Resources
Easy-to-use tools to get things started
Organizing Heart Health Month activities is a great way to engage and raise awareness
among multiple clients at one time. These activities provide you with an opportunity
to distribute educational materials and reinforce with clients the need to bring
their dogs in for regularly scheduled checkups so their cardiac status can be
monitored.
To help you kick things off, we've created 2 sets of resources:
- An easily implemented digital kit that's ideal for clinics that want to spread canine heart health education but are unable to host events. These tools are designed for use on clinic websites or social media pages.
- A full Heart Health Month kit that includes everything found in the digital kit, plus other useful tools than can help clinics host live events and educate patients.
Using the digital kit
- Promote canine heart health education—and collect a few extra "likes"— via your clinic's Facebook page using the pre-written posts found in the kit
- Update your clinic webpage with new educational content written specifically for pet owners
- Post the supplied web banner on your webpage so clients know where to go to find out more about canine heart disease
The full Heart Health Month kit
The Heart Health Awareness tools have 2 types of resources: (1) tools that allow you
to make clients aware of Heart Health Month and to invite them to your educational
events and (2) educational materials that explain heart disease to
clients.
Some ideas you may want to consider while using this kit:
- Specify the same day of each month as "Heartfest" and have an open house all day where literature on canine heart disease is made available to clients when they drop in.
- Have a "snacks and discussion" day when you give a short presentation or stimulate discussions on canine heart disease and answer questions.
- Invite your local cardiologist to hold a "meet the cardiology expert" lecture for clients at your clinic and answer any questions they might have.
- Establish a target number of dog owners to be contacted within the month by clinic staff and given information about the risk of heart disease in dogs, as well as the importance of early diagnosis and intervention. Celebrate within your clinic when the target number is reached.
- Have an "App in." Offer to help clients download and understand the Your Dog's Heart app for monitoring target breathing rate in a group session.
- Host a client-to-client information session at your clinic where owners of dogs at risk of or currently diagnosed with heart disease discuss common experiences, offer each other support, and share stories of hope.
Come up with your own creative ideas and share them on this website! Clinics benefit, clients benefit, and most importantly, patients benefit.
Resources to promote Heart Health Month:
The NEW Heart Health Month digital kit—an easy-to-use collection of digital tools that can be utilized on your website, through social media, and in local news outlets to help you implement Heart Health Month and educate your clients about canine heart disease.
The full Heart Health Month kit—a detailed manual that takes you step by step through
the process of implementing a successful canine cardiac health awareness program in
your clinic.
Client flyer—1-page sheet to announce Heart Health Month and spark client interest in attending educational events that can be sent to clients by email or printed out for use in clinics.
Clinic poster—for mounting in your clinic to promote Heart Health Month and spark client interest in attending educational events.
Web banner for your clinic’s website—a simple way to promote your upcoming Heart
Health Month event or drive clients to additional educational information at www.yourdogsheart.com.
Please make the image a live link
to encourage use.
Pre-recorded answering machine/phone on-hold message—sample script announcing Heart Health Month and inviting clients who call the clinic to participate in an educational event to learn more about heart disease in dogs.
Media announcements/radio script—sample text for submission to media outlets and radio stations to announce Heart Health Month and highlight clinic-sponsored educational events.
Informational resources on heart disease.
Dog owner brochure—an educational 8-page booklet that explains types of heart disease, which dogs are at risk, signs to watch for, and what owners can do to help protect their dogs.
Download Low-Resolution
Safety
Information: VETMEDIN® (pimobendan) should only be used in dogs
with clinical evidence of CHF.
Full
Prescribing Information
Clinic poster—for mounting in your clinic to educate clients about canine heart disease, including dogs at risk and common clinical signs.
Download Low-Resolution
Safety
Information: VETMEDIN® (pimobendan) should only be used in dogs
with clinical evidence of CHF.
Full
Prescribing Information
Cut-and-paste text for your clinic’s website or e-newsletter—information for dog owners on heart disease, dogs at risk, and what they can do to protect their dogs.
The resting respiratory rate (RRR) app—used by clients to monitor a dog’s target breathing rate. Monitoring RRR can allow a pet owner to help track their dog’s heart health at home. In fact, a recent paper showed that “home monitoring of respiratory rate was simple and was the most useful in the assessment of successful treatment of CHF.”1
Please note that your client will require you to supply the recommended target breathing rate for each individual patient. Please use the links below to download and familiarize yourself with this useful app.
Client target breathing rate monitoring instructions—2-page sheet on which you can record a dog’s target breathing rate and give to owners to encourage them to monitor it regularly; includes QR code clients can scan on their smartphones to link to the app for monitoring their dogs’ target breathing rate.
The RRR client user guide—a step-by-step instructional guide that works in
conjunction with the RRR technical sheet/bulletin to teach your clients how to use
the RRR smartphone app.
RRR technical fact sheet—a resource for you and your veterinary team that summarizes the most current research on RRR as a diagnostic and monitoring tool; includes information and tips about how to promote the RRR app to your clients.
Interactive flying disc giveaway—contact your Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc. (BIVI) representative while supplies last to get free interactive flying discs to give to your clients. The flying discs will be accompanied by an instructional flyer to show your clients and staff how to bring them to life. Each flying disc serves as a reminder to owners about the importance of canine heart health and engage them using a unique augmented reality experience. Plus, the photos you can take with this interactive tool can be submitted for the chance to win great prizes for your clinic!
The veterinary cardiologist’s role flyer—a flyer outlining the specific expertise of cardiologists, how they help manage cases, and why a clinic might refer a dog to them.
In addition to the client-directed materials we’ve provided in the kit, we are providing tools to help you prepare for Heart Health Month. These include direct links to the ACVIM guidelines and a 1-hour CE accredited webinar, developed by BIVI and IDEXX Laboratories, outlining the ACVIM staging system and how to incorporate it into your diagnostic protocol for diagnosis and treatment of congestive heart failure.
A 1-page overview of these guidelines is also available on this website under The ABCDs of Canine Cardiology.
References
1. Schober KE, Hart TM, Stern JA, et al. Effects of treatment on respiratory rate, serum natriuretic peptide concentration, and Doppler echocardiographic indices of left ventricular filling pressure in dogs with congestive heart failure secondary to degenerative mitral valve disease and dilated cardiomyopathy. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2011;239(4):468–479.
Text for tweets and Facebook posts—sample messaging for social media to raise awareness of canine heart health among clients and to inform them of potential upcoming educational clinic events.
Download How-to Guide
Download Social Media Posts (PDF)
Download Social Media Posts (DOC)