So Thursday sucked. I got up, got ready for work, my husband is in the military so he goes out before 6 then comes home around 7, until he goes back to work at 8:45am. My boys (Kato 9, Loki 10.5) always get super excited when he comes home, they jump around the kitchen and lick him and paw him, but Thursday morning was different. After his initial excitement I was standing in the kitchen attempting to calm them down and Kato collapsed, he melted to the floor and his legs went out from underneath of him. Somehow I was close enough to start catching him as he was falling and ended up with him on the floor, I thought he was going to have a seizure. His head was swaying side to side as I held him, my husband said his eyes had nystagmus (moving side to side) and his back legs twitched a little. It lasted a couple of minutes and I seriously thought he was going to die right there in my kitchen. I was a mess, sobbing like a child. I should add - I'm a veterinary technician so I see stuff like this one a somewhat regular basis but when it's your own baby, your child, it's totally different.
A couple of minutes go by and he gets up, wagging his tail, like nothing has happened. He went to lay on the couch so I took my stethoscope and listened to him, his heartbeat sounded irregular and he had drop beats, or pulse deficits - where the pulse you feel in a femoral artery doesn't match up with the heart rate you're listening to in your ears from the stethoscope. This led me to believe he had experienced a syncope or fainting episode but still it could have been a mild seizure so I took him to work with me for monitoring.
April 17th, we took his brother to the clinic I work at for an ECG as he had a weird reaction to a medication. Since I always take both of them everywhere, I did one on Kato too. Both showed Ventricular Premature Contractions (VPC) so we had the ECG evaluated by Idexx lab who confirmed and said likely ARVC. We then did an echo on each dog, same suggestion given through Oncura telemedicine. We then scheduled an appointment with Texas A&M Cardio which wasn't until June 19th, about 7-8 weeks away. In the mean time we did a holter, which showed some VPC's, ran lab work which turned up an essentially normal CBC and chemistry (AST was 8 range 16-55), T4 0.9 (1.0-4.0), Free T4 1.0 (0.6-3.7), cTSH 1.73 (0.05-0.42) TGAA (thyroglobulin autoantibody) 98% - positive is anything over 35%, Troponin 0.3 (0.2 or higher is elevated) He had already previously tested negative for the genetic test for ARVC.
Considering all this, his reg DVM consulted with Idexx over the phone who advised he be seen at the ER at A&M to try and see a cardiologist sooner, so we went to the ER at A&M and he had an ECG and Echo there. ECG again showed frequent multifocal VPC's, and Echo showed a structurally normal heart, no murmur, trivial amount of mitral valve regurgitation, everything else seemed to be normal. Kato was prescribed 80mg Sota
twice a day and we will keep our original appointment on the 19th and use it as a recheck appointment for him. The ER vet and cardiologist diagnosed him with ARVC based on his age, breed and arrhythmia. This will be Loki's initial cardio appointment, he also had an ECG with VPC's, which then showed up on his holter too.
Concerning Kato, His T4 was low and he was positive for the Thyroid autoantibody. Idexx lab mentioned that dogs with low thyroid can have an arrhythmia but in his case they thought it was actual heart disease not thyroid, however they didn't mention the TGAA result, only the T4 and cTSH.
* Do any of you have any experience in boxers with ARVC who have been diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis? If he needs thyroid meds I want him to have them, but if he doesn't then I don't want to mess with something else.
* Did any of your dogs on Sota have any side effects when they first started? He seemed to be real blah and slept a lot the first couple of days however he does seem to be perking up again now.
* Did any of you get diet recomendations for your Boxer with ARVC - mine eat The Honest Kitchen base mix with ground, cooked, turkey meat, probiotics, coconut oil, fish oil, benadryl and pepcid (for prior mast cell).
* Finally, when does the pain of knowing they could instantly be gone go away? :( It sucks because even with all the cardiologists in the world, all we can do is try and minimize their arrhythmia's through meds, it's not like there is a cure and that breaks my heart as I will do anything for my boys.
If you made it this far, Thank You so much and I'd love to hear your thoughts on my boys health and condition. I've never had a boxer with ARVC and didn't expect to so I'm new to this disease.
Again Thank You, from one Boxer Mom to Another (or dad
)
Picture: Loki - Brindle, Kato Fawn (this was Loki's 10th birthday last October)
A couple of minutes go by and he gets up, wagging his tail, like nothing has happened. He went to lay on the couch so I took my stethoscope and listened to him, his heartbeat sounded irregular and he had drop beats, or pulse deficits - where the pulse you feel in a femoral artery doesn't match up with the heart rate you're listening to in your ears from the stethoscope. This led me to believe he had experienced a syncope or fainting episode but still it could have been a mild seizure so I took him to work with me for monitoring.
April 17th, we took his brother to the clinic I work at for an ECG as he had a weird reaction to a medication. Since I always take both of them everywhere, I did one on Kato too. Both showed Ventricular Premature Contractions (VPC) so we had the ECG evaluated by Idexx lab who confirmed and said likely ARVC. We then did an echo on each dog, same suggestion given through Oncura telemedicine. We then scheduled an appointment with Texas A&M Cardio which wasn't until June 19th, about 7-8 weeks away. In the mean time we did a holter, which showed some VPC's, ran lab work which turned up an essentially normal CBC and chemistry (AST was 8 range 16-55), T4 0.9 (1.0-4.0), Free T4 1.0 (0.6-3.7), cTSH 1.73 (0.05-0.42) TGAA (thyroglobulin autoantibody) 98% - positive is anything over 35%, Troponin 0.3 (0.2 or higher is elevated) He had already previously tested negative for the genetic test for ARVC.
Considering all this, his reg DVM consulted with Idexx over the phone who advised he be seen at the ER at A&M to try and see a cardiologist sooner, so we went to the ER at A&M and he had an ECG and Echo there. ECG again showed frequent multifocal VPC's, and Echo showed a structurally normal heart, no murmur, trivial amount of mitral valve regurgitation, everything else seemed to be normal. Kato was prescribed 80mg Sota
twice a day and we will keep our original appointment on the 19th and use it as a recheck appointment for him. The ER vet and cardiologist diagnosed him with ARVC based on his age, breed and arrhythmia. This will be Loki's initial cardio appointment, he also had an ECG with VPC's, which then showed up on his holter too.Concerning Kato, His T4 was low and he was positive for the Thyroid autoantibody. Idexx lab mentioned that dogs with low thyroid can have an arrhythmia but in his case they thought it was actual heart disease not thyroid, however they didn't mention the TGAA result, only the T4 and cTSH.
* Do any of you have any experience in boxers with ARVC who have been diagnosed with autoimmune thyroiditis? If he needs thyroid meds I want him to have them, but if he doesn't then I don't want to mess with something else.
* Did any of your dogs on Sota
have any side effects when they first started? He seemed to be real blah and slept a lot the first couple of days however he does seem to be perking up again now.* Did any of you get diet recomendations for your Boxer with ARVC - mine eat The Honest Kitchen base mix with ground, cooked, turkey meat, probiotics, coconut oil, fish oil, benadryl and pepcid (for prior mast cell).
* Finally, when does the pain of knowing they could instantly be gone go away? :( It sucks because even with all the cardiologists in the world, all we can do is try and minimize their arrhythmia's through meds, it's not like there is a cure and that breaks my heart as I will do anything for my boys.
If you made it this far, Thank You so much and I'd love to hear your thoughts on my boys health and condition. I've never had a boxer with ARVC and didn't expect to so I'm new to this disease.
Again Thank You, from one Boxer Mom to Another (or dad
) Picture: Loki - Brindle, Kato Fawn (this was Loki's 10th birthday last October)
I finally found him lying on the grass, still warm to the touch, but there was nothing I could do. I always wonder if I had seen it happen, that I could have given him CPR and he would have lived. Please make sure that you and your husband learn CPR for dogs, if you don't know already. 
