My dog has a heart murmur. Is a dental cleaning safe without an echo?

Hi, Sorry to hear Dolly has this heart issue. Anesthesia is always risky, even for perfectly healthy pets. It puts a lot of responsibility for the heart to maintain adequate blood pressure and anesthesia is generally more risky with any heart issues than normal anesthesia. I would recommend that if the teeth just need a general cleaning, to not undergo the procedure and just maintain good dental health by brushing with doggie tooth paste and giving dental chews. If the teeth have a major issue such as a fracture or extraction that is necessary to address, it becomes balancing the risks of leaving a tooth inside that should come out, versus the risks of anesthesia. To fully assess the heart you can get an echocardiogram performed by a cardiologist and consult with them about anesthetic risks. Although if the teeth are fine otherwise, I'd say just maintain vigilant dental health and Dolly will be fine. Hope this helps! -Dr. Gordon

Teeth cleaning will vary greatly depending on the clinic you go to, and what needs to be done. If Spots also has a murmur, he'll likely need additional bloodwork or evaluation to determine if it is safe for him to go under anesthesia at all. Other costs will include dental X-rays to check for teeth that need to be pulled, cleaning costs, medications such as pain meds, etc for post-surgery, and the cost to remove any affected teeth. Talking with your current vet is best as they can provide a detailed estimate of costs.

Hello and thank you for reaching out to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. You can rest assured that you did not cause your dog's heart murmur! Heart murmurs can occur because of structural changes to the valves or chambers of the heart, which are relatively common in smaller dogs breeds. They can also occur because of anemia (low red blood cell number), infections in the heart, and unfortunately even tumors in heart. You are right in thinking that dogs with heart murmurs are at a higher risk of anesthetic complications, so your veterinarian will need to adjust their anesthetic protocol for any surgical or dental procedures. I hope this is helpful!

It seems that poor Bambi may have a heart condition. Not all murmurs are bad, but the cough can indicate signs of heart failure and an x-ray would tell a lot of information that would be helpful for getting the right diagnosis. It's always difficult to speculate without fully knowing Bambi's medical history, but I'm guessing that they did not want to anesthetize Bambi for the teeth cleaning because they were afraid that she had severe heart disease. For dental cleanings they need to fully anesthetize the dog and this can be risky with heart disease. Often there is a risk versus benefit decision that needs to be made. The doctor may have decided that the risk of anesthesia was not worth the benefit of a dental cleaning. For the x-ray, the sedation would not be as worrisome as the full anesthesia that is required for the dental. We have sedation drugs that are very safe for heart conditions and it's often less risky to sedate a heart patient for an x-ray rather than struggling with them to get them in the right position. Struggling too much can cause a heart attack in some patients with bad heat disease. I hope that helps to answer your question. I'm sure your vet could give you more information and I'm sure they would be happy to discuss this with you the next time you speak with them.

If you are worried about this heart the best test to have done before surgery would be an echocardiogram (an ultrasound of the heart) as that will tell you how the heart is actually functioning and if it can pump blood efficiently. That is what I would have done if I was in your position. Unfortunately, you can do all the testing in the world and there is no guarantee that he will survive the surgery. That is just the nature of a living being. The same happens with people. You can take every precaution and they may still not survive. That being said, it is very rare for a "healthy" animal to not survive a routine/elective surgery. Does it happen, yes; is it likely, no. Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Hi there and thanks for posting. I would tend to agree with the cardiologist on this one. Having a heart issue does place a greater risk of complication during anesthesia. I would recommend against it unless he dental disease is severe as the cardiologist has recommended. Best wishes to you and Rascal!

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!