Practical Cardiology for the General Practitioner

In this CE qualified 60-minute lecture we make veterinary cardiology easy to understand and fun (no kidding)! Cardiac issues are very common in pets with approximately 10% of the dogs veterinarians evaluate experiencing heart disease.1 We will discuss many of the common cardiology scenarios that pets present in everyday practice. We will provide you easy to understand and executable plans to help pets live long and happy lives. Our goal is for everyone involved in the case (pet owner and us veterinarians) to truly understand the big picture of what is going on, what signs to look for and what to expect. Some of the specific cardiology scenarios we will be discussing include congestive heart failure in little dogs, big dogs and feline patients, degenerative valve disease vs DCM, HCM, pulmonary hypertension and common arrhythmias. And… we promise to make cardiology fun!

1. Signalment & physical exam to guide your diagnosis & treatment of heart disease
2. Radiograph review of left-sided congestive heart failure (L-CHF)
3. General treatment of CHF in dogs and cats
4. Consensus for treatment of DCM, DVD, and HCM
5. Refractory patients, complications, arrhythmias
6. Cardiac Syncope
7. Cardiac medications – who and when? Triple threat before CHF
8. Right-sided CHF

Dr. Saelinger is the founder and CEO of Cardiac Vet, Inc., a teleconsulting service for interpretation of cardiac
diagnostic studies and a mobile echo service for veterinarians (cardiacvet.com). Her clinical interests include
medical and surgical treatment of arrhythmias. She is one of two cardiologists in the United States who specialize in
implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) surgery, programming and defibrillation. She also customizes
pacemaker programming for individual canine patients. She has vast experience and a long-time special interest in
the pathophysiology & treatment of arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (AC) of Boxers and English Bulldogs. You can
reference her publications on this topic and others on the Cardiac Vet webpage under meet the team.

10:20 How 503B medications can benefit your practices
11:30 Overview
12:48 Patient signalment, signs and exam
24:48 The single most useful test for detecting CHF
27:08 Cardio cases
30:41 Using Pimobendan in cats
32:48 Using a sildenafil trial for small-breed dogs with pulmonary hypertension
34:02 Treatment of dyspnea due to CHF
37:21 What if owners can’t hospitalize
39:11 Recheck small-dogs with L-CHF
46:30 Arrhythmias requiring treatment
49:18 Cats with dyspnea due to L-CHF
51:19 Rapamycin in cats
53:49 Cardiac syncope
1:00:04 Big heart on rads, no echo, loud murmur
1:00:43 Q&A