Our boy went to the cardiologist yesterday to have his heart murmur checked out. Turns out it’s grade 5 and it’s pretty serious. The doctor said it was good we came in because he could have cardiac arrest at any moment from the looks of his echocardiogram. (NOTE: Video below is just 37 seconds long.)
We found the only board certified veterinary cardiologist in Austin, Dr. Charla Jones, and she was great. She has a wonderful facility and staff and they took plenty of time to explain everything to us. The main problem with Martin is that his left atrium is over twice as large as his right and they should be exactly the same size. Martin’s diagnosis: chronic valve disease.
Martin whined and groaned through the entire procedure, even though it didn’t hurt him at all. He was just scared. He’s on medication now that will hopefully slow down the heart disease and make his heart a little more efficient. We’re hoping for many more years with Martin, even though we found out he’s older than we thought. He’s at least eight years old, maybe older, and there’s no telling how stressful the first part of his life was before Central Texas Dachshund Rescue took him into their care. Martin was an owner surrender. His previous owners said they had too many dogs at their house so they wanted to get rid of the old one.
