Heart Murmurs: Having your puppies heart checked is always a good idea, especially if you are thinking of keeping one of the pups or selling it as a breeding animal. Heart murmurs can be either an innocent murmur that may be present for life, but doesn't signify any actual heart defect, it is just caused by differences in flow in the chambers of the heart caused when the valves close. Innocent murmurs can also go away as the puppy ages and the heart changes size or shape. Dogs with an innocent heart murmur can still have their heart OFA certified-it just means they have to undergo an echocardiogram to determine that there is no underlying disease. They have to be 12 months old or older to get cardiac certified, but an echo can be done as early as 8 weeks of age. However, most of the cardiologists I have worked with perfer the pups to be between 10-12 weeks of age. My recommendation to breeders is to have the vet check between 7-8 weeks-determine which if any pups have heart murmurs-hang on to any that do and if murmur is still present at 12 weeks of age do an echo on the pup to see if it has a congential heart defect causing the murmur like pulmonic stenosis or aortic stenosis. Then decide if you can find a home willing to do the surgery for the dog or at least give it a loving home for its shortened life span. Sometimes these dogs live to be 6-7 years of age, but most die before 2 years. If the pup has a PDA (patent ductus arteriosus) that murmur is very distinct and if the vet suspects this type of murmur, the pups should have echos at 8 weeks of age. It is easy to diagnose at any age as it is a hole in the heart that failed to close at birth and allows blood to flow backwards (regurgitate) through the heart in the wrong direction-mixing oxygenated blood with unoxygenated blood. These pups need surgery or they usually don't survive more than a year of age. How to prevent parvo virus.... The number one protection for your pups is to have a good transfer of maternal antibiodies from their mother through the colostrum (the milk they drink in the first 24 hours of life is full of antibodies). How do you get good antibiodies in your female dog's colostrum? By either ensuring she has a high antibody titer before you breed her or by boostering her Parvo vaccine before she is bred. I personally don't titer my breeding stock and opt to vaccinate anydog actively showing or breeding once a year. This is also because I am a high risk to my own animals of transmitting diseases from all the sick dogs at work to my own animals. My own protocol is to booster the female one month before she is bred-it takes about 2-3 weeks for her body to mount a good immune response from the vaccine, and then when the puppies are born they should get high levels of antibodies in the colostrum. The reason this is so important is that maternal antibodies for parvo are the longest lasting antibodies in the dog and usually last until 10-12 weeks of age, but can persist for up to 16 weeks of age in the pup. So, the initial vaccines you do at 6 and 9 weeks of age, aren't protecting your pups from parvo-they are mostly for parainfluenza and hepatitis, whose antibodies are already fading. The maternal antibodies in the puppies can actually counteract the vaccine. This is why the ideal vaccine protocol for puppies is to do DHPP at 6 weeks and again at 9 weeks and then do DHLPP at 12 weeks and 15-16 weeks. If your puppies get parvo before 10 weeks of age its probably because they were never well protected from their mother and you should look at your vaccine protocol for your breeding females. Katie Halfen DVM Casamoko Shepherds www.casamoko.com We have Puppies!! _________________________________________________________________ Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox. http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_1 ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2010. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================