heart murmur ten yr old yorkie
 

Hi, I took my Tedy to the vet today because he has been coughing a bit more than usual lately and was also worried about his weight gain and recovery from kidney stone surgery. He has always occasionally done a cough cough hack sound ever since he was a puppy but I noticed he was doing it a bit more and got a bit concerned.The vet said his lungs were clear, heart rhythm and rate were normal but did hear a mild heart murmur. She prescribed some meds for his cough and said to see how he did with that. I was relieved since I am still catching up from the huge bill that I just had from his kidney stone surgery 10 months ago but now am wondering if I should have gotten the testing done immediately to further investigate about the murmur. He is my baby and I don't know what I would do without him!

Many many dogs live for years and years w/ heart murmurs. My Wylie has one but it's now barely audible to the vet since he's on Enalapril. What med is yours on...?

I had a Maltese with a heat murmur that was diagnosed about age 10 and he lived to over 16 years old. He did end up taking a relatively inexpensive prescription med (about $8 a month), that seemed to help a lot. The vet wanted him to see a cardiologist and I turned it down because she said that they could do heart surgery but it probably wouldn't prolong his lie by much anyway. Well, he lived another 6 years without it! Good luck...and lots of love to your little buddy!

My dog 15.5 year old Barney has had a heart murmur forever. He's on a small dose of an ACE inhibitor. I have been told for a year that he is "about to go into heart failure" and just yesterday he bolted across the yard without getting tired when I offered him a cookie. These dogs can live a long time with proper management. As for whether to test more, I would find out what the grade of the murmur is. I only took Barney to a cardiologist when he was at a grade II going into a III. He didn't have chamber enlargement until last year when it was a solid Grade III. That's when he went on his meds. He's now a grade IV and no other meds have been added yet. When he goes into failure they'll add Pimobendan and Lasix. He could live a year after that. Unfortunately my dog has a severely collapsing trachea which will probably take him down before the heart does. Anyway I would talk to you vet about further testing. We usually do xrays (3-view) which can be costly and also once a year echocardiogram (also pricey). I have only done two so far. Did your vet give meds for the cough due to the trachea? If the lungs were clear, then perhaps the vet was concerned that the cough was not the heart at all. What med did they give you?

Thanks for your responses! He was put on Doxycycline, she did feel the cough was not related to the heart murmur. He has a follow up appointment in two weeks, I think at that time I will ask for further testing. She had mentioned that they could do a chest x-ray and\or an ekg. Any advice as to if I should have both done? I would think the Ekg would be more beneficial?

I would start with an X-ray.