This is Elliot, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, currently 30 months old. He came to us for a preventive cardiac examination — echocardiography, an ultrasound of the heart performed with a special machine equipped with colour and spectral Doppler, which our clinic has, for the early diagnosis of congenital and acquired heart disease. At present Elliot is free of mitral valve prolapse and regurgitation. He will have this preventive cardiac ultrasound every year — extremely important when the owners want the dog to have offspring, and not only then, of course.
In this breed it is important that dogs and their parents are free of mitral valve degeneration before the age of 5 in order to be bred, since the disease is polygenic and is inherited by the offspring. Worldwide, over 50% of the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel population develops valve degeneration before the age of 5, and over 90% of all dogs over 5 have valve degeneration.
Animals with valve degeneration established before the age of 2.5 must not be allowed to breed. Unfortunately, in Bulgaria this is rarely controlled, and animals of unverified origin are imported.