all of you to help this study with any contributions you can send. I urge the Society to consider contributing to this study as a group. For more information on the study, and its needs, contact Mary Dee Sist, DVM.

But these stories also have happy endings. The grizzle dog gained ground quickly, began to exercise again, and resumed his role as Alpha dog in the household. He was too old to course by this time but he spent his remaining years active and full of vitality. He died at age 16 from old age. Katie Marie went back to the show ring, finished her bench championship, and hit the field like a tornado, ending up in #2 on the Top Ten list, gaining her LCM and making quite a name for herself in this region by beating whippets, on whippet courses, for a number of Best In Fields. Now, at 9, she is retired from the field, except to train an unruly youngster occasionally, and she rules the house with a steel paw. The puppy, recovered from her bronchitis, ran in her first coursing practice and successfully chased and killed the bunny on a shortened course, then went to her first show and won WB and BOB.

In 1597, Francis Bacon said, "Knowledge is power." Boy, was he right!

For more information on Cardiomyopathy:         VetHospital.com         All Creatures

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c1996 Innovative Internet Update: Nov. 13, 1997