From: Pamela Quisling [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002, 8:35 AM
Subject: RE: CKCS- lost
Dear Barbara and Becky,
Regarding murmurs:
I was totally confused as well, but I have learned a lot
about the heart murmur thing. I think the general statistics are that
about 50% of Cavaliers will have somesort of murmur by age 5 years.
For a small dog they have a relatively short life expectancy. Like
Barbara said you should attempt to "stack the odds as much as possible
in favor of late onset MVD". And then she goes on to indicate how you
can "stack" the odds. The chances of early onset of MVD can be lessened
by what she is telling you to do.
And breeders are where it begins. It is
fine to say, "we test this and that or we have clean kennels or we only
raise our dogs inside, etc, etc, etc." But testing and strict adherence to
the
breeding protocol are the best ways known to help lessen the chance of
early onset of MVD and other maladies. And "there are no guarantees".
You can do all you can and it can still pop up. Also a
heart murmur at an early age is not absolutely indicative that a dog
will developed early MVD, but it is a serious warning sign. Some dogs
live with mild to moderate heart murmurs for a long time, dying, like
Barbara said, of other causes before the MVD develops.
I have a dog with MVD and I hate it for her and for all the others
that it hurts. It is a terrible disease, and I hate that she has it. It
is manageable, at least for now though and she has a good life
most of the time and is not aware that she is sick. She was exercise
intolerant at age 18 months and the murmur was a 3. She is now
6 and 1/2 and her symptoms are slowly increasing, and her murmur is a
five out of six, but like I said, she has generally speaking mostly good
days
....only the rare bad day.
Barbara's excellent post said,
"In the end, it depends on how much you will enjoy the time you have with a
> Cavalier versus how willing you are to deal with a possible end-of-life
> struggle with MVD." I think this is a very, very important statement.
I have (and everyone is probably sick of hearing it) eight Cavaliers and
all of them are within one year of each others age and all are around
6 years old. I think I have set myself up for oceans of tears and epic
proportions of grief, but I will get through it, just like all the other
list members who beloved Cavaliers die for whatever reason and most
importantly to me is that I will have had the experience and the joy
of loving and being loved by this wonderful breed. I loved Barb's
post, it wasn't "sugar-coated" but I have no tolerance for those who
sugar coat stuff, to me, it is like putting a "spin" on something and
we should all know by now that "spin" are just to make lies more
palatable. This is all just my opinion based on my meager experience,
of course. Pamela Quisling, [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Barbara Cooke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, July 11, 2002 11:25 PM
Subject: Re: [CKCS-L] lost
> > I am so confused about the heart murmer thing!!!!!!1
> Becky, the heart murmur thing is something one will probably experience if
> you own a Cavalier. Most Cavaliers have a murmur by age 10. What you want
to
> do, when looking for one, is to stack the odds as much as possible in
favor
> of late onset MVD. There are no guarantees
Beyond that, murmurs are graded 1 thru 6, 1 being the mildest. Many dogs
> live for years with a grade 3 or 4 murmur, some die of something else
before
> the murmur (MVD) causes congestive heart failure. >
> In the end, it depends on how much you will enjoy the time you have with a
> Cavalier versus how willing you are to deal with a possible end-of-life
> struggle with MVD. I personally love the dogs enough to take the gamble
and
> enjoy the time, and hope I can handle getting my heart broken at some poin
t.
> I have several dogs of different ages, I know that least miserable way to
> grieve over the loss of a beloved dog is while holding another one.
>
> This isn't sugar coated, but it's the truth as I know it.
> --
> Barb Cooke
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> SeaIsle Cavaliers
> Galveston Island, Texas
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