Georgia’s Heart Murmur

I dropped off Georgia at the vet this morning for echocardiogram. She was especially freaked out from the time we came out of the house, so I was feeling quite uneasy. It’s not like she would be put under or anything, so I don’t know what I was uneasy about except that I’m always uneasy when I have to drop off somebody at the vet. Especially Georgia, who would do anything to escape the present situation by running away. Anyway, I was very uneasy.

Around two o’clock, the vet called saying echo result is good meaning it’s not that bad but the technician seemed to see some irregular beats which the vet couldn’t detect with the stethoscope. The reason the murmur sounds level three is that the defect on the heart valve is very small and the velocity of the flow is great compared to that defect, it makes more swishing sound. But because of the concern for the irregular beats, EKG was done and I had to wait another 4 hours for the cardiologist to go over it.

The prognosis, when the vet called me again, is that it’s the very beginning stage of heart murmur brought on by old age, and we should do nothing at present. I was like, NOTHING??? For a while, I couldn’t decide if I should be glad because her murmur isn’t that bad as we thought, or upset because there is nothing that CAN be done. I know, I should be jumping up and down or something. But for the first hour or so, I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I wonder if I’m that negative about everything…

Anyway, thank you for the good wishes. We decided that the reason for her lack of activity these days must be from her arthritis instead of her heart, so when I picked her up, I also picked up anti-inflammatory. Now she’s on 4 different meds with 3 different supplements. I need to make an appointment to extract the cracked tooth. It just never seems to end, but hooray all the same.