Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Health and Care in Hickory, NC

Just lovely. They’re gentle, adaptable, good with children and other pets, and happy in both apartments and houses. They keep enough of the spaniel in them to enjoy a sniff and a wander, but their real preference is company.

That devotion has one edge worth planning for: Cavaliers don’t do well alone. They’re prone to separation anxiety, and they’re happiest in a home where someone’s around a good deal, or where they have another pet for company.

They’re moderate on grooming, with a silky coat that needs regular brushing behind the ears and legs, where it mats. Easy dogs, on the whole. The complexity is medical, not behavioral.

Because mitral valve disease is nearly universal in this breed, and it tends to start young.

The mitral valve keeps blood flowing the right way through the heart. In Cavaliers, it degenerates early, often showing up as a murmur in middle age or sooner, years earlier than in most breeds. The majority of Cavaliers develop it if they live long enough, and it’s the breed’s leading health concern by a wide margin.

Here’s the part that matters, though: a murmur is not a crisis. Many Cavaliers live years with a well-managed heart, and catching it early is exactly what makes those good years possible. When the heart starts to struggle, there’s effective medication that genuinely extends both length and quality of life, and starting it at the right moment depends on having watched the trend.

So we listen to a Cavalier’s heart at every visit, and we may recommend a cardiologist and periodic imaging once a murmur appears. Coughing, tiring easily, faster breathing at rest, or reluctance to exercise all deserve a prompt call. Watching the resting breathing rate while your dog sleeps becomes one of the most useful things you can do at home, and we’ll show you how.

• The heart. Above everything. Any change in stamina, breathing, or cough.
• Ears. Those gorgeous feathered ears trap moisture and get infections.
• Eyes. Several inherited conditions show up in the breed, so squinting or cloudiness is worth a look.
• Neurological signs. Cavaliers are prone to syringomyelia, a spinal-cord condition. Persistent scratching at the neck and shoulders without contact, or unusual sensitivity there, is worth mentioning.
• Knees. Patellar luxation shows up as an intermittent skip.
• Weight. Extra pounds make a compromised heart work harder, so lean matters more here than usual.

Keep the vet visits regular so we can track the heart, keep them lean, and learn to count a sleeping breathing rate. Bring us any cough or drop in stamina promptly. With good monitoring, a Cavalier’s heart is very often a managed condition rather than a short story, and the years in between are as sweet as the breed.