Heart Murmur

K

kateknights

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 March 2006
Messages
1,246
Location
Lincolnshire
Visit site
Hi guys, my friends horse has just been diagnosed with having a heart murmur, she is devastated as her mare is only 6, do any of you guys know anything about them?
Are there different strains? can you still ride/hunt/compete? And what age can they live up to?
Sorry but i know nothing about them
thanks in advance
Kate x
 
There are different grades of heart murmur, if it is any consolation my TB has a heat murmur, he was succesfully affiliated,has hunted,XC and is still going strong at 18!
 
My horse has a heart murmur and he's a 4yo TB. He passed the vet as the vet said it didn't affect him at all, and it's only at rest. She said it shouldn't affect his lifespan or activities.

I think it depends on the grade of murmur and whether it happens at rest only or during exercise.
 
Lots of horses have heart murmurs - many go undetected for years, and are found by accident.

Amy May had a low grade one. It was never, ever an issue.

Ask your friend to speak to her vet about how severe or not it is.
 
I was told one of my horses had a murmur by the Dick Vet in Edinburgh. Horse had done 3 CCI* with me and never had a problem. Sold him on (disclosing he had a murmur!) and at 26 years of age he is still going strong. No other vet ever heard it!! Was told at the time that around about 80% of horses have a murmur but they are graded differently.

Also West Tip won the Grand National and he had one!
 
she needs to find out from the vet whether it's a regular-irregular murmur, which isn't too bad at all (one of my eventers had one, it showed up on his vetting at 5, he went on to do Windsor 2* and lived well into his 20s, it never caused him any problems at all), or an irregular-irregular one, which is more serious... that's how my vet explained it to me, anyway.
 
It does depend on what exactly it is. I thought that lots of horses have heart murmmors, but it is what the heart is like when exercising that is important. Some have one when they are unfit, and then it goes as they do more fittening work.

On the other hand I was having a 7 year old pony vetted for my daughter and the vet told her to get off as it wasn't safe to continue!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top