X-rays

Does this look like my dog has a heart murmur?

Hello! - and thank you for reposting this from Facebook so that we could answer it.  It's a trick question, even though it was not intended as one; a heart murmur is something that vets hear, not something that shows up on an x-ray.  Plenty of hearts that look normal on x-ray have a murmur and plenty that look abnormal on x-ray don't.  The quickest way to know whether your dog has a heart murmur would be for your vet to put a stephoscope against the chest, and this can be backed up with an electrical trace, called an ECG, or with an ultrasound scan, which gives us more structural detail and - on the posh machines - can enable them to watch the blood flowing around the heart in real-time and visualise the blood making any extra sounds.  Another thing about heart murmurs is; they are not necessary audible all the time.  For completeness, some puppies are born with a hole in the heart that later closes and others acquire a murmur under the pressure of a stephoscope, so murmurs can spontabeously resolve. On suspecting an abnormality,  your vet will frequently refer you to a cardiologist, just as your GP would.  A murmur is simply a (usually abnormal) sound; the cardiologist tries to work out what is causing that sound, and whether or not it would help to do something different in light of it. I am a little unclear about a few points on the radiograph; usually, at least two chest radiographs are presented; a lateral (side view, like this) and a DV, in order that the heart can be seen from all sides.  There are a few features on this picture that I cannot fully accound for (I am no radiographer) and I would have been interested to see this case in context. Best of luck - please will you let us know what is concluded?

They did take two views, but I only have the one. My veterinarian told me in September when they took an x-ray that he has stage one heart murmur. Now they say it’s stage two and he has an a enlarged heart by looking at the X-rays. . He has been coughing for months now he’s getting shortness of breath. My veterinarian put him on Vetmedin. Hope this was the right treatment.

Hello - regrettably, we are in no position to give second opinions on radiographs, as per the site rules.  Second opinions are usually given with the permission of the vet and given by a vet with more experience (in the specific field in question) than your own vet.  They should also have a proper history and both views - at present, I have less information, not more, than your vet did in the first place.   Iit's worth letting you know that vets don't mind being asked to get a second opinion; if the second opinion finds your vet to be wrong, they then learn something new.  If they are found to be correct, the process has hopefully at least helped to restore the client's faith in the vet - and both are important.  Thus, I think it would be reasonable to ask your vet to send the history and radiographs away for a second opinion if you are concerned.  The questions 'What could this still be?' 'What have you ruled out' and 'How sure are you that.....' are frequently helpful.