Grade 5/6 Holistic heart Murmur...

do you mean holosystolic, not holistic?

grade 5 is pretty bad although sometimes a loud noise can come from a small hole, but normally the louder the worse. prognosis would be pretty bad but difficult to tell more without knowing more.
 
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do you mean holosystolic, not holistic?


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Probably! oops!

I just found a link stating its the worst one- thats all i needed to know.

Thanks
 
grade 6 is the worst you can get i'm afraid. My friends horse had grade 5 and she was 15 , fighting fit etc and then went into the field one morning and she'd passed away. Darcy is grade 2, but he's very odd as its only apparent when he's resting, when hes' working it goes away lol..
 
It will depend on what causes the murmur: if it is the Mitral valve then slowly progressive heart failure is likely, if it is the Tricuspid then you will probably be o.k, if it has a VSD and has reached athletic adulthood it should be fine, if it is a VSD in a young animal then it may end up being functionally significant. If it is not one of the above then it is unusual.
 
My old chap has a grade 4/5 and I was advised not to ride him. He is 31, and a few years into retirement, so not such a hard call! His heart sounds like a tuba!
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Hope it isnt your foalie or your other coloured chappie.
 
Had a section A with a grade five.... he was only five years old at the time and the vet advised us to not ride him as it wasnt safe
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We rehomed him as a companion and to my knowledge he is still going strong 6 years later
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We have a section A who has a grade 4 murmur. She's ok with light work but gets quite out of breath very quickly and have also been advised not to breed from her as apparently, it's a genetic fault that is quite common in welsh ponies, due to close line breeding. It's also common in Shetlands too.
 
My first pony failed his pre-purchase vetting with a grade 3 heart murmer. His owners got a 2nd opinion and were informed that he had a lazy valve at rest but once he got working things improved, the vet joked that he's probably die in his sleep one day. The owners gave him to me and we went on to have great fun together - jumped, hunted and hacked for miles.

We were together for over 10 yrs before he did pass away in his sleep one night - aged nearly 25! He hunted into his 20's.

Interestingly he was part welsh section A and there was some close line breeding in his pedigree..
 
Would I be right in thinking that there are 2 different scales for measuring heart murmurs? I think one goes up to 5, the other to 6. A friends 26yo was diagnosed with a 5/6 last year, she whipped his shoes off and retired him, but has since started riding him again around the farm with no ill effects. My vet said she wouldn't necessarily recommend retirement in these cases.
 
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