Boxer with heart murmur

virgin_moneysaver

a member of my family has had the boxer diagnosed with a heart murmur - the dog is only 2 & the vet says that he dont want to prescribe drugs yet & that it is commom in this breed of dog - has anyone else come across this in their boxer?

KVet

Heart Murmurs in such a young dog must mean there is something wrong - usually in a Boxers it is something called Aortic Stenosis. There have been many studies into dogs and heart murmurs and when to medicate. There has been shown to be no advantage to starting drugs at this stage, they have the best effect from them when they start showing signs that the heart is beginning to fail.

Is he insured? I'd be keen to push for a cardiologists referral.

ickle_me

Hiya

We have had Boxers for the last 30yrs. Larger breeds of dog such as Boxers, German Sheps, Newfies etc are prone to heart murmurs. They can be slight murmurs at birth called 'flow' murmurs which disappear as the puppy matures, or they can be permanant murmurs. Having a murmur doesn't necessarily have significant consequences, and they can live a normal, happy life.

There is a grading for canine dog murmurs 1-6 ( 6 being the worst). Obviously medication can be given if the murumr is severe enough.

Our Boxer is just 2 years old, and has a slight murmur. The vet told us when we first had her as a pup that she had a murmur, and they just check her when she has her annual vaccinations.

TBH, unless your vet has said it is a severe murmur and referred you to see a canine cardiologist, the best thing you can do is keep your dog at a healthy weight - being overweight can exaserbate the problem and do not strenously excercise him/her -particularly in hot weather. If your dog presents with a lengthy cough or increased lethargy, it's best just to get him checked over to make sure the murmur hasnt deteriorated, but I am sure he will be fine.
Hope I have helped!!

pokerpad

We have a Lab that was told had a heart murmur when she was quite young, but it has never been an issue and she is now 11 years old.

She has gone grey and is getting a bit slow but is still happy and it has never caused her any problems as far as we can tell.

I hope that helps you feel a bit better

Lil_Me_2

Not a dog, but my cat was diagnosed with a heart murmur back in March, she was 1yr 9mo at the time and went from no murmur to a grade 4 out of 6 within 6 months. We were very worried! She saw the cardiologist and had a scan and x-rays in March and then a check up scan in September just gone.

They've decided that she's got a leaky valve. Basically as she's matured and got to her adult size the valve in her heart just isn't quite working properly. There is nothing they can do and nothing that they need to do! She's perfectly happy and otherwise very healthy. She'll see the cardioloigist every 6 months (luckily for us our cats have 6 monthly check ups which are free and as the cardiologist is a regular vet at our surgery we just book in to see him and they don't charge us extra!).

We do keep an eye on her, and we monitor her breathing rate for signs of heart failure. If/when she develops heart failure we will take her back in and they can medicate to relieve the symptoms. Until then we treat her like normal! We do try and keep her slim though, like ickle_me says, being overweight doesn't help them.

GillM

My second boxer had a heart murmur from quite young and lived to nearly 13 which is about average for a boxer - she was very active right to the end, you wouldn't have known anything was wrong with her, to look at her bouncing around!