Can someone explain the difference between the Auscultation Cardiac test and the Echocardiogram Doppler cardiac test? Is one more accurate or preferred over the other?
Auscultation is listening to the heart with a stethoscope. You are limited to diagnosis or determination by what you can hear.
Echo, the dog's heart is viewed through a sonogram/xray like machine, allowing the vet to see the inner workings of the heart, revealing blood flow and any malformations.
I am starting this by saying, no doubt I prefer the echo because we can actually see what is going on vs relying on what someone hears. No doubt the echo is the better tool
That said....what about dogs who have no murmur and normal valves (per the cardiologist) but have some degree of backflow. To quote her..."XXXX does not have TVD or any other heart irregularities and can be used for breeding but I have to put him as equivicol because he has back flow which is quite normal." There is no measure for he amount of backflow that is considered acceptable. This cardiologist is very black and white in her intrepetation of what is passing. Now where does that leave me as a breeder and where does that leave him as a stud dog?
I have had another dog that had backflow that a different cardiologist passed because the valves were all normal and some backflow is a normal occurance. So what, do I play the game of going to a different cardiologist for my current dog that finds some amount of backflow acceptable? I am not sure how I feel about that...seems wrong.
Both cardiologists say that the dogs are normal. I think that they can be used, if otherwise they are good enough in pedigree, other test results, temperament and conformation. It reminds me of where we once were on OFA hips--they passed as normal vs today's excellent, good and fair, all of which are normal grades.
