What is a board-certified veterinary cardiologist?

Board-certified veterinary cardiologists have chosen to pursue further training after graduating veterinary school. Typically, this includes 1 year of post-DVM internship (if not more) and 3-4 years of a cardiology residency. During this time, the focus of learning is on cardiac physiology (how the heart works in health and disease), cardiac imaging (ultrasound/echocardiography, x-ray, CT, and MRI), and treatment/management of cardiac disease - both with medicine as well as cardiac catheterization. During the residency, the individual must pass two board exams to become board-certified in cardiology by the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM). Due to this experience, cardiologists will be able to perform the most complete and accurate cardiac evaluations in your clinic, providing you with the best help with managing your heart-related cases (as compared to traveling ultrasound technicians or non-cardiologist DVMs/specialists). 

 

To know if an individual is boarded in cardiology, look for DACVIM (Cardiology) after their veterinary degree (DVM/VMD). 

 

​How is a consult scheduled with SEVC for my pet?

Contact your primary care veterinarian to schedule your pet’s consultation at their clinic with Southeast Veterinary Cardiology; we are a referral-only service.  We do not schedule consultations directly with pet owners or do in-home/kennel evaluations.

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SEVC can only evaluate pets at their established primary care veterinarian office (where they receive all routine care) and cannot facilitate your pet being seen at a different clinic that we visit.  

​As SEVC does not have a clinic of our own and is dependent on primary veterinary clinics for facilitating the consultations, we will only evaluate patients when contacted by the primary veterinarian.  Therefore, if your primary veterinarian is outside SEVC's service area or does not use SEVC, see below for the other cardiology options in Georgia for an echocardiogram consultation.*** 

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If your pet is experiencing difficulty breathing, collapsing/fainting, extreme lethargy, inability to sleep/rest due to heavy breathing/panting, protracted vomiting and/or diarrhea, please contact your veterinarian or emergency veterinarian immediately. SEVC does not provide emergency services. 

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Do you meet directly with pet owners and discuss findings during or after the consultation?

No, SEVC only provides direct consultation with your veterinarian, we do not directly meet or discuss via phone with pet owners about testing results. Due to the inability to predict exact arrival and to increase efficiency, SEVC does not facilitate owners being present or holding for an echocardiogram. See below for additional cardiology options in the area if you wish to be present and meet with a cardiologist in a traditional appointment.

 

For each consultation: Pets are dropped off at your familiar primary care clinic as SEVC cannot guarantee exact arrival times. The results of all diagnostics performed will be given to your primary care veterinarian in the form of a detailed consultation report, and this information will be relayed to each pet owner by the primary care veterinarian. To further help relay information about cardiac disease and therapy, client handouts will be provided for many diseases. Any additional testing (i.e. bloodwork, x-rays) will be performed by your primary veterinarian and SEVC is happy to consult with your veterinarian on any of these pertaining to your pet's cardiology care. By maintaining efficiency while traveling to a large number of clinics, SEVC is able to provide the most cost-effective consultations by a board-certified cardiologist.

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If you wish to have a traditional appointment where you meet and discuss findings directly (or via phone) with a veterinary cardiologist, we recommend using cardiology services at:

• UGA College of Veterinary Medicine

• Auburn University College of Veterinary Medicine

• St. Francis Veterinary Specialists 

• Dogwood Veterinary Specialty and Emergency

• Upstate Vet Specialists (Greenville, SC)

• Blue pearl

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What are your fees?

Please contact your primary care veterinarian for the cost of a cardiac evaluation by SEVC. Prices to pet owners are set by each veterinary clinic. 

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Please note: SEVC supports your clinic requiring deposits for echocardiograms as well as cancellation fees if cancelling on short notice/no-show. Demand for echocardiograms is very high and when short notice cancellations or no-shows occur, we cannot fill that spot - which means that another pet cannot be seen who needs cardiac evaluation. SEVC reserves the right to refuse service for pet owners who frequently cancel/reschedule. 

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Do you offer heart disease screening for breeding dogs/cats?

****UPDATE*** SEVC is not performing OFA Certification or HCM screening clinics/shows at this time. 

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For more information, please email: info@sevetcardiology.com.