CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Specific Discussion => Health => Topic started by: Luvly on November 25, 2004, 08:23:11 PM
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;)
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I found this article: Canine Dilated Cardiomyopathy (http://www.southpaws.com/topics/canine-dcm.html)
:( Something else to worry about :(
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I'm guessing there are many things cocker's can suffer from, and this is probably the case for all dogs even cross-breeds. I grew up with a boxer/lab cross who had to have a special diet for instance. I think if you've got your dog from a reliable breeder then that's the best way of ensuring that you get a healthy pet. :)
If something is going to happen it will happen and it's best not to 'borrow trouble', we should enjoy our dogs without worrying if they may get sick ;)
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When Gunnar got ill, he was diagnosed as having cardiomyopathy without any investigations as according to the vet " cockers are prone to this" and he was showing "text" book symptoms.
Doing a lot of searching around showed that yes it was common in cockers and wasnt an automatic death sentence, that it could be managed and I read of many dogs living to a good age.
Unfortunately for us Gunnar was mis-diagnosed, he had a heart tumour and we lost him very quickly :( If the heart tumour had been diagnosed earlier there would have been nothing anyone could have done, but what does grate is the way the vet just jumped in with the cardiomyopathy diagnosis because as he said " cockers are prone to this". Mind this is the same vet who said that heart tumours are rare and yet I have spoken to 6 or 7 people this year who lost their dogs the same way.
I think its more to a persons personal experience as to how "common" something is. Id never heard of either problem untill i went looking. And if my vet, in his experience had come across cockers with cardiomyopathy more then tumours, that would have clouded his view (if that makes anysense ) :)