I had a well respected cardiologist tell me (when I asked when would be the best time to do an echo doppler on a dog) that the absolute "best" time to echo your dog to evaluate cardiac health was just before he died...so the older the better. Realistically, he recommends doing an echo at 18 months when the dog has reached his mature size. There can be significant changes if an exam is done before the dog has finished growing. He also recommends doing echos on retired older dogs (if they have not been done) so you can see what you have in your line and can be in a better position to make informed breeding choices on their younger dogs.
People should have the ARCH screening done when they take their dog to the cardiologist for an OFA cardiac echo exam.
The more data the cardiologists can collect the better off all of us Labradors breeders will be.
The oldest dog I have heard of getting an echo exam for OFA is 12 years. Good for those conscientious breeders.
This example given wasn't a full cardiac exam. A full one with echo/color doppler will indicate that. After the LR # at the end after PI will have PI-ECHO.
This(ECHO) is what you want to see on the OFA heart # report. If it doesn't say ECHO then you don't have a true report of the dog's heart.
I don't know what the "SN" database is testing for as these letters are not explained on the OFA website. CA is cardiac. So the clearance you are looking for will look like this actual example from the database:
