laurasaur25
Member
My cavalier just turned 7 (his birthday was May 18). He has never had any health problems but was recently diagnosed with very early arthritis. I'm currently living in Boston for graduate school but we wanted to keep a consistent vet so we were taking him to our original vet in my hometown. It had never really created a problem because it's where my parents live. In December, he had started to limp on his one front leg so we took him while we were home for the holidays. This vet is very conservative and said that it was just mild arthritis and that we should monitor it but that he didn't recommend any medication. Then in February the limp seemed to get worse and I knew I wouldn't be home until at least May so I decided to find a vet in Boston. I took him there and she said the same thing but that we could get him started on supplements and a mild pain killer. So he got started on Gabapentin and Dasequin. There are some days where his limp is a little worse but that seemed to be working well.
He also gained a few pounds, likely due to the awful winter we had in Boston the previous year. So I decreased his food by 80% per her instructions and really pushed myself to take him on long walks as much as possible. In the morning, we walk about a half mile and then in the evenings we do between 2 and 3 miles about 3-4 days per week. His limp actually seemed to be better on the days that we did the longer walk. Just recently I noticed that he was slowing down but this was extremely intermittent. One minute he would sort of mosey along and then the next he would be fine. It definitely wasn't to the point that I was concerned so I chalked it up to the temperatures increasing and him being on the dramatic side all his life. He didn't seem uncomfortable in any way, just was moseying along. On Sunday we walked closer to 4 miles and he was energetic the entire time.
We're preparing to move back to Ohio on Saturday but we got a notice that he's due for his rabies on the 27th so we decided to squeeze him into an appointment just so that we wouldn't have to stress about it as soon as we moved. At this appointment, we learned that he has lost at least 2 pounds. He wouldn't hold still so it's difficult to say that it's reliable. The first weight said he has lost 4 pounds and the second one said he'd lost 2. Either way, this was extremely exciting since we've been working so hard on his weight loss. This time we saw a different vet than the last time, which was a little annoying since she was unfamiliar with Nicky. But then we went in for the exam and she asked if he's been intolerant of exercise at all. I said that he hasn't really been intolerant but then he's been a little slower here and there. But that I chalked it up to temperature and potentially his arthritis. Then she listened to his heart and said she heart a murmur, that she was grading at between a 2 and a 3. She advised us to go to a cardiologist so we called yesterday and made an appointment at Ohio State's vet clinic.
Given some of the horror stories, I'm definitely a little worried and I know I'll be totally stressing until his appointment on the 7th. I know that I've seen a lot of posts about vets missing early murmurs but it seems frustrating to me that two vets in the past 6 months would have missed a 2nd grade murmur. Unless it really would have gone from 0 to a 2 or 3 between February and May. I did see some stuff saying that the outlook is better if they are diagnosed after age 5. But then I question if he has had a grade 1 murmur since before 5 and that it went undetected. For some reason he was extremely anxious during this visit and my fiance and I even commented on this while we were waiting for the vet. Is it possible that he was so anxious that his heart mimicked a murmur? She really didn't give us much information, she just kept saying that if there is a murmur she's thinking it's MVD since it's so common in the breed. Then of course I went home and started researching and went into a slight panic.
Right now I'd just love to hear some real life stories about murmurs and some info on how fast the grades typically progress. There are some really helpful sites but some seem to be more pessimistic than others so it would be great to get some idea of how it progresses with actual stories.
He also gained a few pounds, likely due to the awful winter we had in Boston the previous year. So I decreased his food by 80% per her instructions and really pushed myself to take him on long walks as much as possible. In the morning, we walk about a half mile and then in the evenings we do between 2 and 3 miles about 3-4 days per week. His limp actually seemed to be better on the days that we did the longer walk. Just recently I noticed that he was slowing down but this was extremely intermittent. One minute he would sort of mosey along and then the next he would be fine. It definitely wasn't to the point that I was concerned so I chalked it up to the temperatures increasing and him being on the dramatic side all his life. He didn't seem uncomfortable in any way, just was moseying along. On Sunday we walked closer to 4 miles and he was energetic the entire time.
We're preparing to move back to Ohio on Saturday but we got a notice that he's due for his rabies on the 27th so we decided to squeeze him into an appointment just so that we wouldn't have to stress about it as soon as we moved. At this appointment, we learned that he has lost at least 2 pounds. He wouldn't hold still so it's difficult to say that it's reliable. The first weight said he has lost 4 pounds and the second one said he'd lost 2. Either way, this was extremely exciting since we've been working so hard on his weight loss. This time we saw a different vet than the last time, which was a little annoying since she was unfamiliar with Nicky. But then we went in for the exam and she asked if he's been intolerant of exercise at all. I said that he hasn't really been intolerant but then he's been a little slower here and there. But that I chalked it up to temperature and potentially his arthritis. Then she listened to his heart and said she heart a murmur, that she was grading at between a 2 and a 3. She advised us to go to a cardiologist so we called yesterday and made an appointment at Ohio State's vet clinic.
Given some of the horror stories, I'm definitely a little worried and I know I'll be totally stressing until his appointment on the 7th. I know that I've seen a lot of posts about vets missing early murmurs but it seems frustrating to me that two vets in the past 6 months would have missed a 2nd grade murmur. Unless it really would have gone from 0 to a 2 or 3 between February and May. I did see some stuff saying that the outlook is better if they are diagnosed after age 5. But then I question if he has had a grade 1 murmur since before 5 and that it went undetected. For some reason he was extremely anxious during this visit and my fiance and I even commented on this while we were waiting for the vet. Is it possible that he was so anxious that his heart mimicked a murmur? She really didn't give us much information, she just kept saying that if there is a murmur she's thinking it's MVD since it's so common in the breed. Then of course I went home and started researching and went into a slight panic.
Right now I'd just love to hear some real life stories about murmurs and some info on how fast the grades typically progress. There are some really helpful sites but some seem to be more pessimistic than others so it would be great to get some idea of how it progresses with actual stories.