About Shiloh Shepherds the library project

A Chronic Canine Disease - What You Should Know Today... "Seemingly healthy dogs can have heart murmurs indicative of cardiac disease. Owners don’t even realize there’s a problem until their veterinarian picks up the presence of a murmur during an exam. While cats and puppies can have innocent murmurs, virtually all murmurs in adult dogs indicate structural heart disease."
[read more on Mercola Healthy Pets]


Inherited German Shepherd Ventricular Tachycardia - The window of vulnerability for this condition is between 3-18 months of age, with an average age of 6-7 months.  If an affected animal lives beyond 24 months of age, their arrhythmias usually become less severe and never progress into tachycardia, which could result in sudden death.  Due to this window, Holter monitoring should be performed on dogs under a year of age in order to determine if they are affected.  If it is done on dogs over two years of age, the condition will likely not be detected.  An animal who has a milder arrhythmia will not suffer sudden death and can appear normal to all outward appearances, and could still pass their OFA heart clearances, yet still be affected and pass it on to their offspring.

• {http://cardiovascres.oxfordjournals.org/content/44/1/37.full}
• {http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/96/4/1337.full}
• {http://www.mendeley.com/research/gene-tic-analys-v-entri-cul-ar-ar-rhythm-ia-y-oung-ge-rman-shepherd-dogs/ }
  

Mitral Valve Defect - Mitral Valve Defect (MVD) is any defect in the valve that separates the left atrium and the left ventricle.  Depending on the defect, the condition can range from mild to severe.

Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) - Patent ductus arteriosis (PDA) is the second most common congenital heart defect of dogs.  The ductus arteriosis is a blood vessel that connects the aorta and the pulmonary artery in a fetus.  Shortly after birth this blood vessel should close.  When the ductus arteriosis is “patent,” this means it remains open after birth.  This “leak” causes the left ventricle to have to work harder to circulate the blood to the circulatory system.  If the condition is caught early and treated with closure of the PDA most puppies with this condition can live a normal life.

• {http://www.provet.co.uk/health/diseases/cardiac-pulmsten.htm}

Subvalvular Aortic Stenosis (SAS) - more info coming soon

• Sub-Aortic Stenosis aat jackrussell.net {http://jackrussell.net/faq/medical/aorta.htm}