[Congenital cardiac diseases in dogs: a retrospective analysis]

In a time period of 6 years, 158 congenital cardiac defects were diagnosed in 146 dogs at the Clinic for Small Animal Medicine University of Zurich. In respect to all dogs with cardiac disease, these were 23.5% of the cases. Most common defects were subaortic stenosis (SAS, 31.5%), pulmonic stenosis (PS, 23.3%), ventricular septal defect (VSD, 14.4%), patent ductus arteriosus (PDA, 13.7%) and tricuspid dysplasia (TD, 7.5%). Complex defects were found in 8.2% of the dogs. Although single dogs per breed were affected by various defects, some breed-related tendencies could be observed. We found PS more numerously in boxers and Jack Russell Terriers whereas SAS, VSD and TD were also found in breeds reported to be predisposed. Congenital cardiac defects are an important clinical entity, and knowledge of prevalence is helpful when considering the differential diagnosis and for making a tentative diagnosis in an individual case.