My dog just diagnosed with heart murmur.

[Gary01]

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Hi all.
Just trying to find some positives after hearing from the vet that my 9 year old border collie has a heart murmur grade 3.
He was being examined for a stomach issue but while there the vet noticed it.
I know Google is always a worst case scenario, so I'm hoping someone can give some better news of their own experience. I realise it's not good news of course but I am feeling really quite upset by it all. Thanks.

 

[Tinytom]

My lurcher lived until she was 13 with a grade 4 heart murmur ..i never changed her exercise 1hr walk offlead 2 x daily ...

 

[excuseme]

Our dogs can live very normal lives with heart murmurs.
I have a 5 month old puppy who was diagnosed at 7.5 weeks of age with a grade 3-4 murmur. It has not changed and remains at 3-4.
She has the same diet (raw) as our adults and the same exercise and strenuous fun.
She is not a heavyweight puppy. A fit little girl.
Our vet has no idea what her life expectancy will be, it could be 6 months or 2 years or maybe even a full normal life. He has suggested that he would not consider wasting our money with refferals etc, but just to give her a "normal" quality life with all of the others and that if we wanted to take her "beating / working", she could quiet easily be able to do this when old enough.
Some years ago we had an older girl who was diagnosed at about 9 to 10 years of age with a murmur, (a different vets practice) I do not remember what grade she had, she continued for another 4 years enjoying life with us all quiet normally and died with major heart failure at 14 years.
Her life was treated the same as the others and she was kept lean for her benefit.

A happy and active old lady. Dear "Fenn" RIP.

.
.

 

[Hemlock]

One of my lurchers had a heart murmur diagnosed at age 6. I can't now remember what grade it was, but I was told by the vet (not the one I have now) that she could only be lead walked from then on. I went out of the surgery, looked at my dog, she looked at me, and I thought "a short life and a merry one". We carried on with plenty of off-lead exercise and lurchery fun.
She was 18 when I had her pts. Her heart was still beating strongly - it was the rest of her that was failing.

It's a decision only the owner can make. But if you were the dog, what would you like your life to be?

 

[Gary01]

That's a great story and very encouraging, thankyou.
I will tone his play down a bit, so he's not working so hard. Just enough so he won't really notice the difference.
I counted his breaths per minute which was 16, so I guess his heart isn't working hard right now. Will be having blood tests next week so will post the results. Fingers and toes crossed.

 

[JBP]

Yep one of my lovely lurchers missy was diagnosed with a heart murmur aged 8 months, she worked hard had a lovely litter of pups and last until she was 12 years old.

 

[Jack-Russell-Lover]

Roxy has a grade 5 heart murmur that she's had from birth due to a heart condition, but she's always acted like any other normal crazy Jack Russell full of energy and the specialist we saw said she didn't need limited exercise or anything...just watched for signs of getting too tired. She's doing well at 10.5 years old.

 

[Gary01]

Well, Bertie just had his blood test after they found the grade 3 murmer.
No vet involved, all done by the nurse, so the questions I had were of no use.
Can anyone tell me what the test is for. She did say it would show 'markers' but that was about all.
Thanks.