Cattle Dog Puppy With a Loud Heart Murmur, Panting and Tiring Quickly

Reader Question

I have a 9wk Australian Cattle Dog, a rascal, and he crashes face first when he gets tired. He lays there with his front legs straightened under his chest or at his sides and he doesn’t move for at least 3min. I’m concerned with the crashing. He sleeps often too. He takes a 4hr nap during the day and then many more throughout the day. I have another ACD and a Corgi and neither slept this much. He exhausts really fast. He’s best describes as a boost bottle. He goes turbo force and suddenly crashes. He also pants really loud. He pants in his crate, when I pick him up (I thought it was cute because my other didn’t do this), and then he either searches out the shade when I put him down or he goes for the water. He drinks more too.

His breeder said she was getting a vet check and just admitted she didn’t, or the vet didn’t listen to his heart prior to vaccinating him, or she did them herself. The breeder also said both parent dogs were here. Now they aren’t. So we don’t know the bloodline.

We had our first check up yesterday and it was awkward because we can’t visit face-to-face. His vet said he has a heart murmur and it’s loud. She also said she wants to see him every 4weeks and also said if it was to go away, we’d see it by the next appt.

Am I looking at a $5000 dog? Is this going to be more than just a minor murmur? Is it too late to get insurance for him? I’ll sell lemonade at a corner stand if I have to to pay for his surgeries if that’s our future.

Answer from Our Team