– this is an echo of a 7 week old male Rottweiler pup that the rDVM found a heart murmur on routine exam wt 5.2kg
– he was sedated with 0.4 mg/kg Butorphanol IV as he was just too uncooperative otherwise
– the rDVM thought it was at least a systolic grade 4-5/6 but when I listened, I would classify it more like a grade 3
– this is an echo of a 7 week old male Rottweiler pup that the rDVM found a heart murmur on routine exam wt 5.2kg
– he was sedated with 0.4 mg/kg Butorphanol IV as he was just too uncooperative otherwise
– the rDVM thought it was at least a systolic grade 4-5/6 but when I listened, I would classify it more like a grade 3
– the sire of this pup had a history of a previous litter in which two of the littermates that had a heart murmur died suddenly before 1 year of age (no post-mortem to confirm diagnosis however) – so one concern I have would be the possibility of SAS in this pup
– the echo was pretty normal with a max aortic velocity of around 2m/s taken several times both subcostally and intercostally
– other than the LVIDd measuring a bit small, all other parmaters were wnl; no LAE; MPA:Ao was 1.1
– I did not see evidence of a VSD, pulmonic stenosis and history and echo did not fit for a PDA
– there was no MR or TR seen on colour Doppler but I did get a TR reading that was likely underestimated in CW Doppler; I think the valves look normal
So either this pet has an innocent murmur that should go away on its own or am I missing something? Could this pet have subclinical SAS that I just can’t see yet. I understand that SAS should be assessed when the pet is mature. Would a murmur of SAS be present before evidence of it on spectral Doppler? Is is best to re-examine at 6 months of age if the murmur persists?
Thanks ahead of time