TWO failed Holter Monitors

[Sage024]

I’m at a loss here. kanda had his EKG two weeks ago and his first Holter monitor went on the same day. Cardiologist hooked it all up and sent him home. I recorded his activity in a diary for 24hrs and brought the cardio kit back the same day it finished. A few days later I get a call that it didn’t record any data, so we go back in a few days later for a second attempt. Different device this time, different brand. Did the whole 24hrs all over again and returned the kit and today I get an email from the cardiologist saying when she went to read the digital data it came up with an error that it needed at least 2 mins of data to read. Meaning…it probably also didn’t record anything.

I’m at a loss here. The cardiologist is going to talk to the company the monitor is from on Monday to see if the data is there or not. If it’s not she offered three options.

- don’t do the holter anymore
- do the Holter but with a full chest wrap
- use a zio patch, which is a device for humans but we can try it on him.

I’m super stressed about this. Kanda hates going to the vet. It’s a big stress to him every time. And we’ve now removed adhesive bandages from his shaved spot twice now and each time it’s been painful, stressful and time consuming because he gets very agitated and scared and won’t let me spray it with easy off. We need to have this test done. What would you do? I dread the full chest wrap considering how awful it’s been just trying to get off the adhesives we have done already. I’ve never heard of anyone using a zio patch. And I don’t see not doing the Holter at all as an option.

What could be going wrong?? For reference I’ve attached some images of the shaved area where they attach the leads

 

[JanS]

I think it's pretty much a given that you need a chest wrap for the holter to record correctly. I see you have something on but it probably needs to cover more.
You could try to get some Unisolve or similar for removing the adhesive.

 

[Sage024]

I think it's pretty much a given that you need a chest wrap for the holter to record correctly. I see you have something on but it probably needs to cover more.
You could try to get some Unisolve or similar for removing the adhesive.

For a full chest wrap, do they need to shave their whole torso/chest? Is the adhesive all over the entire barrel? (Sorry it’s my first time doing these). He wouldn’t let me get close to the wrap with the spray can of East off last time, maybe he would allow a larger squeeze bottle type thing that I could massage into the bandage…if we do the chest wrap, would that more than likely give us a reading? I don’t want to have to do this a fourth time

 

[Ravenbird]

For a full chest wrap, do they need to shave their whole torso/chest? Is the adhesive all over the entire barrel? (Sorry it’s my first time doing these). He wouldn’t let me get close to the wrap with the spray can of East off last time, maybe he would allow a larger squeeze bottle type thing that I could massage into the bandage…if we do the chest wrap, would that more than likely give us a reading? I don’t want to have to do this a fourth time

I didn't shave my dog at all, the shaved spot you show in your photo is all that's needed. I used the adhesive only where the little round pieces are placed and used Unisolve to remove. Dip a Q-tip in Unisolve and rub under the tape as you lift. No spray involved to aggravate things. I just followed the instructions from Alba that came with the Holter. A vest goes over the wires and box so the dog can't disturb the wires, but has nothing to do with shaving or the monitoring, it just holds everything in place. Are you using Alba Holter? Weird that a Cardiologist put it on for you and still didn't get it right...

 

[Rits]

Shaving isn't necessary. I've holtered a few times now and never shave. The device should tell you right away if it is recording or not. I hate to ask but has the cardiologist tried fresh batteries or a different memory card?

 

[obbanner]

My wife wore a Zio patch for seven days. It's very simple and unobtrusive.

 

[Kaiser2016]

I also think there is something wrong with their equipment setup. Is it failing to record because there is nothing to record to? Our experience did not involve any shaving either.

 

[Sage024]

I didn't shave my dog at all, the shaved spot you show in your photo is all that's needed. I used the adhesive only where the little round pieces are placed and used Unisolve to remove. Dip a Q-tip in Unisolve and rub under the tape as you lift. No spray involved to aggravate things. I just followed the instructions from Alba that came with the Holter. A vest goes over the wires and box so the dog can't disturb the wires, but has nothing to do with shaving or the monitoring, it just holds everything in place. Are you using Alba Holter? Weird that a Cardiologist put it on for you and still didn't get it right...

The first one they used was Medicomp and the second one is AxisVet. In the email they made it sound like the full chest wrap would be entirely adhesive. I’ll need to talk with them over the phone to understand our options and what each thing means. I’m suppose to hear back today. If we must do it again, I’ll try the unisolve and qtip, that might be small and unsuspecting enough for him to let me slowly work off the bandage

 

[Sage024]

Shaving isn't necessary. I've holtered a few times now and never shave. The device should tell you right away if it is recording or not. I hate to ask but has the cardiologist tried fresh batteries or a different memory card?

They used different devices each time and the weird thing is on the second device I had to remove the batteries at the end of the 24hrs to turn it off and I could see that the device was on. So I’m really not sure what they’re doing wrong besides maybe it’s not secure and the nodes are immediately moving

 

[Sage024]

My wife wore a Zio patch for seven days. It's very simple and unobtrusive.

Do you know if it would work on a dog? Or give the same type of reading as a Holter?

 

[Sage024]

I also think there is something wrong with their equipment setup. Is it failing to record because there is nothing to record to? Our experience did not involve any shaving either.

You mean you didn’t shave any patches at all? The nodes went on the fur? And I’m not sure what the error could be. The whole reason I paid so much money and drove all the way there was so a professional could do it so I wouldn’t mess it up and so far we are 0/2 on successful Holter monitors lol when I speak with the cardiologist hopefully today I will ask about the memory card and such. Surely there is a reason this has failed twice

 

[Rits]

The other option is to rent one from a doberman pinscher club or breeder and do it yourself then submit the info to alba medical and forward that to your cardiologist. It's pretty easy to do and you would know right away if the memory card was blank on your own computer.

 

[Ravenbird]

I can definitely see your frustration!

I didn't shave any hair at all, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt anything, since you've already done it, and it does probably help with comfort by not having hairs being pulled by the adhesive. Also I was told to use a brand new out of the box battery to assure that it is good.

The other option is to rent one from a doberman pinscher club or breeder and do it yourself then submit the info to alba medical and forward that to your cardiologist. It's pretty easy to do and you would know right away if the memory card was blank on your own computer.

This is what I did.

In the email they made it sound like the full chest wrap would be entirely adhesive.

You can verify, but I think what they mean by that is that the closures are velcro and can be strapped anywhere so as to fit different size dogs, it will still have something that the straps stick to. Not sticking to the body of the dog.

 

[LifeofRubie]

Very frustrating!

Did your first two tests not include this vest type thing? You can see the nodes attached right behind her front leg and then the data collection device kind of on top of the vest.

I do believe we used unisolve to remove the stickies, as well.

And it does sound silly to ask if the batteries were working but I think our breeder just pops brand new batteries into the device every times it's used. She doesn't mess with multiple uses just in case.

 

[Kaiser2016]

mean you didn’t shave any patches at all? The nodes went on the fur?

Yes. They cleaned the spots and attached right to the fur.

 

[Sage024]

Very frustrating!

Did your first two tests not include this vest type thing? You can see the nodes attached right behind her front leg and then the data collection device kind of on top of the vest.

I do believe we used unisolve to remove the stickies, as well.

And it does sound silly to ask if the batteries were working but I think our breeder just pops brand new batteries into the device every times it's used. She doesn't mess with multiple uses just in case.

View attachment 139743

Yes he had a vest just like this both times. The first time they shaved those two spots on either side. Then the nodes stuck to the skin, big slab of adhesive on the shaved area over the nodes, vest on top with monitor attached. Second time they didn’t need to re shave because he was still shaved from the first. Still waiting to hear back

 

[LifeofRubie]

Yes he had a vest just like this both times. The first time they shaved those two spots on either side. Then the nodes stuck to the skin, big slab of adhesive on the shaved area over the nodes, vest on top with monitor attached. Second time they didn’t need to re shave because he was still shaved from the first. Still waiting to hear back

Ok, well that all sounds like what we're familiar with! Man... even more frustrating!

 

[JanS]

The other option is to rent one from a doberman pinscher club or breeder and do it yourself then submit the info to alba medical and forward that to your cardiologist. It's pretty easy to do and you would know right away if the memory card was blank on your own computer.

That's what I was going to suggest too.

 

[obbanner]

Do you know if it would work on a dog? Or give the same type of reading as a Holter?

I don't and am interested to hear how it works for you.

 

[kaloric]

Do you have reason to believe he's suffering from heart issues?

I hold the unpopular opinion that Holters are all but useless as a proactive diagnostic, and that seems to be what vets are saying. They're used in research, and they're used to pin-down a diagnosis if there are symptoms, such as dizziness, syncope, fatigue, and that sort of thing causing concern.

Look at human medicine. Heart disease is our leading cause of death, too. If there was proactive diagnostic value in Holters, would it not have risen to the same level as getting colonoscopy screenings and such? But yet, that's not a thing.

If there are a substantial numbers of sudden death cases being avoided by taking a 24 hour analysis of cardiac electrical activity once a year or whatever, then I'd like to be pointed to research which indicates that is a thing. I just haven't seen anything indicating proactive Holters have this kind of value.