Althea Has A Heart Murmur And Irregular Heartbeat

[Guest EmbersDad]

The vet thought he heard a heart murmur at her last visit, and they did an ekg today and sure enough, she has a heart murmur and an irregular heartbeat and is scheduled for an ultrasound in the near future. Anyone else have a hound with something like this? Paula took her to the vet, so I don't know the exact details about the heartbeat, will post it later once I talk more with her about it.

 

ETA. it is called premature ventricular contractions

Edited May 26, 2011 by EmbersDad

[Batmom]

Hoping it's minor and easily treated. How is her bloodwork?

[macoduck]

Did they give a number reference to the murmur? I think my Niña had a 4-6 IIRC. Never gave her any problems.

[Guest EmbersDad]

good question. I guess OK since I havent heard anything about it not being OK.

[Remolacha]

I believe heart murmurs are not uncommon for greys. Sugar had premature ventricular contractions and a leaky valve. She was on lasix and enalapril, and did just fine. After a couple of years, her heart did start to enlarge on the "bad" side, and we added pimboden. She was 11 by then, and her heart continued to do ok. She developed some other unrelated health issues, and I lost her to kidney failure at 12 1/2. The pimboden may have contributed to that, or maybe not , but her heart was still working pretty well at the end.

 

If Althea's murmur is mild, it shouldn't cause her any problems

[Guest hannahmom]

Sammi was diagnosed with this the week he came to live with us alost 2 years ago ( @ 11.5) and it has never been an issue.

[Guest Greyt_dog_lover]

When I heard Dr Cuoto once, I remember he mentioned that nearly every single greyhound has a heart murmur. I cant remember exactly the cause, but it had something to do with the oversize of the greyhound heart. He said it was nothing to be concerned about.

[MP_the4pack]

Pearl was diagnosed with heart disease by a cardiologist when she was 5. She had valvular disease (leaky mitral valve). She had a murmur, no irregularities. So not quite the same as Althea.

 

However with meds (and she ended up with a LOT of meds because of her additional hypertension) she lived until cancer took her at age 12.

 

If you want a second opinion take her to a canine cardiologist. I recommend it.

 

Pearl's cardiologist absolutely kept her alive and feeling just fine until the very end.

[OwnedBySummer]

I just heard Dr. Couto talking about that. If I remember correctly... the vet needs to use a pediatric stethoscope so he can hear individual valves. High up, where the blood is pumped OUT of the heart, he should hear a heart murmur. This is normal and is because of the huge volumes of pressurized blood being pumped. If the murmur is elsewhere, then it IS a murmur.

 

As to the PVC's... No idea about them in dogs but I developed them last year due to stress and they are pretty scary. But they don't like to medicate them in humans any more as the medication is pretty harsh... and mine have now gone away for 99% of the time! Yay! I wonder if it's necessary or desirable to medicate them in dogs?

[MerlinsMum]

Crap. Sorry to hear this Tom.

 

From reading other posts it sounds as though this may not cause any discomfort or endanger her health. Fingers crossed. Keep us posted.

[tbhounds]

Check the spleen for tumors-- sometimes a splenic tumor will cause the vpc's.. They could easily scan the abdomen when they do the echo. Fingers crossed.

[Hubcitypam]

Poodle had a strong 2 of 6 which I think is basically nothing. The vet put him on theophlline -- not sure if that was to get $20 more out off me or not. It hasn't helped his cough at all.