[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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