Dog With Heart Murmur

[rdd1952]

We had Trixie in to the vet last week for her annual check-up. The doctor said she had a slight heart murmur and asked if she coughed often. I told her she did after running and she said that was probably a result of the murmur.

Has anyone else had a dog with this situation and if so, how did it affect them? Did it end up causing a lose in quality of life for the dog?

The doctor said we could go to a specialist and get more in depth testing done but I don't really know if that is necessary. I guess this is the reason for the pet insurance.

 

[Loops]

My Yorkie has a "slight" murmur too (she is 15yrs old). Chelsea does cough every so often and i give her a tablet every day for the murmur, she is fine, doesn't bother her.

Have you been given medication?

 

[ian]

apparently this is quite a normal thing in dogs, with all of the inter-breading we've done over the years. My friends Irish Terrier has a mumur and shes 15 this year. The best thing you can do is imo...do nothing different, keep the same excersise patterns. This is only my opinion though, like i say my friends dog, does alright, she's had the murmur from birth as well.

 

[rdd1952]

Thanks to both of you. That certainly offers some reassurance that it's not necessarily a serious life shortening event.

The vet did not give us any medication yet. This was the first time they had mentioned it. Also, forgot to state earlier that Trixie is a little over 8 years old.

 

[fishyfeet]

Thanks to both of you. That certainly offers some reassurance that it's not necessarily a serious life shortening event.

The vet did not give us any medication yet. This was the first time they had mentioned it. Also, forgot to state earlier that Trixie is a little over 8 years old.

Lots of cavalier king charles spaniels have heart murmurs from birth, even with parents being tested first, you can get them graded, ie grade is not bad at all, but it does get worse with age, and its all to do with in breeding as previously stated, some poor dogs at the age of 2 or 3 having to put down. If trixie is 8 and not shown any problems before now its probably just a case of keeping on a low dose medication and she will hopefully be fine. di

 

[rdd1952]

I did just speak with the vet about it. She called just to check on how she was doig after the visit last week. She said it was fairly common in small dogs and that as long as it didn't appear to get worse, she should be fine. The things she said to watch for is more coughing. Some coughing just after exercise she said was normal in these cases but if it became more frequent to let them know.

It's reassuring to know that this probably won't be a big deal. I can't imagine what we would do without our Trixie.

 

[scobie140]

My mams dog was a mungrel it had a hole in its heart from a pup, it started off as a small one grade??(can't remember) lead a happy healthy life till it was about 9 then fainted a few times after running about and the vet said the the hole was at the highest grade and that it would be best to put it down. as long as you keep them healthy and don't let them get fat and lazy it should be fine with regular check ups from the vet

 

[morgan]

Hi, my friend's Westie had a heart murmur when she got to about 6. She had to have a very expensive test (£600 or so) luckily my friend has pet insurance. The dog is 13 now and I looked after her recently for 6 weeks. I asked how I get her to take her tablets and she said she isn't on any now and the heart murmur has gone. The dog is very lively and runs around like a puppy! I took her for walks of about 30-50 minutes every day and when she got back she wanted to play, she wasn't tired at all. She did sleep a lot at other times but she is 13. Hope your dog is ok.

 

[WILDER]

My cat has a slight heart murmur. Vet said it nothing to worry about.
Kitty 12 and half years old.

Did some research on the net aswell. Put my mind at rest.

 

[Shelby]

I had a shepherd/pitt mix with a slight murmur (grade 1). Did the doc by any change "grade" the murmur? Uusally they give it a number 1 through 3.

1 being innocent
2 being functional
3 being pathologic.
Bear lived to be 14 years old with more energy than my boyfriends 4 year old GSD. He ran circles around her and was never on medicine.

Here is a good source of information
http/maxshouse.com/heart_murmurs.htm

Hope it helps.

 

[rdd1952]

Thanks for the link. She didn't grade it and only said a "slight" murmur so I would assume grade 1.She just said that she would probably be fine with it but to just keep an eye out for any signs of it getting worse such as coughing a lot, especially for no reason.

I do feel more at ease since I talked to the doctor again yesterday. She had called to check on her a week after the visit (fairly typical). When I asked a few more questions, she said if we wanted to investigate further that we could have the ultrasound and something other test done but she didn't come right out and say we should get it done. I think if it were more serious, she would have pushed us to do that.

 

[dipsydoodlenoodle]

My dog had a heart murmour; she was fine; it didn't affect her in the slightest.

It's a very common thing.

 

[Ludwig Venter]

Only on account of the title of this thread, I heard my wife talk to my daughter (a Vet) on the phone tonight, and from the background, I just shouted a question....... "is a dog with a heart murmer a serious thing"??.... The only reply I got, (and very promptly) is ..."of course"....

Now I did not ellaborate and neither did she (they).... So, I deduct that it should not be written off as a "do not worry too much" situation... Special care and a prescribed plan of action should be in place and precautions be followed.

Do whatever your vet says.....

 

[WILDER]

Do whatever your vet says...

I agree.
In my case the vet didn't seem to concerned. Kitty went to have some of her teeth removed. Then when she spotted the heart murmur.
She did some tests, one was for thyroid, can't remember what the other's were.
it depends on how bad it is. In kitty case it was only a slight heart murmur.

 

[phil140701]

Do whatever your vet says...

I agree.
In my case the vet didn't seem to concerned. Kitty went to have some of her teeth removed. Then when she spotted the heart murmur.
She did some tests, one was for thyroid, can't remember what the other's were.
it depends on how bad it is. In kitty case it was only a slight heart murmur.

i used to foster retired greyhounds and heart murmurs are very common in them, no special treatment is usually prescribed unless it's a severe case, most usually lead completely normal lives. our vet told us that the 3 most common causes are inbreading (with racers this isn't an overly common occurance), extreme physical fitness (this causes the heart muscles to harden up which causes the valves of the heart to become unable to open and close properly, this is the most common form in greyhounds) and last but not least is weight caused by over feeding and the wrong type of foods.
ALWAYS take advice from your veterinarian and also worth mentioning is when you do your routine worming it's worth trying to source a heart worm wormer, whilst not so common in the uk with more dogs being brought in to the country from other places i.e europe, it is on the increase and there have been several cases of it seen by the vet who one of the dog trainers i know uses as this can give similar symptoms.
take care
Phil