If you have a boxer and you feel that it tires quickly, you try to play with it and it suddenly faints, it may have a pathology in the heart and it is that in this breed one of the most common problems is arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy of the boxer.
La arrhythmogenic boxer cardiomyopathy It is a serious hereditary disease that is transmitted in an autosomal dominant way, this affects the right ventricle, it usually manifests in adulthood, this being a diagnosis that is made by the mixture of many factors such as family history, presence of syncope and ventricular arrhythmias.
Fainting in Boxer
This is a degenerative process of the myocardium that precedes the appearance of arrhythmias, sudden death, among others, and is that an infiltration and atrophy of myocytes is performed, without anything being done.
This is a disease that usually appears between six and eight years and is that in most cases, dogs that suffer from this disease is through a mutation and usually appear in five genes that affect desmosomes.
In these cases there are three types of patients, asymptomatic dogs with ventricular arrhythmias, dogs with tachyarrhythmias, and dogs with systolic dysfunction.
Diagnosis of the disease
The diagnosis of this disease is made by studying several factors such as the family background, the detection of ventricular extrasystoles, exercise intolerance and ventricular tachycardia.
The most important study carried out is the pathological study of the myocardium.
The physical examination is almost always normal, but sometimes the first clinical sign is the sudden death of the animal, arrhythmias can be heard, and murmurs of mitral regurgitation, tachypnea, edema, positive jugular pulse, and ascites are commonly seen in dogs with systolic failure.
X-rays and echocardiographic study are usually normal because it is usually an electrical problem of the heart, X-rays do not usually show problems Unless there is systolic failure, no structural alterations are usually seen on echocardiography.
Arrhythmia in dogs
The electrocardiogram shows right ventricular complexes, the drawback is that arrhythmias appear intermittently throughout the day, so Holter is applied and is that currently there are genetic tests that are capable of identifying genetic alterations associated with this pathology.
Surely you have questions about him Holter record, but the most important thing to know is that the arrhythmias of these dogs are usually intermittent so the veterinarian cannot hear it, but the Holter record allows an evaluation to be carried out in longer periods within a comfortable environment for the patient, this allows the study without having to go through the stress that these animals feel when going to a consultation.
This is like performing an electrocardiogram but with a longer time and in a familiar environment for the dog, so it will feel safer, and it is not necessary to spend so much paper for this study. The activity is saved in a memory that will later be downloaded to the computer, being recommended make a diary for the dog, in order to facilitate the study and ensure that the veterinarian knows how your pet's progress has been and can help you give it a better treatment.
Specialist cardiologists recommend performing this test annually on boxers and starting at three years of age.
But it should be noted that a Holter study normal in a dog older than 4 years does not leave aside the appearance of this disease and is that most of these dogs that are affected by this condition do not usually develop systolic dysfunction or some type of heart failure, so treatment is usually be to use ventricular antiarrhythmics.
Among the most common therapeutic guidelines to be able to reduce PVCs we find the Sotalol and mexiletine. But it is worth mentioning that the goal of treatment is based on controlling the frequency of bad arrhythmias in order to avoid sudden death.