Hi All,
We had a scare with our 1 year boxer bitch last week. We presume she had found the foil pie dish (that was waiting for the bin) in our van and ate it coz we had left her for 5 mins and when we came back there was blood all over the place and lots coming out of her mouth - but no cuts to her mouth though - the cut must have been in he throat. Anyway to cut a long story short we took her to the vets the next morning coz she had fainted and had jet black poos & I know that was from the blood she had injested. Vet said she had lost alot of blood (from the amount of black poos she had) and for us to keep her quiet (she later fainted another 3 times). The worrying thing though is that he heared a VERY SLIGHT heart murmer whereas as other check ups her heart had been fine. We were planning to breed from her - oviously we will have to have her graded when she is about 18 months but I just wondered is the blood loss may had contrebuted to the murmer that the vet heared.

Any comments would be welcome.
Thanks, Aimi.

Could she of bitten her tongue?  It would explain the swallowing of blood and the huge amount lost. Don't think the two could be related, but I really am not sure.
dawn.

Vet checked her mouth thoroughly no cuts to her mouth or tongue - he said there were loads of blood vessels in the back of her throat - must have cut a vein or something. She kept "hacking up" blood clots through the night.

alot of boxers have heart murmursif its graded at a 0 or 1 she will be alright to breed from, just get your yet ot keep an eye on it for the time being, both my 2 have murmurs, grade 1 one had one from birth,the other developed at 2, both are fine. just keep an eye on them in hot weather,as they dont seem to cope very well.

P.S i dont think the two will be related.

jackie

Just to say that she has not feinted since the day after it happened and we have rested her for a week and she is hairing it round no probs like she used to.

Jackie, if Noe has a "very slight" murmur could she be graged 0 or 1 ? Or would it be more like a 2?

It all depends, most vets don't specialise in cardiology.
It's the vets that do specialise in this that do the testing (Cardiologists)
and those that are on the reccommended listing are allowed to grade your
Boxer for the breed heart testing scheme.

Some general vets can't detect a murmur but a cardiologist can and conversely
some vets can scare the pants off owners saying it's a severe murmur when it's
not considered severe by the cardiologist.

If they can detect a slight murmur she'd be graded 1 or above.
Those that grade 0 have no murmurs heard whatsoever.

you will have to take her to a specialistin cardiolgy to have atrue grading done, slight murmur i think will only be a 1.( contact your local boxer club they may be able to tell you where to go)

dont worry to much about it. vets can frighten the life out of you sometimes.mine are fine and do every thing a boxer should. long walks, detroying the garden, an so on.

jackie