Cavalier King Charles Spaniel health: heart, syringomyelia and tests

The mitral valve separates two chambers on the left side of the heart. In MVD the valve degenerates, stops closing properly, and some blood flows backward with every beat. A veterinarian first picks it up as a murmur; over the years it can progress to heart failure.

It happens to many small dogs in old age. What sets the Cavalier apart is that it appears much earlier and in far more individuals than in other breeds, and that it has a clear hereditary component. Cavalier Health, the international reference on the breed’s health, describes it as the breed’s leading cause of death.

There is no cure, but there is treatment: caught early, with monitoring and medication, many Cavaliers live for years with a good quality of life.

It is a neurological disease. In many Cavaliers the back of the skull is too small for the brain it holds — this is called Chiari-like malformation — and that disturbs the flow of the fluid surrounding the spinal cord. Fluid-filled cavities form inside the cord: that is syringomyelia.

Not every dog that has it shows symptoms. When there are symptoms, the most characteristic are:

• Scratching toward the neck or shoulder without actually making contact, especially while walking or when the collar goes on.
• Sensitivity or pain when the head, neck or ears are touched.
• Crying out for no obvious reason, often at night or when changing position.

Diagnosis takes an MRI scan, a costly test that requires anesthesia. That is why few breeders anywhere in the world do it routinely, and almost none publish it.

Two details separate a useful test from a piece of paper:

• Who did it. A general-practice veterinarian can miss a mild murmur. The exam should be done by a cardiologist.
• When. MVD appears with age. A two-year-old parent with no murmur is what you would expect; what tells you something is that the dog still has none later on, and how its own parents are doing.

At Casa Trufa, each parent dog’s tests — heart, eyes and kneecaps — are on its profile in Meet the parents, with the date and the document. If a test has not been done, it does not appear: we don’t write “healthy” in its place.

No, and anyone who does is not being honest. What a responsible breeder does is lower the odds by choosing parents whose hearts are healthy at an age when that means something, and tell you the truth about what they know and what they don’t.

Your part is to plan for it: a heart exam every year for the dog’s whole life, keeping the dog lean — excess weight loads the heart — and a budget for medication if it is ever needed.

Because Colombia has very few breeders of this breed and every ad names its own figure. In October 2026 we saw Cavaliers advertised from COP 3,500,000 to COP 16,500,000. One of the most expensive did not mention mitral valve disease anywhere on the page.

A high figure with documents may be justified. A high figure without documents is just a high figure. The ranges and their sources are in the Cavalier price guide.

The Cavalier has a somewhat short muzzle and a predisposition to heart disease: two reasons it copes poorly with heat. It does better in temperate and cool climates — Medellín, the Coffee Region (Eje Cafetero), Bogotá. In the hot lowlands (tierra caliente) it needs a cool home, short walks at dawn and strict weight control, and it is something we prefer to talk through with each family before a puppy goes home.

You can see how your municipality suits the breed in Delivery.