What are the most common heart diseases in dogs?

Good question. The most common heart disease is broken apart into the type of dog. So our smaller breeds traditionally have mitral valve disease, which is a valve on the left side of the heart. And some of our larger breeds can have various problems, such as chamber enlargement or other conditions like that.

The most common heart disease in dogs is left-sided heart disease. This occurs when a specific valve in the heart becomes slightly leaky. Over time, this can lead to the right heart enlarging, which can result in congestive heart failure.

The most common heart diseases in dogs depend on their size. For small dogs, the most common disease is mitral valve disease, which can lead to left-sided heart failure. In large breed dogs, we see more dilated cardiomyopathy, where the heart muscle gets a bit flabby. This disease has been linked to feeding boutique-like grain-free diets, although the exact correlation is not yet fully understood. Other common heart issues include arrhythmias, which are abnormal heartbeats.

Most commonly, we see two forms of heart enlargement, one due to a leaky valve, the mitral valve, typically, that we call hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The other is dilated cardiomyopathy, which we typically recognize as dietary in origin.