Echocardiographic and electrocardiographic findings in Irish Wolfhounds eating high-pulse or low-pulse diets.

Background: Apparently healthy dogs of various breeds eating nontraditional, high-pulse diets can have larger left ventricular diameter, lower systolic function, and more ventricular premature complexes (VPCs) compared with dogs eating traditional, low-pulse diets. It is unknown whether Irish Wolfhounds eating high-pulse diets have similar cardiac abnormalities.

Hypothesis/objectives: To compare electrocardiographic and echocardiographic findings between Irish Wolfhounds eating high- or low-pulse diets.

Pedigree analysis of atrial fibrillation in Irish wolfhounds supports a high heritability with a dominant mode of inheritance.

Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in dogs. The Irish Wolfhound breed has a high prevalence of AF making them an ideal breed to investigate possible genetic contributions to this disease. The aim of this study was to perform a heritability analysis in North American Irish Wolfhounds using phenotype data from cardiac screenings performed between 2000 and 2019 in order to determine how much of this disease can be attributed to genetics compared to environmental causes.