my boxer puppy...

Question
i typed into google about boxer puppies having murmurs, and found a similar question on here. my fear though is that the previous person asking had a boxer much younger than mine. floyd (our pup) was born june 3rd, which puts him around 20 weeks old. he was healthy when we got him on august 18th, nothing suspect. he developed pneumonia in september which he was treated for, and at that appointment our vet did a chest x-ray and said she heard a heart murmur. the x-ray in september showed a little heart swelling. he went back on friday (october 16th). the x-ray showed his heart to look completely normal, but she said she heard a stage 2 murmur still. obviously i am worried about my little guy, i want him to be healthy. we just lost our other boxer in july to a heart attack so the thought of heart problems scares us especially. the question i have i guess is when should i expect him to grow out of it if it is just a boxer puppy-thing. at what age do we start to search for more answers? what age do you rule out the possibility of it being a puppy murmur? (and what are the other things we would be looking for... heart disease?) are there side effects of that that i should be aware of?

Answer
Grade 2 is fairly normal for breeds that are prone to heart murmurs. Boxer puppies usually outgrow the murmur by 16 weeks or so. since yours in 20 weeks, it is likely he will have a murmur all his life. A lot of Boxers do.

Knowing helps. He can be over-exerted more easily, and pant more, breath harder, and the typical signs. Be more gentle with him than the average Boxer until you are sure it has been outgrown or it isn't causing problems.

You should have his heart checked every month for a few months, then every yearly quarter= 4 times a year.

Arrange with your vet to run in and take a listen and run out- no appointment needed. A lot of vets will do this for patients between rounds.

Good luck and keep me updated.

Heart murmur stages and causes and effects with info for your personal education (to understand and converse with your vet):

http://maxshouse.com/heart_murmurs.htm

Laymen terms info on heart disease dogs and cats:

http://www.2ndchance.info/heart.htm