Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a serious and progressive heart muscle disease in large-breed dogs that causes heart failure and requires long-term welfare-focused medical management.
DCM causes welfare compromise across a spectrum from preclinical disease — where electrical instability creates sudden death risk without warning — to overt heart failure with its associated breathlessness, fluid accumulation, and fatigue. Dogs in compensated heart failure adapt their activity levels to their reduced cardiac capacity, but the subjective experience of exercise intolerance and breathlessness when their capacity is exceeded represents meaningful welfare compromise. Sudden cardiac death from arrhythmia — without preceding clinical signs — represents an acute welfare event for dogs and a profound loss for owners. The demonstration that pimobendan delays heart failure onset in preclinical Dobermann DCM has created a compelling welfare case for proactive cardiac screening in predisposed breeds. Regular Holter monitoring and echocardiography enable early detection and intervention before welfare deteriorates significantly.