"Susan A. Schlenger" wrote: > Hello, Brigette, > A great number of puppies have innocent murmurs at under eight weeks of > age. I went through a period of worry over two of mine until speaking > to a cardiologist. Are you worried about a PDA (Patent Ductus) sort of > murmur? They can take up to eight weeks to normally close. After that, > there is a very successful surgery which can be done to correct a PDA > murmur. Other "innocent" murmurs can take up to a few months to > disappear. I'm not saying that the murmur you have is innocent, but > don't panic just yet. > > Many vets (including my own) are very good at hearing murmurs, but won't > classify them without a specialist. Sometimes this expertise is scarey; > most vets wouldn't hear the murmurs that my vet hears. Therefore, I do > agree that going to a cardiologist is the best bet for a good > diagnosis. > > I wouldn't breed a dog with a PDA murmur which didn't close by eight > weeks or so as the mode of inheritence hasn't been studied long enough; > the only study of which I know is in poodles and it wasn't sufficient. > (This is just my opinion, folks!) However, it isn't necessarily life > threatening unless it goes untreated. You would hear a PDA murmur in a > different area of the heart than MVD. > > I've learned a great deal by volunteering to assist at a heart clinic; > during the times when we weren't swamped with exams, the cardiologist > was most kind in educating me about a number of areas. I also sneak in > a question or two that has come up in the past during routine cardiology > exams on my dogs. Most top cardiologists are more than willing to share > their research. > > Suze (off to Boston cluster this am) >
Sorry not to trim this post but I want to save it in its entirety for future reference. Thank you Suze for your words of hope but supposedly this is not one of those innocent murmors. I have had those on occasion and my vet diagnosed them as such. I am told that this is probably a murmor caused by a hole between the left and right ventricle. We do not have a board certified cardiologist in this province and I am told the puppy is too young to do a lot of testing on. Unfortunately he is not gaining weight as well as he used to but I am hoping that will change as he loves the solid food and eats twice as much at each sitting as his litter mates. Hope you had a wonderful time at the 'Boston Cluster'. Brigitte Falch Kibergo Cavaliers Reg'd Maple Ridge, BC, Canada http://alescosys.com/kibergo ========================================================= "Magic Commands": to stop receiving mail for awhile, click here and send the email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20NOMAIL to start it up gain click here: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?body=SET%20CKCS-L%20MAIL E-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance. Search the Archives... http://apple.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ckcs-l.html All e-mail sent through CKCS-L is Copyright 1999 by its original author.
