I am trying to understand OFA cardiac clearances and the different professionals that can perform echos. I know what a practitioner is. I know what a cardiologist is. But what is a "specialist", and how are they different from a practitioner or a cardiologist? I tried to find the info on OFA but was not having luck.

A cardiologist is a "board certified" cardiologist whose specialty is cardiology. A "specialist" might specialize in internal medicine, for example, but is not board certified in cardiology.

A veterinary specialist is a veterinarian (DVM, VMD) that has completed an approved residency and passed certification testing administered by the specialty college board. They are said to be “board-certified.” The ACVIM is the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine, and has four subdivisions – Internal Medicine (small animal and large animal), Oncology, Neurology and Cardiology. A veterinary specialist is a Diplomate, and as such, their credentials read “DVM/VMD, Diplomate of …(college). A board-certified veterinary cardiologist’s credentials would therefore read as DVM, DACVIM (cardiology). Other recognized veterinary specialties include surgery (ACVS), radiology (ACVR) emergency and critical care (AVECCS), pathology, dermatology, ophthalmology, anesthesiology, among others.

Practitioners cannot administer/evaluate echos. A good portion of them miss murmurs on listening. I think it is rare to find a good practitioner who can confidently do just the ascultation. There is only 1 practitioner 1 hour away that I let listen to my dogs' hearts. She caught a tiny murmur (grade 1) on an older dog that my 2 competent previous Vets had missed. So, off we went for an echo. Turned out to be a slight regurgitation in mitral valve, diagnosed unequivocal. I was encouraged to go to another cardiologist who would PASS THE DOG! Oh joy! Didn't go of course!

This is why the Cardiologist Echo has become "mandatory" in breeding Labs,now. For all the good that does, really............

I recently had an echo done on a young dog at a clinic, there was no problem, just doing it to make sure since she will hopefully be bred and I routinely have been doing heart clearances for around 12 years now. The cardiologist was an elderly gentleman who had been practicing for a very long time, had credentials a mile long, had been the head of a big cardiology speciality center, taught veterinary cardiology at universities, so he was certainly quite qualified. Before the echo he did the ascultation, which is what OFA requires. When he was done he turned to me and said "this dog is perfectly fine, why waste your money on the echo?" He went on and it almost was like he was trying to talk me out of it. I told him it was already paid for anyway and I wanted to be sure so he went ahead with the echo, which she passed. I then asked him why he thought it was unnecessary since everything I had heard said a color doppler echo was the only way to know for sure, and he said that if the dog passes by ascultation, and remember, this is a cardiologist listening, not just a general practitioner, then the odds that there is a problem is extrememly small. However, he then said for
the small number of cases where a dog passes ascultation but fails the echo, the breed that has the highest incidence of this is the Labrador Retriever. He said it has something to do with the structure of the Lab's heart and the blood flow, it is more quiet than other breeds so easier to miss a murmur unless you really know what you are doing. I thought this was very interesting.

Very interesting indeed! Thank you for your post.

Significance undetermined and not classified through color doppler....so slight and at mitral valve. Several cardiologists were not sure why the dog wasn't passed as a wee bit is considered "normal" by most. Who knows.........decided not to show him and is just my buddy.

The specialists (either cardiologists or internal medicine) have completed a internship (1 year) and residency (usually 3-4 years) after their 4 years of veterinary school as opposed to the practitioner. The board certifited specialists have also completed the requirements (and they are different for each specialty but include things like a list of all their cases, peer reviewed publications, written, oral and practical examinations) to be called "board certified.