Frequency of occurrence of dilated cardiomyopathy and related complications in dogs

Abstract

Pathologies of the cardiovascular system in small domestic animals are registered quite often. This is especially true for dogs of large and giant breeds. Congenital malformations are much less common. For the most part, they have acquired pathologies related to structural changes in the myocardium – cardiomyopathy. At the same time, the question of the frequency of certain types of cardiac pathologies in dogs, in particular dilated cardiomyopathy and its concomitant complications, remains open. Based on literature data, cardiac pathologies of various origins are recorded in 32.4% of dogs. Most of these are acquired. Considering the above, the goal was set to identify the frequency of dilated cardiomyopathy and related complications in dogs of large and giant breeds living in a megalopolis. To achieve this goal, a comparative analysis of the database of the Lapino-Vet veterinary clinic in St. Petersburg for the period from 2022 to 2024 was carried out. For this purpose, 100 outpatient records of dogs with heart diseases, body weight from 25.0 kg or more, were selected, without taking into account their breed and gender, with an age sample from one and a half to 14 years. According to the results of the conducted studies, it was found that the most frequently reported myocardial pathology in dogs of large and giant breeds living in a megalopolis is dilated cardiomyopathy. The latter is often complicated by conduction and cardiac arrhythmias. In this case, impaired conduction is most often associated with hemodynamic changes at stage C.