Hi all
A friend of mine had a terrible experience last night. He was walking his 15 month old boxer, which was running around quite happily when it suddenly collapsed in front of him. He picked the dog up and ran back to his car, took it to the vets but sadly the dog had died by the time he reached. The vet said it was probably a massive heart attack. The dog had shown no signs of ill health previous to this. Is this a common problem in boxers this young? I feel so sad,this dog was so gently and friendly, my friend is devastated.
Any info or experiences greatly received.
thanks
Shirley
My friend has contacted the breeder to let him know about this.

Shirley,
I am so sorry to hear about your friends dog, yes there are heart problems in Boxers but a lot of testing has been done by breeders so it shouldn't be as common as it was. Having said that I would think that there could be other types of heart problem which just happen so it may just be one of those things. Without a PM it would be difficult to say what was wrong accurately.
I lost a Boxer to Aortic Stenosis in 1985 aged 3 but I had known since he was a puppy and he was quite restricted as regards exercise. If you do a search on the web I am sure you will find plenty info but without a PM it would only be speculation esp as there were no previous signs.
At least your friend can take comfort in the dog having had a short life but a merry one, I could have kept Klan going longer with more medication but he would have just sat in the kennel as he could not even cope with the heat in the house, so with my Vet I decided that his quality of life was so reduced as to be unkind to keep him going on medication.
Once again please tell your friend how sorry I am
Anne

My neighbours lost their young boxer a couple of months ago. Less than 18 months old. He appeared very fit and active, but just suddenly developed pneumonia and went downhill over 48 hours, finally dying. The postmortem revealed a heart problem (? don't know what). He (or his parents) had been checked for heart problems.
Lorna

Anne and Lorna
Thanks for the replies. It does seem to be just one of those things as he was perfectly healthy for the whole of his short life, nothing was picked up when he was a pup or at routine vet visits. He did not have a PM done so he will never know. I'm not sure that knowing would make it any easier to handle.
thanks again,
Shirley

As jeart problems had become widespread among boxers, a heart testing scheme was implemented by the breed clubs in conjunction with cardiac specialists. This involves testing the parents who are give a heart score. the advice is to only breed from scores of 0 or 1 (not sure of the scale but 0 is best).

Do you know if both the parents were heart tested. Also the national breed club may be grateful for feedback, as they are monitoring this problem. If you send in the dogs name and date of birth, and names of parents, and their heart test results. Any control scheme needs input to tell if it is working.

Think it's 1 to 3 Brainless, the trouble seems to be that the same dog will be scored 3 by one specilist & 1 by another. Don't know if what these specilists look for is changable or if it is just a matter of opinion. Guess it will have to be sorted before it will have a big impact on the heart problems suffered by several breeds, as I would think a breeder would get a second reading if they were not happy with the first. I have no first hand knowledge and would welcome comment from those who do.
Ja:)kie

Boxer heart testing for murmurs has been going for 10 years plus now.
The results are used as the basis for a breeding control scheme.
Much standardisation of the grading even amongst cardiologists specialising in Boxers was required. This has finally become accomplished.
(12 cardiologists attended 2 testing days with 15 dogs and all had to agree on the scoring, my original Boxer took part in this and laterly I donated her heart to Edinburgh Uni, veterinary cardiology, to help with research, my Boxer was grade 1)
Application of the breeding control scheme had seriously reduced the numbers of Boxers suffering with serious murmurs and dying young stock. There are now 5000 Boxers tested.
All basic heart testing info can be found on http://www.boxerunderground.com/UK
Further details on Boxer Aortic Stenosis may be found on the same site
under Dr B Cattanach's talk given to the ABC (American Boxer Club)

Boxers are considered ok to breed from if they attain zero (best) or 1 grades. Dogs that grade 3 or louder murmurs should NEVER be considered for breeding purposes. Boxers that have grade 2 murmurs may be rescreened up to three times, those which are consistently found to have grade 2 murmurs should not be bred from.

Boxers identified as having heart abnormalities other than aortic stenosis eg cardiomyopathy or pulmonic stenosis should NOT be bred from.

If you do have a Boxer that dies of heart condition you should let
the Breed council Geneticist know, that is Dr B. Cattanach.
(He was also instrumental in setting up testing & breeding control scheme for Progressive Anoxapathy P.A. which struck the breed in the 70's)

I'll pass on that information to my neighbour, thanks
Lorna