Murphy88
Well-Known Member
Aortic regurg is actually the most common type of valvular heart murmur, and tends not to deteriorate as rapidly as other valvular diseases like mitral regurg, however I would be very wary about taking on a grade 4 - that is a serious heart murmur in a 9 year old, and while aortic regurg can remain static for years, I'm not sure I'd want to take the risk that I'd end up with a horse in heart failure in its mid teens. Its normally detected in the early teens, in which case most horses are retired before the murmur gets bad enough to affect exercise tolerance, however a G 4/6 at 9 years old doesn't leave a lot of room for deterioration - one more grade and you are looking at very limited light riding work at most, and 6/6 is not suitable for riding.
I would want an exercise ECG at the very least to check the horse isn't throwing up abnormal rhythms at exercise, and probably an echo too to assess exactly how much valvular damage and chamber dilation there is present.
Functional/flow murmurs that arise in fit horses rarely go above a grade 2, and in most cases a grade 4 is pathological and accompanied by a significant reduction in cardiac output, and a horse unable to cope with intense exercise. As Booboos said, you need to know what type of heart murmur a horse has before you can decide anything - there is a big difference between a fit horse with a flow murmur and a horse with a pathological murmur.
I would want an exercise ECG at the very least to check the horse isn't throwing up abnormal rhythms at exercise, and probably an echo too to assess exactly how much valvular damage and chamber dilation there is present.
Functional/flow murmurs that arise in fit horses rarely go above a grade 2, and in most cases a grade 4 is pathological and accompanied by a significant reduction in cardiac output, and a horse unable to cope with intense exercise. As Booboos said, you need to know what type of heart murmur a horse has before you can decide anything - there is a big difference between a fit horse with a flow murmur and a horse with a pathological murmur.