Grade 3 Murmur..Vet Not Concerned Very surprised that when we went to our vet for his yearly well visit, he said JB has a grade 3 heart murmur. It seems kinda odd since all these years since I have had him (since 2013) nothing showed and he has always had a clean bill of health (except that he has bad teeth..the rescue where I got him pulled all of his teeth except for 6 of them). He is very active, playful, eating fine, etc. At this point I do not know what to think. I have heard that it is hard to diagnose if a dog has a murmur or not depending on his stress level and heart rate at the time he is at the vet. JB hates riding in the car so he was stressed and panting the whole way..and he was uncomfortable and still stressed during the vets actual examination. So, does he really have a murmur? Secondly, I have read and heard that a level 3-4 murmur is serious enough that symptoms are occurring (lethargy, hard to breath, no energy, coughing, loss of appetite, etc). JB has no symptoms. My vet just told me to look for the above symptoms or if anything seems not right, bring him in and we will do xrays and go from there. He also told me that he has diagnosed tons of dog with murmurs where no treatment was ever needed and they were fine. Any/all advice is appreciated. |
I would get a second opinion. |
Wow, out of all of the members on this forum I only got one reply? No one on here has ever experienced a diagnosis of a heart murmur in their yorkie? Do I have anything to worry about? Does it get worse or can it stay the same? P.S. I am in the process of getting a 2nd opinion |
My Wylie has had a heart murmur for years now, and takes Enalapril. The vet can barely even hear the murmur with the meds doing their work. Dogs can do *amazingly* well w/ murmurs and early-CHF, so just be assured that it doesn't necessarily mean really bad news, or even close :). It can get worse, or stay the same forever - no predicting this. If the murmur IS putting add'l strain on some part of the heart - then - I would ask for a cardiac med that mitigates this. |
Quote:
I have heard great things about CO-Q10 (ubiquinol) for dogs with murmur's or heart issues. Dr. Becker even has a video on it and I have ordered some through Amazon..also mentioning this to my vet to see what he thinks. Here is the video: https://video.search.yahoo.com/searc...46&action=view |
I am kind of in the same boat. So went to the vet for check-up and rabies vaccine a few months ago now. Vet (whom we looovee) asks me if he has ever been diagnosed with a murmur before. I said NO and had a mini panic attack. Jax is 8 and active and healthy, no symptoms of anything. He runs like crazy, he swims, yada yada. Same thing you said though -- Jax is VERY anxious at the vets and pants heavily, etc, so it can be hard to even listen to his heart. She said it was very faint, if anything. Just wanted to make me aware. She told me to come back in about a month just to see if she could still hear it. She told me she did not hear it the 2nd time but that it didn't mean he *doesn't* have one. She basically told me not to panic right now and it could very well be nothing but it's not abnormal as dogs get older and many small breeds are prone to heart murmurs and can leave healthy happy long lives with them. She did not grade it for me. Basically, my options were 1. ) get an x-ray... but that would only show if the heart was enlarged. Wouldn't show what's really going on inside. 2). go to the cardiologist and get an echo which will run me somewhere in the vicinity of $800 3.) they have a human sonographer who comes into their office once a month and can do ultrasounds but I would have to drop him off for the day (which he would HATE and be entirely too stressed) and then they send the results off to a canine cardiologist to be reviewed, and it'd be half the cost. I have not yet done anything yet because he's asymptomatic however I'd like to have a definitive answer one way or another and I'm leaning towards just choking up the $$$ and going to a specialist for the echo. It would be a fairly quick appointment, I'd be with him the whole time and get answers right away. He wouldn't have to be stressed as long. I'd rather KNOW now in case there *is* something wrong and catch it early in case he needs medication etc either now or in the future. ALSO, he needs a dental cleaning and even though the vet assured me they have very heart-friendly procedure policies and she has put many dogs under anesthesia with heart murmurs... but I think for my own peace of mind, I'd prefer to know how his heart is prior to a dental, so that will be first on our list. So basically, I may be going extreme but I've decided this is the route I am going to take and will be making an appt. in the next few weeks here. |
Quote:
Keep us posted! P.S. Have you considered a 2nd opinion? It's always good to have. |
Quote:
|
Quote:
|
Quote:
:thumbup::thumbup: |
All times are GMT -8. The time now is 11:36 PM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2003 - 2018 YorkieTalk.com
Privacy Policy - Terms of Use