The Kennel Club has still not provided the heart statement that was originally requested/agreed to last summer. I am also still waiting for contact from the KC Cardiology board lead, Hannah Stephenson. This has also been chased up by our Chair but still to no avail. It is extremely frustrating. SYWC kindly hosted the most recent group testing session at their February double-open shows. The cardiologist was Emily Dutton who has done a lot of Whippets over the last few years. 39 Whippets were tested and as well as show breeders, there was an uptake from pet breeders who attended purely to get their dog’s heart tested. I think this demonstrates how the message around the importance of testing is spreading and that the KC recommendation has been helpful. The Whippet Club host the next session at their Championship Show in April.
Dave Fisher has been booked as the cardiologist.
SYWC added a small fee to the cost of testing for each dog and their Committee has very kindly agreed to donate the surplus from the day to Breed Council to go towards heart testing. If other Clubs could consider doing this in the future it could allow us to build up a health fund. The BHC and BC Secretary helped to facilitate the clinic on the day and would be happy to continue to do this so that Clubs only need to offer
the space. Moving forward, my intention is to publish results from group sessions. The format of this will include the number of dogs tested and the number at each grade / clear. I will start with the SYWC session but wanted to wait until after the meeting so that Clubs were informed of this move. I think that this is a logical next step. 37 of the 39 dogs tested at SYWC were clear. Health test results for individual dogs are published in other breeds. For example, the Boxer Breed Council collates and publishes a list of dogs with clear or grade 1 test results. This is something that I believe we need to move towards and implement. There is no capacity to back date and we would like a list to be current – so only those that have been tested within 2 years to appear on it, then will drop off. I would like our list to consist of clear results only due to the advice around low-grade murmurs that will be published (when the KC finally produces it!).
Jo Whitehead
Breed Health Coordinator