Percepção de tutores sobre a saúde e qualidade de vida de cães cardiopatas

Abstract

Heart diseases in dogs are common in the series in Small Animal Veterinary Medicine and, in general, present with dyspnea, anorexia, syncope, weakness and intolerance to physical exercises, even at low intensity. Such clinical manifestations are common to the patient with Congestive Heart Failure and affect the patient's well-being. The negative changes that heart diseases cause in veterinary patients can affect the survival time of animals and be used as a marker of success in medical treatment. Currently, there is still a lack of more grounded analyzes to evaluate the quality of life in the veterinary routine, much of it due to the complexity that its quantification has, since it is usually the tutor who exposes his perception about the condition of his animal. Aiming to analyze the quality of life of dogs with heart disease, the Functional Evaluation of Cardiac Health (FETCH) was designed, whose questionnaire has 26 (twenty-six) questions, which are distributed into 18 (eighteen), in an objective format and with value zero to five, and another 8 (eight), of discursive character and with the aim of better understanding the management, nutrition and quality of life of dogs. The tutors were contacted by cell phone or e-mail present in the registration at the Superintendence Universidade Hospitalar Veterinária Universitária (SUHVU), so that 12 (twelve) tutors volunteered and answered the questionnaire, made available through Google Forms. However, 1 (one) tutor was unable to answer the questionnaire about their pet's Heart Disease. The animal population of this study was composed of Mixed Breed (SRD), Pinscher, Dachshund, English Bulldog, Poodle and Malt patients, whose age range varied between 8 (eight) and 18 (eighteen) years. The results observed were that 68% of the animals had Mitral Valve Degeneration, 8% arrhythmia, 8% cardiomegaly and 8% Systemic Arterial Hypertension. The average (24.19) of the analysis on the quality of life of patients revealed that heart diseases, from the point of view of the tutors of the animals in this study, compromise the analyzed variable and the animal's well-being, since the most tutors associated quality of life with the physical capacity of their animals, something that is affected by the clinical signs caused by CHF. Therefore, from the tutor's point of view, heart diseases are associated with less physical activity and, therefore, lower quality of life and animal welfare, and they prefer a simpler dosage regimen in the treatment.