Heart murmur in choc lab puppy - 12 weeks

[Gorran]

I've just taken Daisy for her first checkup with our vet (she'd already been seen by the fosterers vet when she had her vaccs) who has declared her in excellent shape and very healthy. But she does have a heart murmur. He said it's not a serious one and may well go away of its own accord, but he's asked us to come back next month so he can listen again.

We've literally just stopped at the supermarket on the way home, so I've not had a chance to look into it any further, but wondered if any mumsnetters had any experience of heart murmurs in dogs?

Yes mine had one, it's gone now she grew out of it. Vet said she would. She's a curly coated retriever. My other one didn't though. We knew she had it when we bought her. Three in the litter did, ours was the only one with it at 10 weeks, at 14 it was gone.

My lab has a heart murmur, picked up by our vet at about 3 months old. We were gutted.

However, he is now 10 years old, and the murmur went a long time ago. We used to mention it to new vets (we moved a lot) and sometimes they could find it, and sometimes not, then it seemed to go. He's had operations too, and the GA hasn't been a problem for him.

I wouldn't worry, let the vet monitor it for a few months chances are it will be gone by 6 months, flow murmurs are quite common in pups, often ignored in older experienced vets but younger vets tend to unintentionally scare new owners.

Thanks all. Glad to hear its hopefully nothing to worry about. * - I've just read something similar re younger, newly qualified vets, this chap wasn't that young, but I'm hopeful he was just extra cautious.

Hi Gorran, yes my choc lab had this when he was a puppy. It has now gone

There are good murmurs and bad murmurs in puppies really only a veterinary cardiologist with colour flow Doppler can tell the difference. I always offer my clients this as both are equally common.

Oh and I've been round quite a while.

Thanks Lizcat. Would you suggest I request a referral at my next appointment? I'm quite happy to pay for one if this is what is best.

I think seeing specialist early can really help if it is an innocent murmur you can relax. If it is a problem there maybe surgeries that can be done some are really simple now though need to be done by a specialist or you know what problems to look out for.
I recently went through it with a client breeder we are fortunate that one of the cardiac gods ( in my eyes there are three) consults from time to time in my practice the wonderful very special Luca Ferasin he rocked up with all his gear. I had mentally decided that if it was a surgically fixable problem I would take this puppy, sadly in our case it was very unfixable and the puppy was already in full blown cardiac failure, but everyone knew exactly where they are.
Plus if a cardiologist says it is innocent this can really really assit you with insurance.