Jane's got Heart :)

Jane had her granny check up last week - I wanted to get a full blood panel done, have her anal glands done (poor girl). The Vet thought her heart murmur had worsened since a year ago - and she had her chest Xrayed at that time too - when she broke her tooth, they did other Xrays too. And with her collapsing in the heat this fall, I knew the heart wasn't pumping enough blood to the muscles. The Vet among other people also thought that could have been a fainting spell.

So we got her an ECG and chest radiographs - which do not tell you the same info as an ultrasound at all, but will show and really obvious disfunction, enlargement etc. The Vet was pleasantly surprised that the results came back better than he thought they would. Comparing her 2 chest Xrays, her heart looks to be the same size and he showed us how the image would show areas of stress, and growth, seepage into the lungs etc. and if the heart was enlarged it can also push into the trachea and other organs and even the spine, and her's looks to be good. He also showed us the radiograph from above. Also looking loosely at her spine, there seems to be no arthritis in her discs and they are evenly spaced and no growths - these weren't taken for that purpose, but he gave us all the info. he could, based on what he could see.

At a rough glance at her ECG, her heart is really strong - he said it beats as strong as an athlete's heart :) they also commented on her great physical shape and muscle tone overall. There is something they look for on the chart that shows the force of the beat, a certain spike on the chart (i think) and her's is really good. But the murmur is there.

Her blood panel came back not perfect however, there was a spike in her liver enzyme (6x) the normal, so we are going back in 6-8 weeks to see if there is a difference. At that time if there is not, we will be heading to the specialist in Calgary for an ultrasound of the liver and heart. But at this time there seems to be nothing crucially clinical to treat.

She doesn't need restriction in her exercise, but in the heat she will. She has always been sensitive to the heat, and it has gotten worse over the past few years. She isn't showing any clinical signs of coughing (which can be caused by the heart pushing on the wind pipe or seepage to the lungs). We are also switching her food, to a lower protein - not low protein, just a slight different balance, and monitoring sodium she might get, so we'll see if there are any changes.

Anyway I am sure there is way more I was told, and I might not have gotten all this info correct, but the important thing is Jane seems to be in relatively good health right now, and we'll see what the next couple of months brings with the ultrasound in the new year. I am relieved.

Thanks to everyone for the advice and wealth of information, I have learned so much, and I can now sleep at night :)