Heart murmur - anyone else had their Grey diagnose

[rushy]

Hello all, I've not posted anything for a while but do occasionally browse.

Jeddie went for her annual booster jab at the weekend and the vet gave her the once over and diagnosed a heart murmer, due to old age apparently.
I was gutted and he said shorter walks and keep an eye on her now. I'll have to explain to her somehow why she can't have off the lead sprints, which she still likes, even though she's pushing 11 years old.

I know that heart murmers & heart issues are not uncommon in greys due to their racing, which can cause enlarged hearts. I've looked on the web and some pages say they can live happily, but I'm aware she's not a pup anymore too.

Does anyone here have first hand experience of living with this?

Many thanks for any advice

Stu

[suethejam]

Heart murmers are tricky because the low grade ones can come and go (I think they scale them 1- 6) - we've had a few hounds who've had them (grade 1 & 2) and were told not to worry - by the next examination they'd disappeared. The main reason given by our vets was the murmer had come on with the stress of the visit/treatment...

Hounds seem to be able to live with them - I hope that the same is true of Jeddie :-)

[Deleted]

I agree with the fact that they can come and go as a result of stress. My previous greyhound paid her first visit to the vet who suspected a heart murmer but as it turned out it never showed up again at any further visits.

[davidbailey]

I have had rather a lot of greyhounds with heart murmurs, and I would be surprised to find any old ex racing greyhound without one.

Personally I don't do anything different. Everyone of my greyhounds trained on enough to be safely let of the lead, murmur or not, and off the lead they stayed. However, in that time one of my first greyhounds (Sammy) died of a heart attack while out, he was 11 1/2. He was just walking normally when he keeled over and quickly died. Several years later one of my hounds (Lucky)had a stroke which resulted in him being put to sleep.

I have also had several on heart medicine, but Sammy was the only hound I can confirm as dying from a heart attack, although my old greyhound girl Hazy I found dead on the couch when I returned home one day. The vet told me it could be a number of things that killed her.

Personally I would continue leading the life she loves.

[shirley]

Hi Last year I was also told that my 4year old Fletcher had a suspected heart murmur,and was then told not to worry as they can come and go.I feel it was a combination of things I had just picked him and Rosy my other lovely up from their kenneling whilst we were on our Hol's.He then went straight into the vets within half an hour to have his annual booster so I feel this could have been bought on by a little stress.We kept a close watch on him after that but nothing seemed wrong with him.We had him checked out by our own vets a few weeks after and there was no sign of it.Thank goodness. He goes up for this years booster soon so we will get it looked at again.He does like to chase around like a mad greyhound and no bad effects.Unless you have been told to do anything special I would say let her do as she wants.Let her enjoy her time running about to her capability at her age. She like most of us knows what she can or can't do instinctively. xx Good Luck Jeddie.xx

[leefizz]

Hi up until a while ago I hadn't been on the forum for ages so missed this thread. I got Fizz when she was two years old (non racer). When she went for her yearly booster, when she was three, the vet checked her over and found a heart murmur, I was told it was nothing to worry about. A different vet picked up on it last year, but again was told not to worry. I've had Fizz for nearly five years now and never had any problems Hope Jeddie is doing well.





Lee