Hi was wondering if anyone could help,I bought a chow pup at 13 weeks old she is now 17 weeks,When i bought her i wanted a chow so much i had owned a keeshond until a year ago who was put down last year he was 9.Anyway having not alot of luck when i saw one advertised i jumped at the chance,she didnt come come cheap an there didnt seem to be anything wrong with her,so i rushed in an bought her in good faith silly me.I only wanted her as a pet , but you know when your head tells you something an your hearts telling you something else,what a wonderful dog she looks wonderful an her temperment is amazing the most loving well behaved dog ever.Any how off i go to the vet for a check everything going great lovley healthy dog then last thing he listens to her heart,his face not looking so smiley he checked again looked at me an said she has a very major heart murmur,i could not speak tears were now rolling down my face my ,my heads just saying i told you so.

After the shock i camled down an after a week decided to see another vet an see what they say.So this morning went again different surgery same thing.They have both aked me do i want to see a specialist,but i cant bare to know anymore all i do is worry an cry.She so livley when she plays you just wouldnt know it,an i love her so much ,but dont know if i can cope later on i dont.Some advice would be good but what advice i dont know ,i might not be able to cope with money side of things when things start to go wrong,or with my emotions.

I have to say thet this has taught me a very big lesson,but the last thing i thought of health wise in a pup was the heart,its put me off getting a dog altogether.Well if you read this far thankyou an any coments would be great .(but i dont want/ need lecture i give my self one enough).

Sorry to hear about this, no lecture won't help anything. I think you need to go for the specialist option if possible so you know exactly what you are dealing with. Remember knowing won't make it any better or worse than it is and who knows it might not be as bad as you think.

I had a Boxer with Aortic Stenosis which is blood leaking back through a valve, I won't lie to you he only lived to 3.5years but he enjoyed his life and we always used to say that he was such a devil that if he had been well he would have been unlivable with. He didn't need medication until he was 2.5 and went for same walks as his litter brother just couldn't run as much or get too hot. His brother also had it mildly, he died at 10 years and competed in agility until he was 8 neither stopping agility or his death was related to his heart problem.

This happened 20 years ago just as they began to be aware of heart probs in Boxers, mother and older half sisters were tested (all clear) as soon as i told the breeder. I think the first step is to find out exactly how severe the prob is, is the pup insured? If not a bit more difficult money wise, my boy wasn't but every dog I have owned since has been.

Just feel for you as I know how i felt at the time
Anne

Thanks for letting me no about your situation,at the moment i just dont no what to do, an dont know anyone whos been though this ,its something i just didnt expect an was in shock.An talking to someone else who has been through it makes it a less painfull.I would like to hear from anyone else who has had this with there dog .Thanks for your advice an would welcome anyone else with adivce please reply.
I would just like to say she is not insured ,but i was thinking of doing it for any other health problems but will they insure me when they no about this.

Can your vet give you any indication of what the problem might be? Heart murmurs vary in location of maximum intensity, and which 'part' of the heartbeat is most affected, and this can help to indicate what might be wrong. If you search the site for 'heart murmur' you should bring up a lot of old threads on this subject, and it really doesn't have to be all doom and gloom. The grade of the murmur (1- 6) is not necessarily a measure of the severity of the condition, our pup had a grade 6 (very harsh, can be felt with a hand on the chest) murmur at 10 weeks when we took her for her first jabs, which had practically disappeared two weeks later. Heart conditions vary in their 'treatability', its difficult to suggest what to do without knowing more. Unfortunately, as the condition is pre-existing and has been discovered before symptoms present, you are unlikely to be covered by your insurance, if it wasn't in place before the murmur was detected. Some pups have systolic 'flow murmurs' of intensity up to 3-4, which vary in strength depending on the heart rate, these often resolve themselves and are harmless. Ask your vet if he thinks it might be this, or if he thinks it is most likely to be a defect of the heart itself, or if it could be patent ductus arteriosus - if he is any good, and your dog is a decent size (not sure how big chows are at that age?), he should at least be able to narrow it down that much. Patent ductus arteriosus, while not what you'd call good news, is very treatable with surgery, having a success rate of 95% or so. Unfortunately it's expensive. Defects of the heart itself are not so good, some (most?) are not treatable with surgery.
Has your vet given you any information about what problems the heart murmur might cause? There are/have been quite a number of people on this site who have dogs with heart conditions that have responded succesfully to treatment, or that haven't/can't be treated, and are still going strong long after their vets suggested they wouldn't be.
Don't want to go on and on for pages (already have, sorry) we were gutted when we were first told about Minx, and fully expected her to drop dead at any minute, but we had to remember that she didn't know there was anything wrong with her, and she would only be worried because we were worrying. It really may not be as bad as you imagine, ask your vet if he can give you any more information and try not to worry too much (easy for me to say, I know)

I would go for a specialist referal, as at least you would know how bad and what it is!

If the puppy is bright active and lively (as lively as chows are, as they are rather taciturn breed) then it might not be as bad as you think. A very bad heart would be noticeable by the breeder, the pup would tend to be small, get tired very quickly, the sort of thing that would be obvious in a litter situation with littermates to compare with.

If the breeder sold him in good faith and he looked fine, then I wouldn't think them at fault. Have you been in touch with them, as a reputable breeder will want to cknow, and have the littermates health double checked, and have the parents hearts looked at in case it is an emerging familial trait. Then again it just might be one of those unfortunate things.

Thanks for your help i will look at other posts on heart murmurs an have been reading up on the net about some,the two vets i have seen both say her murmur sounds quite bad.But the other thing is we bought the dog from someone who was selling her because they did not have time for her (the lady had been told she had cancer )an they were back an for to the hospital not leaving much time to look after her.After we found out about this we phoned them but have had no answer an they wont reply to my messages so i dont think i will ever hear from them or get to know who the breeder was.But the vet said if she had been to vet before we had her this murmur is something they would have found ,so they either new or didnt take her to the vet.But i will be seeing the vet soon to so i can get a referal to see the specialist.Because they asked me to go home an have a think about it first.I feel alot better about it now i have spoke to people on here about it,its better when someone knows what your going through.

When I worked for a Chow breeder many years ago,she had a little bitch with a heart murmer,yet this cleared up by itself!.We also had a boxer with a dicky heart,the first thing we noticed was "fainting" if she got over excited as a puppy,yet she lived a good 10 yrs,even if her heart did end up the size of a dinner plate,she died very suddenly and painlessly after a short walk.Please dont be afraid to see a specialist. Faolan
PS,10 yrs is a good age for a Boxer