Board-certified Veterinary Cardiologist, Dr. Gordon Peddle, has been a member of the Internal Medicine Department with Drs. Straus and Kantrowitz since August 2010. His focused expertise in the fields of medical and interventional cardiology enhance the already extensive scope of options offered through Internal Medicine. Dr. Peddle performs diagnosis, treatment, and long-term management of a wide array of both congenital and acquired heart and respiratory disease in dogs and cats. His expertise also allows for patients presenting to the emergency service and other specialty services at AERA to undergo more comprehensive evaluation and treatment. Dr. Peddle is also available for breed-specific certification examinations .

Dr. Peddle combines a pet’s clinical history and physical examination findings with advanced diagnostic and imaging techniques to diagnose and characterize cardiopulmonary disease and develop an appropriate treatment plan. Dr. Peddle also works closely with your primary care veterinarian to help monitor your patients’ cardiac disease and make appropriate changes in therapy, when necessary.

Diagnostic imaging often an includes an echocardiogram (cardiac ultrasound) which will be of the highest quality available via the Philips iE33 Select Ultrasound System Xcelera Focus analysis software. This is considered one of the finest cardiac imaging packages available in human or veterinary cardiology. We feel strongly that our animal patients deserve the same quality of medical care that we ourselves enjoy and have chosen to obtain the same state-of-the-art equipment being used in human cardiology.

Diagnostic services offered by AERA Cardiology that may be performed include:

• Measurement of cardiac blood biomarkers
• Doppler/oscillometric blood pressure monitoring
• Six- and ten-lead electrocardiography (ECG)
• Holter/event monitoring
• Thoracic radiography
• Echocardiography (cardiac ultrasound)
• Cardiac catheterization
• Fluoroscopy
• Angiography

Interventional Cardiology at AERA:

Dr. Peddle also performs a variety of catheter-based, minimally invasive surgical therapies for certain congenital and acquired cardiac and respiratory conditions.

These procedures include:

• Temporary and permanent pacemaker implantation
• Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) occlusion using canine ductal occluders (CDO), embolization coils, or vascular plugs
• Balloon valvuloplasty for pulmonic stenosis
• Heartworm extraction
• Percutaneous pericardial window (balloon pericardiotomy) for recurrent pericardial effusion
• Tracheal stent placement for tracheal collapse

Gordon D. Peddle, VMD, DACVIM (Cardiology)
Director of the Cardiology Section,
AERA Internal Medicine Department

Dr. Peddle is originally from Long Island, NY.  He received a BS in Animal Science from Cornell University and his Veterinariae Medicinae Doctoris (VMD) degree from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine.  He completed an internship in small animal medicine and surgery at Oradell Animal Hospital in Paramus, NJ before returning to the University of Pennsylvania to complete a residency in veterinary cardiology. 

Though fascinated by virtually all aspects of veterinary and human cardiology, Dr. Peddle has a special interest in pericardial disease, pulmonary hypertension, congenital heart disease, infectious endocarditis, heart failure therapy, and catheter-based interventions.  He is currently involved in active research investigating alternative diuretic therapies for heart failure and investigation of cardiac biomarkers as indicators of presence and severity of cardiac disease.  Dr. Peddle has been published in a variety of veterinary journals on both cardiac and non-cardiac subjects, including original research, review articles and case reports.  Dr. Peddle plans to continue active research within veterinary cardiology via pursuit of clinical trials and evaluation of uncommon diseases.