What to Expect from Canine Heart Murmur

Canine heart murmur is a rare and difficult disease to handle. Information on it is very hard to find, and so I write this to share what little I know of this largely untreatable condition.

I have this amazing dog, and his name is Jack. He is a mutt, mixed with at least half German Shepherd, and I think a Whippet. For almost his entire life, he was known for his energy, health, and handsomeness. He's been kept at the right weight his whole life, and walked 3 times a week for the last 2.5 years.

Well, about 5 months ago he was diagnosed with a little problem called a heart murmur. Let it be known there are two categories of heart murmur: innocent, and abnormal. The former in most cases never grows into a cause for concern. Unfortunately, Jack had the latter.

As it has been classified, there are 6 stages to a heart murmur: 1 being the mildest, and 6 being the worst case scenario. A heart murmur is basically an irregular sound in the heart beat, as far as I am aware of, it's a symptom of a bad chamber, or valve: that is, as the heart pumps blood, one of the valves is not sealing off properly. This allows for semi bi-directional blood flow to occur in the affected chamber which is bad. Each chamber is designed for either an in-flow of blood, or an out flow, and if a chamber designed for one direction is allowing another, than the heart begins to lose efficiency.

When he was diagnosed, Jack had a level 3 heart murmur, which isn't so bad: it's the last stage before you have to start worrying. 4, 5, and 6 are the advanced stages. We were basically told to go home and monitor his living. For the first month all was fairly normal. He showed nothing beyond normal aging signs: Jack is a 13 year-old, midsized dog: 45 pounds healthy (and still very fit and youthful for his age).

I will end part 1 of Canine Heart Murmur at about 6 weeks from Jack's diagnosis; this period is chosen because it seems to mark his journey into the later phase of his life, what looks to be the last stage. We noticed a very uncomfortable, hollow sounding cough begin to show itself occasionally. At 6 weeks, when this cough persisted, we took him to the vet. They X-rayed his chest and got "specialists" involved, and they concluded that basically the cough may have been allergy related, as there was no seen fluid buildup in his lungs (one of the common symptoms of heart murmurs). However he was bumped up to a stage 4 murmur. This minor consolation did not last long.

Part 2

Parts 1 and two of this article were started on October 7th, 2009, and all three parts were finished today.

I'm going to take this moment to digress a bit. To this day, I think back and figure I can pinpoint the time when Jack began to notice, or at least feel the effects of his heart murmur. Since he was young, every fourth of July, Jack would come into whatever room I was in and basically hide for protection. For whatever reason he thought I was going to protect him from the booming sky. Between my mom and me, I was the safety zone whenever something really scared him. He didn't scare that often though. However, not long after he was diagnosed with it, Jack began to come into my room uncharacteristically, and crawl into my bed space where he would hide for some time. My guess is that whatever discomfort he was feeling by the changes in his body, brought him to me, looking for help, or protection.

Well they either screwed up, or his condition rapidly, and I mean rapidly worsened. Within a week that cough became regular, very pronounced, and even attained the telltale sound that indicated fluid was now an issue. By this point his daily energy had already been slowly declining, but a supplement (called The Missing Link by Designing Health, Inc.) had temporarily reversed that pattern; when the fluid hit his lungs, he would get the zombie nod (where his head would bob, eyes half closed), his energy level shot into the floor.

Additionally, since his murmur's onset, his rib cage has gotten wider and he quickly lost muscle mass, causing his bones to protrude more. You see, when the heart loses efficiency, it has to work harder to meet its quota of keeping the body alive; as a result of the constant overworking the heart does to compensate, it swells to an abnormal size and from this a whole bunch of problems arise. I'm not a doctor, but I assume as your heart falls behind in its task of providing oxygenated blood to the entire body, an expected long-term result could be general muscular atrophy. He grew skinnier with his ribs protruding more.

Well, one night our fears were realized when Jack couldn't go to sleep due to a cough that forced itself onto him every time he tried to lie down. That night we stood vigil propping him up on both left and right sides of his body because it seemed his cough was at its worst when he was on either side. He got rest that night and actually woke with renewed energy, but we knew it was no way to live for any of us. So we took him in to the vet the next morning to see if we could fix him. Jack came home with a prescription for Lasix and Enalapril.

Conclusion

I write to finish this article today because yesterday, Jack, one of the coolest friends I have ever had, is no longer with us in the same way that he has been over the last 12 years. He and I had a rocky relationship at first: I downright hated him, and he couldn't care less about me. But I am so happy, and thankful to say that eventually we became as close as brothers.

Lasix and Enalapril were not cures, but they gave us what we needed for Jack: quality extra time. Not much though. We secured his medication on October 7th, give or take a day (my memory on that detail is a little fuzzy), and on November 29th, he left us missing him. At the time, the doctor said the medication would only give him 6 months at most, and they were certainly right on that call.

Lasix was prescribed to rid his lungs of the excess water. The toll they would take was going to be on his kidneys and his liver. Enalapril was going to reduce the size of his heart, and its toll was going to be taken from his liver. Each drug alone would require from him a heavy price; both together meant that this was far from a cure.

The time that passed from the day we got him those meds til today is mostly history, and doesn't really pertain to the point of this article, but I am so thankful for the extra time it bought us. The day after he started his treatment, he perked up and was running around wide-eyed like he was 1 year younger and full of health (trust me, one year younger he was a totally different dog). The cough was gone and Jack was back.

As you can tell this period was short lived, but I have no complaints because the remainder of his life was sweet, and perhaps for another written piece of work. However, I do have advice for anyone looking for these medications. Aside for maybe the first order (if it's an emergency) I would not get your medications directly from the vet. You can get the same medicine for much less money at online pharmacies or at like, a Costco pharmacy. The vets make plenty of money in their other provided services in addition to an already small profit margin from drug prescriptions, so don't worry about any issues with patronage or legitimacy. Attain your drugs from where it's cost effective: that is not the vet.

Events turned south when one day we realized Jack's stomach was abnormally swollen. It was pretty large. One minute was a trim dog, and the next he had a belly. As it was mentioned before, the drugs were going to take a toll on his body, and eventually they did. We took him in to see the doctor for one final checkup. Jack's liver, or his kidneys were failing him, and so all the fluids that would normally be processed through them were backed up in his body. He dealt happily with a big belly for 2 weeks before he finally couldn't lie down and well, that was basically what did him in. The final details of his life will remain private for those of us closest to him, but he was loved by many and passed on more gracefully, and peacefully than I could have dreamed possible.

As a last thread of advice/information, I offer a point of consideration for euthanasia. We knew it was time for final goodbyes when jack was unable to get a good night's sleep, and when his days no longer saw the energy that was the foundation of his personality. Remember that, as their guardian, your pet's comfort is your responsibility. So do your best to keep their well being in mind when deciding on how long to keep them with you, or when to let them go.

I hope these words will be put into a position to help those of us unfortunate enough to be met with a canine heart murmur.

You will be missed buddy, especially by Nico and Mom, but I love you too. You were more than a dog, you were family.

In his passing a part of me dies, but through my life, a part of him will live on.