[Gpdd] Health-Heart Murmur

warmbreath at comcast.net warmbreath at comcast.net
Tue Jun 1 00:49:13 EDT 2010


I would add that  a heart murmur, which is a physical defect or disruption 
in the flow of blood in the heart, involves one of the heart valves, and 
which one matters, can be present from birth or from an infection, and if it 
worsens in the piggies lifetime due to how serious it was in the first 
place, aging causing strain, plaques, wearing out etc, the result of these 
things may cause heart failure at some point but heart failure and heart 
murmur are not the same thing.  So the thing to do is decide on whether to 
have a consult with the specialist or not. And what ever else you do watch 
for changes in our piggy as Carole says, although I would make it a kind of 
daily thing where you look for increased sleepiness, squishiness, fluid 
build up around the ankles, the clicking in the lungs or a wheeze, inability 
to exercise etc. I recommend more of an everyday habitual watchfulness 
because if your piggy goes into heart failure, catching it quickly and 
getting her on Lasix or whatever meds the vets recommend can make the piggy 
very much more comfortable and very possibly extend life again as Carole 
says.

If your orig vet is very good and can give a clear description of the murmur 
to the specialist, that might aid in a phone consult, but more than likely 
the orig vet will not be able to describe anything that a specialist cant 
discern by listening for 5 or 10 seconds and which will tell him a great 
deal more than your vet could ever explain. That said I would try a phone 
call and ask the simple question, is there anything that can be done or am I 
better off to wait for symptoms. Beyond that I doubt a phone consult would 
do much good. I wonder if there is such a thing as a piggy cardiac 
specialist or more likely a veterinary heart specialist. If he is the latter 
he may not know much about piggies specifically, and you should find this 
out before spending your money.

By now you have lived with your piggy and her murmur for a while so you may 
know if she is slowed down in her daily life or if she is living a normal 
life now. This too will help you with your decision. One thing for sure, if 
she becomes symptomatic at any time she should immediately go to an 
excellent vet with good equipment to get the  extra fluid out so she can 
breathe easily, so they should have oxygen support for small animals. Once 
the fluid is removed and medication established you will be able to se if 
she will be able to continue on comfortably or if you may face another 
decision.  If you have learned any more about this please enlighten us as we 
have so few cases it's hard to learn, most would be discovered at the last 
moment and may be treatable at that point or not.

Please remember from my first post I haven't had a piggy with a heart 
murmur, it is me, and if mine worsens I will have to have valve replacement 
surgery. As of now I am not affected and haven't been my whole 64 years.
Best regards  Sandy and Sammy





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