Heart Murmur

[children11]

Our dog is about 11 years old (we rescused her from an animal shelter when she was about 3 years old). About 2 years ago, I was told she has a heart murmur (stage between 3 and 4). We go to her heart doctor twice a year.

She has not needed medication until today. We just came back from seeing her heart doctor. Her murmur is a loud 3, soft 4 is how the doctor said it. Her xrays shows her heart a tad bigger than last time so he put her on Enalepril Maleate. I'm freaking out.

How long can a dog live with medication?

Is a stage (soft) 4 really bad?

Is there anything I can do to help her heart (small walks etc?)

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thank you,

Bernice

[Bahamutt99]

I don't know about the meds, but 4 is fairly bad. It goes on a scale of 1-5. Sorry. Were it my dog, I would keep her light and keep her active. General fitness can't hurt, and she might as well enjoy the time she has by going on lots of walkies.

[Doberluv]

My 12 yr. old Chihuahua has between a level 4 and 5 murmur. I agree...keeping them lean and exercised is good. But I wouldn't have them do any wildly strenuous exercise. But that's just my feeling, not something the vet told me. I know nothing about medication. My vet didn't put her on any. He said her lungs sound fine. But for how long they can go like this, I don't know that either. I hope your dog will do well on the meds and that she has some good time left. It's so worrying. I'm really sorry you have this to worry about this too.

[children11]

Originally Posted by Doberluv

My 12 yr. old Chihuahua has between a level 4 and 5 murmur. I agree...keeping them lean and exercised is good. But I wouldn't have them do any wildly strenuous exercise. But that's just my feeling, not something the vet told me. I know nothing about medication. My vet didn't put her on any. He said her lungs sound fine. But for how long they can go like this, I don't know that either. I hope your dog will do well on the meds and that she has some good time left. It's so worrying. I'm really sorry you have this to worry about this too.

Thank you. Maggie isn't overweight. That's in her favor. I'm going to start taking her for small walks.

Bernice

[HayleyMarie]

My dog Mitsu who is 10 month old has a supposed grade 4 or 5 heart murmur,
We will be taking her back into the vet and do further testing once she hits a month. We decided against giving her meds, but giving her natural supplements for her heart we give her hawthorn berry and selenium. And we have noticed a difference in her heath. It's somthing to look into as well.

We also keep her light and fit. But we never over due it. Which causes her heart to get stressed out, which has not happened in a few months.

[Doberluv]

Just be careful with selenium. It is probably in her diet and it is possible to over dose on it.

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/in.../bc/213300.htm

Glad Mitsu is doing better. That's good news.

Hope a vet can help you more with your dog Children11.

[HayleyMarie]

Thanks for the link. I an not too worried about the selenium is was reccommensed to me by my herbalist who does dogs and people.

[children11]

Thank you all for your replies. I have another question:

I'm taking my dog for walks. We've been walking about a mile. I think it's too much for her. We will shorten our walks. My question is during our walk, Maggie was walking very slow and wanted to stop at times but as soon as we got home, my husband threw her a new toy, she flew down the hallway and barking and playing with her new toy. My friend said any dog who is tired will play when you throw a toy for them. Is this true?

Thank you,

Bernice

[JPuckett1989]

Depends on how hard of a retrieving drive they have.

Sadie will go after a ball or retrieval toy indefinitely.

[children11]

Originally Posted by JPuckett1989

Depends on how hard of a retrieving drive they have.

Sadie will go after a ball or retrieval toy indefinitely.

But it wasn't like she just went after the toy. She was actually jumping and barking after the toy.

I just talked to another friend. She said my dog was probably bored with her walk. I told her I don't know of any dog who gets bored with a walk. LOL However, we were walking near houses and I wouldn't let her walk on the grass so maybe she thought "this is no fun". LOL

Bernice