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Heart Murmer Advise


gossco57
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As far as I'm aware the lowest grade is 1 (which is often undectable) and the highest 5 or 6.

So a 2/3 is rather mild. I don't think it would stop me from getting a dog.

Things like keeping the dogs mouth healthy and not letting the dog get overweight are really important.

How old is the dog?

I may be more concerned with a younger dog having a heart murmer than an older dog. Although in puppies sometimes a murmer can go way.

But you really need to get your vet to give you their opinion.

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My first sheltie had a heart murmur and lived a completely normal life until about 15 years when he did require some medication which is not uncommon in older dogs. All I can say is there are no guarantees in life regarding health and if the puppy appeared to be a normal outgoing puppy I would seriously consider purchasing it

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Breed can play a big part in the grading.

I agree you really need to discuss this with the puppy owners vet or your own.

The reality is the pup could live for ever with no ill effects or it may get worse need meds(that can be expensive) shorten its life span & struggle a bit.

Basically you need to consider the the best to worse case in relation to the breed & current age

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We had a male pup who was diagnosed with a heart murmur at 8.5 weeks - 3 days after we got him. We took him to the cardio and he had an ultrasound and we were told fingers crossed he could live a normal life. As he grew his heart got worse and at his 6 month check up he ended up having beta blockers twice each day. Unfortunately his condition was inoperable and his heart gave out at 8 months. If you are really keen to get this pup arrange with the breeder to take it to a heart specialist to make sure the condition is operable and is mild. Unless he has an ultrasound at the cardio you can't be sure what the condition is or how it will affect him. Good luck. I hope the puppy will be okay.

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As far as I know (this was true recently, and I don't think it's changed), there is only one Vet Cardiologist practising at the moment in Australia. He works mainly in SEQ, but goes south regularly too, and may be happy to talk to you about this over the phone (I'd ask your vet for a referral).

I'm not an expert, but I think grade 3 is pretty significant.

Just for more info, in post 6 of this thread Dr Kuntz lists some of the causes of murmurs in pups (is this dog you're thinking about a pup?).

Edited by WalandLibby
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The cardio we went to is Brad Gavaghan and he works from Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast. He is absolutely fantastic and a really nice man. Good luck.
He's the only one! He does go to Sydney pretty regularly, I believe. Edited by WalandLibby
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Wouldn't touch a pup with a grade 3 heart murmur in a pink fit.... an adult? well, depends on how old it is... if it's a 12yr old Cavalier.. well, it to be expected... if it's a larger breed and much younger... nope.

Grade 3 is a decent murmur... you need to talk to your vet... and the vet who diagnosed the problem. It WILL cause the animal issues over time and it WILL get worse.

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I have a pup here that has a bad heart murmur, i was not told what grade it was but you can feel it whooshing and her little heart go's twice as fast as it should, so i don't expect this pup to live past 12mths old but while it's happy and full of life she can live with me because she is the most adorable little thing black and white with two blue eyes

IMGA0143-2.jpg

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The grade of a murmur just equals how easy it is to hear - ie grade 1 not easily detectable with a steth, up to grade 6 which you can hear with the naked ear close to the chest and can usually feel with your fingers on the chest.

A murmur is the sound caused by abnormal blood flow, which can be caused by a number of different problems, including faulty valves and a “hole in the heart” which you sometimes hear about in humans. They can also be normal variants, but you need to have the puppy properly checked before you know that for sure.

The grade of the murmur does not necessarily correlate to the seriousness of the problem. Generally the louder the murmur the more serious the problem but this is not always the case, it all depends on what is causing the murmur.

The only way to know exactly what the problem is and how serious it is is to get an echocardiogram, which is an ultrasound of the heart. You need to decide if you are happy to have this done, and then you need to decide what to do with the results – ie, if it is a serious problem will you have puppy pts? Are you prepared to have a dog on medication?

Hopefully your vet may have been able to give you some guidance on this when the murmur was found, and may have had some indication then of what the problem might be. I would either go back and talk to them about it or have the puppy seen by a vet you feel you are able to ask more questions of.

Good luck and I hope it all works out well for you.

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I have a pup here that has a bad heart murmur, i was not told what grade it was but you can feel it whooshing and her little heart go's twice as fast as it should, so i don't expect this pup to live past 12mths old but while it's happy and full of life she can live with me because she is the most adorable little thing black and white with two blue eyes

IMGA0143-2.jpg

Poor little Tease, that is the saddest thing I've heard in ages. Is that the prognosis the vet gave you? I'd definitely be talking to Brad about this. Edited by WalandLibby
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I have a pup here that has a bad heart murmur, i was not told what grade it was but you can feel it whooshing and her little heart go's twice as fast as it should, so i don't expect this pup to live past 12mths old but while it's happy and full of life she can live with me because she is the most adorable little thing black and white with two blue eyes

IMGA0143-2.jpg

What an absolutely gorgeously, beautiful pup. Good luck Royalla ang good on you for giving the pup a chance at life :cry:

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In A recent litter of pups, Ihad a litlte boy with a severe hurt murmer graded@ 5 out of 6! was told he had no chance!but a couple purchased a healthy pup from that litter & fell in love with charlie (heart boy)I gave them charlie with the knowledge that he may not live very long @ all ,but they wanted to give him a happy life with his litter brother for as long as he had ??hense he was called Charlie Chance ,well some 18mnths down the track they had reason to go to another vet for grass seed probs ,they asked re charlies heart condition & on examination he was downgraded to a 2,& is expected to live a perfectly normal life with his litter brother whom he is on par with in all activities !!!.If u realy want this pup ,go for it with an open mind ,(but u sould not have to pay for it)heres hoping he/she is as lucky as Charlie

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In A recent litter of pups, Ihad a little boy with a severe hurt murmer graded@ 5 out of 6! was told he had no chance!but a couple purchased a healthy pup from that litter & fell in love with charlie (heart boy)I gave them charlie with the knowledge that he may not live very long @ all ,but they wanted to give him a happy life

Same thing happened to me. Had a deposit on a pup - but at 6 weeks check up was found to have a grade 4 heart murmur. I sadly told the ppl that I was sorry but her prognosis was not good and I could not sell her to them.

They had their heart set on her and were in love. I told them that we did not know if she had 6 days/weeks/months/years to live. We dont know without further testing and realistically should be PTS.

However they still wanted her and like you said....wanted to give her the best life she could have for the small time that she may be here. So I gave her away to them.

They did take her to a specialist and he said he would see them again when she was 2. So he must of thought she would live that long. They also sent me copies of the reports as well for my records.

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Cockerlover I would love to hear that her heart murmur gets better like Charlies has.

The people were so lovely and I knew she would have a good home, and I am grateful for them taking her on and giving her at least a chance.

The pregnancy was just terrible. My bitch had discharge....then a week before the pups were due, the vets picked up a troubled heart rate and wanted to go in. It was a hard call and I said wait....a week early might be disastrous. Next morning we decided to go in and get them.

One pup was covered in gunk apparently...I'm assuming it was her, as she was sickly the first few days...and ended up being slightly flat chested too. (there is another topic on here on that)

Long story...but yeh....it sure was a litter where we got a lot of learning experience from. :eek:

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