Prevalence study (2017-2020) of heart failure among dogs of Hyderabad, Telangana state

Heart failure that is caused by various cardiac diseases like valvular disease, dilated cardiomyopathy and pericardial diseases are progressive and chronic in nature, but occur as acute form wherein the clinician has to respond quickly both in its diagnosis and treatment.

The present study that was carried out to assess the prevalence of heart failure has included 309 dogs of various breed, gender and age. Clinical evaluation was followed by electrocardiography using smart phone-based ECG, thoracic radiography and 2d-echocardiography to diagnose the various causes of heart failure.

All of these cases were exhibiting similar manifestations like generalized weakness, poor physical activity, respiratory distress, dyspnoea at rest, cough and lack of sleep, that were suggestive of heart failure. ECG, thoracic radiography and echocardiographic evaluation revealed 146/309 cases as suffering with various cardiac diseases viz., valvular diseases, dilated cardiomyopathy and pericardial diseases that resulted in heart failure. However, the remaining 163/309 dogs were diagnosed with respiratory disorders (69), renal insufficiency (57), hepatic insufficiency (26), pyometra (07) and anemia (04). The overall prevalence of heart failure was observed to be 1.55% (146) among the total dogs (9369) presented with systemic diseases, while it was 47.25% (146) among dogs (309) which were exhibiting clinical manifestations suggestive of heart failure. Similarly, the heart failure was recorded as highest prevalent among Labrador and lowest among Daschund. Dogs aged between 10-14 years are more vulnerable for these cardiac diseases when compared to various other age group individuals and males are more at risk.