Dog Aging Project: Cardiac Condition Reporting and Lifetime Prevalence

The frequency of cardiac diseases and cardiac physical examination findings such as heart murmurs or arrhythmias increase as dogs age. To achieve definitive diagnosis, specialty consultation is generally required; owners do not always pursue this. Additionally, cardiovascular diseases are complex, and major underlying etiologies differ among aging dogs and aging people. Thus, owners may not always understand or accurately recall their dog’s cardiac diagnosis. The content to be shared in this session is twofold. First, we will present the lifetime prevalence data for congenital and acquired cardiac conditions among 43,517 dogs in the Dog Aging Project Pack, as reported by their owners in our Health and Life Experience Survey (HLES). We will share the relative frequency of reporting of clinical signs associated with heart disease (e.g., murmur) versus specific diagnoses (e.g., mitral valve disease). Second, we will explore the manner in which respondents provided information about their dogs’ cardiac conditions. This will include the frequency with which owners selected a response option presented to them, or selected “other, please describe” and used free text to identify the cardiac condition. Categories of free-text responses provided (e.g., conditions that were available as discrete options and not selected, non-cardiac conditions, or conditions described in more detail than the discrete option available, etc.) will be presented.