A friend of mine has a litter of 4 puppies almost 7 weeks old. She has just taken them to the vet to be microchipped and health checked and has  been told that all 4  have heart murmurs.

My friend is devastated  about this as you can imagine as there has been  a huge amount of planning  involved in the litter.  The vet did say that the murmers may improve  as they get older, but my friend is now not sure hat to do about them. Will she still be able to sell them? some are supposed to be going to show homes. Presumably they won't be able to be bred from.

Why would this happen? the mum doesn't have any problems with her heart  and nor does the father as far as we know. 

Has   this happened to  anyone else?

Many puppies have minor heart murmurs at this age, and by the time they're 12 weeks old it's completely undetectable. Wait and see is the best policy.

One of the puppies in my uncles litter had a heart murmur, he was told it would clear up, the puppy had a home to go to so he asked the vet to do a little report explaining what it was and how likely to clear up.

He offed to keep the puppy until the results were known but the family wanted it so he did an extra contact stating the puppies condition and allowing them to bring the puppy back etc etc, it cleared up 2 weeks later.

What Grade (1-5..maybe 6 I can't remember) did the vet say they were. Grade 1 insignificant will almost surely go by a coupe of weeks. If he has given say a 4 or 5, there is more to worry about.

Heart murmurs are 1 to 6.

I think she said they were grade  2 systolic. Does that make sence?

A really good Vet can detect if they are just flow murmurs. They normally clear up after a couple of weeks.

This is what Boxer breeders should be giving out to their new puppy owners
http://www.boxerbreedcouncil.co.uk/handout.htm

It should be stressed that minor "flow" murmurs are commonly found in young Boxer puppies, as in other breeds, but most disappear by about 16 weeks of age. Even if they persist there may be no cause for alarm if they are quiet. Such genuine "flow" murmurs" are not associated with heart disease in the adult.

If a puppy "flow" murmur is loud and persists, it may be recommended that further advice be sought from a specialist cardiologist.

DOes anyone know if insurance covers heart murmurs in puppies?

Probably not if the pup has already been diagnosed with this condition
prior to starting pet insurance.

Going forward if you tried to insure the pup heart problems would possibly
be excluded on it's insurance as it's classed as a pre-existing condition.

Have known that someone in my breed had a pup that was listened to as a youngster
and a murmer was noted. Graded a 1 as an adult (which is acceptable to be bred from as per breed council guidelines)
Then was in need of a heart doppler this year - their insurance has rejected their insurance claim
as the dog when a 'wee' pup had the murmer - therefore pre-existing condition to the insurance company.

Not sure if they'd change their stance if this pup goes on to be tested clear - zero as it grows up.
I think you'd need to ask the insurance companies.

Thanks for the info. that is pretty much what I thought. My firend was thinking of advising her puppy owners to start their free insurance before taking pups to the vets in case the murmer is still in evidence and didn't know if the murmur would be covered.
Not very ethical in this case as my friend is aware of the murmeurs, but what happens in the case of a puppy that hasn't been vet checked prior to being sold. Does it still class as  a prexisting condition?

As soon as it's been diagnosed by a vet then it's a pre-existing condition.

Would your friend not be better keeping the puppy with the murmour until she is sure what will happen to it? Not sure as a puppy buyer I would want to buy a pup with a heart murmour

at the moment all 4 puppies in the litter have murmurs. My friend is keeping one and the other owners have been told about the murmurs and still want the puppies. They are fairly mild and hopefully will out grow them. If the owners didn't want the puppy then my friend would obviously keep the unwanted pup(s) until she found a suitable home.

Not sure how she would stand knowing selling pups with a murmur? I had a GSD with quite a bad murmur as a pup and he died at 5 months old. Are both parents and any siblings being removed from breeding? 4 is a very high number. Not sure I could knowingly home these dogs

We sadly got a lab pup with a heart murmur, breeder in our case didnt tell us, although we found out from her vet later that she had been told and advised not to sell the pup wont tell you my thoughts on this breeder!, our puppy came with the free kennel club insurance, they would not honour it as the puppy had been born with the condition even though we had no knowledge of this, sadly the murmur was grade 5 severe.  To cut a long story short, we couldnt return her to the breeder even though it was the most sensible option, we had already had her two weeks and loved her and knew the breeder was going to put to sleep, we went ahead with the angioplasty (sp) operation at 12 weeks old and today she is over three years old, you would not know she had a bad heart she never tires, is always on the go and happy as can be, she is not cured she is on daily medication and her heart this year is slightly worse than last year but the cardiologist doesnt want to see her for another 12 months so they arent that concerned at this moment in time. She has a lovely life and is loved, however it has cost alot, we have gone without ourselves to pay for the treatment but she is worth it. Hopefully though in this case as it is all the pups it will probably disappear, Darcy was the only one in the litter with a bad heart murmur