My youngest chihuahua was born with a heart murmur, other than making her go "puffy" from time to time when she gets excited, there is no real issues, but she's almost a year old, which is when the vet said we should be looking at having her checked by a cardiac specialist.  With that said, does anyone know of a canine cardiac specialist (that they would recommend) in Southern California preferably,  she tends to get nervous on long drives, she is a rescue basically and she was in a lot of houses during the 3-4 month of her life, so it seems she is afraid of leaving the house for a long time.

Hi There!

 

I live in SoCal and one of my friends has a chi with a high grade heart murmur and here is what she had to say about the cardiologist she goes to for her chi Diego as well as his website. Hope this helps.

 

 

the best in CA
http://www.advancedveterinarycarecenter.com/avcc-staff-bio.asp?tid=1

i love this man. he lets me hold diego while he does the ultrasound.
we go every 6 months.

RescueChiMom wrote:   the best in CA http://www.advancedveterinarycarecenter.com/avcc-staff-bio.asp?tid=1 i love this man. he lets me hold diego while he does the ultrasound. we go every 6 months.

Yep, exactly what I was looking for.  Thank you.  4 hrs to San Diego isn't bad, it's over 3 to most of LA as well...  Basically for my location think Death Valley.

Oh good. I'm glad this will help. My friend is completely neurotic and if she says he's the best then he's the best:)

My Chi, Yuri, also has the same problem with long drives. He gets nervous to the point of getting so close to me while driving.

Funny, you would think long drives are bad, you should see them after heart valve repair.  You would think they were gone for weeks instead of hours...  Then the move to Kansas.  22 hours in a car.  She is recovering nicely at this point, she still has some issues, but I think it's more habit than anything else.  She had a good prognosis from the Cardiologist before I left California, she'll probably outlive me!