New Here so Hello All!

My girl Nova is actually only 3/4 husky so hopefully its OK that I'm here.

A little background on her, my boyfriend got her as a pup from a breeder in Quebec Canada. She's our first pup, love her to death. We had her booked for a spay appointment in October when she would have been about 4 months old, at her pre-appointment the vet discovered she had a grade 3 heart murmur (which has since escalated to a grade 4) so at the time we chose not to get her spayed as the clinic did not have the required equipment to monitor her through the surgery. She's now in her second heat and pretty much miserable, I know because of the severity of the murmur that getting her spayed when she's through this probably isn't an option but is there anything I can do to make her a little less miserable when she is in heat?

OR

Has anyone had experience with getting a dog with that high of a murmur spayed?
(We know ideally she should see a cardiologist first but we can't afford to do that for her)

Ceara should chime in soon! She had a similar issue.

Did you contact the breeder when you found out she had the murmur? Since you got her from a breeder in Canada are you from Canada also or did you travel from the states to get her?

My girl has a 2/5 murmur that was diagnosed as Subaortic Stenosis after seeing a cardiologist. With a murmur as severe as what Nova's is - I really would do anything in your power to see a cardiologist. That's not something to fool around. Putting her under anesthesia with that severe of a murmur is definitely not ideal - Bella's isn't that severe and the cardiologist put her on Beta Blockers (Atenolol) to see how her heart did with them. She was cleared to be spayed but our vet still gave us a hard time about doing the surgery without going back to the cardiologist.

If you were going to a spay/neuter clinic you could call them and ask if they can reference you to a cardiologist who is lower cost (usually they work with specialty vets when they get animals who can't be spayed/neutered by them because of conditions). They referenced me to Bella's cardiologist who is about 300+ dollars cheaper than any cardiologist my old vet referenced me to.

It's really important to have that properly diagnosed. Have you tried applying for care credit?

Thanks Sara for telling me about this

The breeder was not contacted at the time, to be honest I never even thought of it. We've had her for almost a year now so I'm not even sure the breeder would still remember her/us. We're from Canada as well just travelled from Ontario to get her. Not overly sure that there is pet care credit available to us, we don't really want to go into debt because of this even if it is worth it to her health. I will have to look into going to the spay/neuter clinic, thank you

How old was your girl when you finally got her spayed?

Care credit can be used on pets - we have one specifically set aside for our pets. You can make payments on it as well.

One cardiologist appointment cost me $288 I believe - and that was because we got the medicine with it. The spay itself cost me 346 and that was with special monitoring and anesthesia and all kinds of precautions and I go to a highly rated veterinarian. It should by no means run you into debt.

I doubt you'll find a low cost clinic that will do the surgery with her having such a severe murmur because it requires more monitoring that they don't have the epuipment for.

Bella was just spayed the first of June - so she was one year and almost 4 months old.

Thanks Ceara for all the help! I did some Google research and the low cost clinic in our town is run by an established Vet Clinic so maybe that will help us out a bit. How many times had Bella been in heat before she was spayed?

The prices you're talking are a little easier to stomach, our last vet clinic was talking between 2500-3000 for cardiology and spaying

You're very welcome! Always glad to help where I can!

Wow! That's an insane estimate!!!

I was going to originally go through my local SPCA - I knew they had a low cost clinic and I had told them of her murmur and they said that the vet would do an examination to determine whether or not they could do it and they said they probably could but didn't want to risk it. So in talking with the woman who sets up the appointments at the clinic, she referenced me to a cardiologist who travels to different veterinary clinics and didn't charge my arm, leg and my first born to do the visit. My previous veterinary referenced me to a few cardiologists locally who wanted BASELINE $500/$600 dollars. So going to this other Cardiologist - even though it involved a bit of traveling (I go an hour out to see her) was well worth it. I also switched from my previous vet to the clinic where I go see the cardiologist. They are a MUCH better clinic - nationally recognized and a member of the AAHA (American Animal Hospital Association - which I don't know if you have something similar in Canada). My previous vet was very money hungry - wanted to spay Bella at 6 months when she was 36 pounds for 400+ dollars.

I'd call around honestly - see if you can get a reference from your local humane society/SPCA type dealie or even call your vet and see if they can reference you. A spay at a veterinary clinic shouldn't be much more than 400 dollars.

ETA: Since I didn't address this in my rambling - she had just finished her second heat cycle when she got spayed. I had hoped to miss the second one - but she went into heat 3 days before her appointment so I had to put it off.

Atenolol is used for humans as well, you may be able to get it cheaper if you go through a human pharmacy instead of through your vet. Most vets mark up those medications and a lot of times its way cheaper to just get an rx for them and go to your local pharmacy.

I paid like 15 dollars at my vet for it. for a 3 month supply since she was only getting half pills.

She's no longer on the Atenolol

ok good! Because it isn't usually an expensive drug.