# Heart Murmur?



## Jkline65 (Feb 23, 2011)

Anyone have a Spoo with a heart murmur? Maggie has one and her heart looked ok in an x ray but until we have the echo cardiogram we won't know for sure if she should be on meds or not....if so what does your spoo take?
:argh:


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## katbrat (May 8, 2011)

We didn't have a spoo, we had a toy that was diagnosed at about four with an almost grade one heart murmur. We had x-rays taken to use as a base line. When she had her teeth cleaned(twice) knee surgery(once) and once a year for her check ups they would do x-rays. She had no problems and wasnt put on any meds until she was about eleven years old. It went from about a two to a four but she never ended up with congestive heart failure. At eleven years old she was put on a type of blood pressure medicine to help keep the vessels open better so the heart would not have to work as hard. I can't recall the name of it right now. We did not opt for the echo after talking it over at lenghth with our vet because in our case it would not have changed the course of treatment. She lived until she was fourteen. Good luck. Your dog is gorgeous


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## Rayah-QualitySPs (Aug 31, 2010)

Jkline65 said:


> Anyone have a Spoo with a heart murmur?
> :argh:


Sometimes puppies have heart murmurs heard at their 8 week old checkup. I have produced a few but the murmurs goes away by the next checkup - 4 weeks later.
I would never keep one of these puppies for breeding because I am so afraid of producing puppies with health problems.

I have learned a bit about atrial septum defect which can also cause murmurs.

Good luck with Maggie,


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## JE-UK (Mar 10, 2010)

My miniature has a heart murmur, which has never caused him the least problem. The vet discovered it when he was a pup, and recommended we go to a canine cardiologist for an ECG, but we decided against it once I'd done some research. Other than providing a baseline, there's no advantage to the ECG ... the treatment doesn't normally start until the dog shows symptoms. We keep an eye on it (so to speak :smile, and watch for any signs of weariness, lethargy, panting, etc., but it clearly doesn't bother him in the slightest. He's fit and active and always up for any sort of physical exercise.

I did discover the French for heart murmur (although I was mystified at the time) when we first took him to France with us: souffle de coeur, or just souffle. As with many things, it sounds better in French :smile:.


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