8 month old...possible heart murmur...so worried

[DaniFani]

Hello all,

I have an 8 month old gsd, he is, unfortunately, from a byb (I got him before I really understood good breeding, the importance of parents being titled, health checks, etc). Well I took him in for his rabies shot at 7.5 months. When we went into the room he was super excited and giving the vet kisses. The vet listened to his heart, asked me to hold him still, and listened again. He said he thought he heard a murmur when he was all excited, but couldn't hear it when he was calm. He said he'd re-check him in a month (vet's an old employer of mine) and to just drop by if I was super concerned.

Nox (my gsd) is in Sch training and we hike a lot. He has never stopped to lay down mid-play/training/hiking, but he does pant a LOT and seems to always be breathing heavily (of course now I am watching him like a hawk and could be seeing things that aren't there). But, I have a corgi and after they both do the same activities the corgi is relaxed and breathing normally really fast, Nox seems to take a LOT longer to relax.

So, I know no one can give me a diagnosis, I just needed to talk to some fellow gsd lovers. I researched a bunch and read all about cardiomyopathy, and heart failure, and I am a nervous wreck. Anyone had a murmur in their dog around this age? ugh, I just want to go get an echo and be done with it...but I am just waiting and waiting!

[blehmannwa]

If waiting is driving you crazy, can't you just go ahead and do an echo? My ignorant opinion is that if the vet doesn't hear anything when the dog is calm, than there is probably not a serious issue.
I don't think that the internet is a great place to research health issues of any kind.

[Lucy Dog]

Having had dogs with heart issues in the past, go see a cardiologist and get a final diagnosis. There's really not much else you can do without knowing the severity of it or if he even has one.