A broken heart...

We got some bad news in the beginning of July that little Hayden might have a heart murmur. But because of our late-night emergency vet visit the night before (he thought it would be a good idea to eat the outside of a stuffed basketball), it was possible that it was just a stress-related murmur. No such luck... We went back to the vet yesterday and he gave us the thumbs up that yes, Hayden does have a heart murmur. A low-grade one though. We have to keep him calm (yeah, right) until we get in to see the cardiologist....in about 7 weeks. We're not sure what this means as far as what his activity level can be for the rest of his life, or even how long his life will be... We just have to make sure that he knows that he is loved and let each of his days be full of fun. We felt bad for him yesterday after we left the vet, so we let Hayden go pick out a new toy at the doggy boutique a few doors down.

We're keeping our fingers crossed that it won't be too serious when we finally get in to see the cardiologist, but right now, we just don't know...


UPDATE: We've decided against taking Hayden to the cardiologist. It's a poop-load of money to get him tested and we just don't have that money to spend right now. Besides, the cardiologist already recommended keeping his activity limited and not to let him exert himself. This means no running or playing. He's such a happy boy and loves to run that by limiting him, it would make him so unhappy. We figure that we're gonna let him continue as if we didn't know that he has a murmur, and if he drops dead in the middle of a sprint across the field, then at least he died doing something that he loved. We don't want to keep him medicated for the rest of his life and keep him from doing something that he loves to do.