My dog, Bongo, has a slight heart murmur. It wasn't picked up till she was 3 years old. Of course I spent the next month worrying that she was going to drop dead, but chances are it will never be a problem for her. I know that's easy to say, and hard to believe when it's your "baby" in question. The bottom line is that you will want to keep your dog as fit and healthy as you can for the rest of his life, as hopefully you would anyway, to minimise the chance of him having problems.

our boxer chad hd a slight murmer througout (sp) his life he lived to 13 xx

His parents have clean bills of health, The first person I called was the breeder and asked her if her vet had heard the murmur, she said no and seemed surprised. I think she thought I was looking to return him, but thats not the case. We fell in love with him the minute we saw him, the heartbreak of something serious happening to him would be way worse then losing what i payed for him. We have no intentions of studding him out, we just want a loveable pet that will be good with our kids one day.

I'm so thankful that everyone here has given me more information then the vet did. You've easied my worries for the most part.

He seems like a happy pup, and we're going to wait and see how things turn out. We'll try our hardest to keep him happy and healthy.

Can you clarify what you mean by his parents have a clean bill of health.

Did you see certificates from a cardiologist with the scores for heart testing for Aortic Stenosis on both the parents of the dogs.

This is NOT to be confused with a "vet check" from the breeders local vet.. it is a more in depth examination of the Boxers heart..

No dog should be bred from that has a score over 1... and this can only be done by a cardiologist.....NOT the breeders regular vet.

Here are a few links relating to heart problems in Boxes, and will show you the importance of ONLY buying from tested parents.

http://www.geocities.com/ApexBoxers/boxerheart.html

http://www.boxerbuddies.org/Boxer%20...iomyopathy.htm