My dog has a grade 4 heart murmur. What tests, treatment, and outlook?

I would try not to get too worked up until you figure out exactly what is going on. Some dogs have heart murmurs at young ages but commonly will grow out of them. I would try to see what could be causing the murmur and see what they recommend. If they recommend something you cannot afford, ask them to give you other options that are within your budget. If Darwin is really active and acting like a puppy, he likely isn't bothered by his heart murmur. I would be hesitant to put him under anesthesia without a full cardiac echo (ultrasound) to find out exactly where the heart murmur is coming from. I hope this helps and I hope there is nothing too serious with that sweet baby's heart!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your potential new puppy. Young puppies can occasionally have what is known as an innocent murmur. This is a heart murmur they will outgrow usually by 6 months of age and is not associated with any ongoing disease. Other murmurs are associated with congenital heart disease and go on to cause the puppy significant disease. I recommend having the puppy evaluated by a board certified veterinary cardiologist. A procedure known as an echocardiogram will likely be needed to assess for any structural heart disease. This will give you the longterm prognosis for the puppy. I hope this information helps!

A murmur is the sound of abnormal blood flow through the heart. It is not an indication of function. The next step would be to have an echocardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) performed on Molly. This would assess cardiac architecture as well as function. An echo can be done by your veterinarian and then submitted to a veterinary cardiologist for review or you can schedule it directly with a specialist. Afterwards, medications would be dispensed if indicated. Life expectancy would be determined by the severity of her condition. This could be discussed with the veterinarian after results of the echo are returned.

This would need to be discussed with the treating vet but such a significant heart murmur will require ongoing management and lifelong medication which is not inexpensive. It is likely to have an impact on both overall life expectancy and exercise intolerance, the underlying heart disease cannot be cured and symptomatic treatment aims to reduce the severity of the symptoms and slow down progression. If finance (or a very active lifestyle) is a concern then you should think very carefully before adopting such a dog.

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I'm sorry to hear that Tracker has a heart murmur. Dogs can have heart murmurs for a number of reasons (physiologic murmurs, murmurs due to anemia or low red blood cell count), but the most common cause is due to a structural issue with the heart. This is most often associated with the heart valves. A murmur occurs because the valves aren't functioning properly, causing the blood flow to be more turbulent and produce an audible sound (when ausculted with a stethoscope). An ultrasound of the heart (called an echocardiogram) allows a veterinarian to look at the structure of the heart and determine the degree of dysfunction in any of the valves. Some dogs do not require medication if the structural issues are mild, but if they are severe, your veterinarian may recommend certain medications to help Tracker's heart function the best it can and therefore keep him alive and well as long as possible. I hope this is helpful!

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! No, these are not typically performed in animals. Heart murmurs do not always require therapy but when they do, these are most of the time treated with medications. I highly recommend you consider having Murphy evaluated by a veterinary cardiologist to determine if treatment is needed and what would be best for it. Good luck!

Old dogs often suffer from endocardiosis, a condition where the heart valves do not close properly any more and the heart needs to work much harder to pump oxygenated blood to all the regions of the body. When the valves do not close properly the swirling blood makes a noise and depending on the volume of the noise we assign it grades. A grade or level 4 heart murmur on a scale of 5 would be a serious heart murmur, on a scale of 6, not quite so serious. Here is some excellent information: http://www.vcahospitals.com/main/pet-health-information/article/animal-health/heart-murmurs-in-dogs/3912