#sataraborzoi

Just giving me kitty some pets

Kevin is not a happy camper. 

He’ll get over it. 

Underneath the snazzy Planet Fitness t-shirt, Kevin is hearing a device called a Holter Monitor. A Holter monitor is a 24-48 hour electrocardiogram (ECG) used to screen or diagnose cardiac arrhythmias. Although a cardiac screening IS part of our recommended health testing, that only includes an auscultation (listening with a stethoscope) and echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart). While echos include a short strip of ECG, we know that arrhythmias can be very sporadic - occurring one minute and appearing completely normal the next, so unless we catch it at the moment of the echo, we may not recognize a problem. The Holter provides a much broader picture of what the heart rhythm is doing over time. Many young dogs who die from arrhythmias, have NORMAL echocardiograms. An echo detects structural changes to the heart. A Holter/ECG detects electrical abnormalities. These two can be seen together or be mutually exclusive.  

We are now incorporating the use of a Holter into the routine health testing of our dogs - both breeding stock and those we have bred if they are accessible. I am grateful to Kevin’s owner for allowing him to come to Camp Satara so that I am able to do this testing. I absolutely love that my puppy owners remain a huge part of our lives and provide valuable feedback and constant communication that will ultimately make our breeding program more successful. 

The Borzoi Club of America has recently rolled out a new Holter Monitoring program and we are encouraging breeders to participate. Arrhythmias, which often manifest as sudden death without previous clinical signs, do occur in the breed. The more data we collect on both normal and abnormal dogs, the more likely we can garner interest in a university funded study to try and determine the mechanism of inheritance (looking to isolate a gene) - it appears slightly different than what we seem in Dobermans or Boxers who both have very high rates of cardiac disease (dilated cardiomyopathy). We are in the infant stages of this “project”, but what we learn from these initial test dogs could make a world of difference for the future of our beautiful breed. 

Thus far, Kevin’s mom (Sion) and 4 out of 10 siblings have been tested (he is number 5). All have received normal Holter reports. In total, I have tested 8 dogs and received 8 normal reports. Here is hoping that Kevin is normal #9!