Dog with heart murmur?

Question

I got a 10 year old rescue german shepherd cross dog last year, and took her for her annual booster this week. the vet did a routine check of her and found a heart murmur. He also said her teeth were in a bad state - they were when we got her- but didnt say anything about these things being linked. I've been reading up on it and apparently dental disease can cause heart murmurs.
the vet said that as she is very active and doesnt display any other signs of heart disease that he is quite happy for her just to be checked again next year, unless we notice a change in her in the meantime.
Assuming the state of her teeth has been the cause does anyone know whether its possible to reverse the effects of this, and get rid of the murmur - obviously I'll be trying to clean her teeth & get rid of plaque etc with chews.

Answer 1

my sheltie was diagnosed when we got her at 10 wks with a heartmurmer. And she is almost 14 yrs old now. As long as she is active odds are it is not causeing any issues, when she stops playing eatting and such is when you need to worry. I now have 2 dogs with heart problems and there is nothing saying they cant live healthy lives. Dont worry about it to much if the vet isnt wanting to do any tests she is fine just enjoy her. play lots of fetch and love her she willbe a great dog. i have never heard of them being linked though.

Answer 2

First of all, I have to say that I am very surprised that the vet didn't clean her teach for her. I know that it is expensive but that is because of the anaesthetic - it's about £75 a time. We have a Jack Russell with no heart problems that we know about but last year she had an abscess on her tooth and poor old girl had to have the tooth pulled under a general anaesthetic. He cleaned her teeth for her at the same time. She was a rescue and is about fourteen years old, now. You can also buy doggy toothpaste from your vet! I would suggest that you got her teeth sorted one way or another because just like you and me, she will be feeling pretty uncomfortable with bad teeth and won't eat properly.

Before her we had a border collie cross. At about the age of twelve we took him to the vet as he had a cough - I thought that it was a heart-cough but the vet said that she thought it was an infection. She prescribed antibiotics for him and just over a week later we went back - the medicine hadn't improved things and she agreed that maybe it was his heart. She suggested x-rays which we had done - but she didn't tell me how much they were going to cost! It probably wouldn't have made a difference at the time - but it was over ten years ago and cost nearly £300.00. The x-rays revealed that he had a 'mass' in his chest but from the x-rays they couldn't decide if the 'mass' was in his lungs (cancer?) or on his heart - so they wanted to operate! I refused - they weren't going to cut him open at that age.

We changed his vet to the one that we now use for our little old Jack! The new vet advised us that the collie, Frody, did have a heart murmer and that it might be a good idea to keep him on the lead to stop him from exerting himself too much while excercising. I decided that he would have a good life and enjoy his runs as he always had. Dogs aren't stupid, they know their limits!

When Frody was 17 years old he had his first stroke - which he recovered from very well. Unfortunately, just after his 18 birthday in the September he had another stroke in the November. We had him put to rest when he was 18 years and 2 months old.

If your vet didn't advise any of this I would suggest that you change your vet - the same as we did!

Answer 3

Hi,

A heart murmur is an abnormal sound on the auscultation of the heart. As such, it does not mean much and is not a diagnosis.

Heart murmurs are a consequence of many different abnormality inside the heart:
. Leaking heart valve is a common cause in old small dogs
. Congenital disease: hole in heart walls present from birth, persistence of fetal life ducts, aortic stenosis (boxer) ...
. Dilated hearts in large dogs such as yours
and so on .....

They may or may not need treatment depending on the underlying condition.
Teeth disease can be a cause of heart disease especially for the leaking valves (infection may settle in them from the gum infection).

It is always a good idea to investigate a heart murmur and know precisely what causes this abnormal heart sound. When a diagnosis is made, a treatment may be administered, in form of diet and exercise changes as well as medications.

Diagnosis tools include ECG, chest x-rays, ultrasonography and blood test.

If you can afford it, I suggest you get your dog checked over by your regular vet or even a specialist in veterinary cardiology.

Good luck

Rik
www.vetstoria.co.uk

Answer 4

My collie cross had a heart murmur the vet gave me tablets to help her and the condition didn't get worse this tablet could have been made stronger if she required and my vet said there was no need to worry about this as they saw no reason why it shouldn't get any worse she livid for another 5 years without this murmur becoming worse. my dog was very active up to the last 2 months of her life

Answer 5

It a bit to late in her life to try to reverse the murmur, besides if she has lived this long with it than it can't be bothering her that much if at all. Most pets with a very mild murmur live very healthy and long lives.
Get her teeth back into good shape and just enjoy her.

Answer 6

if the teeth are real bad you need your vet to clean the teeth so you can start with clean teeth and keep them that way. i had a sheltie that we did not know had a heart problem till he got sick and died from liver failer. we had a necropsy's done on him because it was during the first parvo scare. he was 11years old when i lost him.

Answer 7

1 of the dogs we had when I was a kid had a heart murmur.Provided you keep her from getting overweight she should be fine but I don't think you can get rid of it.