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[quote=Anonymous]I own a breed on which heart murmurs are pretty much inevitable. My older dog had one for a couple of years before she died. The murmur was not the cause of death.

Did the Banfield vet say what grade murmur? I think they are graded 1-4 with 4 being the worst. Maybe it goes up to 5. Anyway, I would first get a second opinion from a different regular vet. The vet diagnoses a heart murmur just by listening. We had one vet tell us our dog had a murmur when she was much younger, only for another vet to say she didn’t. I think the first vet saw the breed and “heard” it. We knew it was real years later when multiple vets heard it. Chances are with a 14 yr old dog it’s real, but might as well try to save yourself the time and money if possible.

If another vet confirms it, and it’s more than a grade 1 or 2, you would need to go to a cardiologist. It will run you about $800 for them to do a full exam. The main concern is whether the heart is enlarged. That’s when meds are required. It may be tempting to do nothing, but untreated heart failure will cause suffering. Better to go on meds and prolong life/keep them comfortable as long as you can unless it’s really severe (unlikely if it didn’t pop up until now).

Good luck. We like CVCA if you do need a cardiologist. [/quote]

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