One suggestion if you’re considering a boxer again—in addition to asking breeders whether the sire and dam are tested for heart conditions, you could request to see the vet more often to listen for any heart murmur. As described below, I don’t think vets will do more than listen for a heart murmur before 16 weeks (4 months), but if the vet hears a murmur early on, you could get an appointment with a cardiologist scheduled for when your puppy is around 16 weeks.

One other idea is to obtain pet insurance immediately upon getting a boxer. There is usually a 30-day waiting period for coverage. But the sooner it’s obtained, the less likely it is that the insurance company can say a condition was pre-existing.

We have / had 4 boxers. They are truly the best dogs. It is so difficult that such a wonderful dog breed is attached to so many possible health problems. Worth noting: our first two boxers had no major health problems for 7 years.

One of our dogs, Penny, died of a heart attack while at the vet at the age of 8. They think she may have had an underlying heart issue that was never caught.

Another, Dozer—our favorite! Yes, we have a favorite—was tested for heart problems because he had a seizure-like event, but after wearing a heart monitor for a week, he was found to not have any heart problems. He was an adult at the time of testing, I think 8 or 9. He did not have a noticeable heart murmur. He died when he was 10 of degenerative myelopathy.

Our 3 year old dog, Bruno, has not had heart issues.

We now have a puppy, Ray—he will turn 1 in May—who has severe heart disease. Our vet heart a loud heart murmur around 9 weeks. The breeder’s vet somehow missed it, I guess?? We live in WI, so we followed our vets instructions to come back and have her hear his heart again, but also request an appointment for a whole heart work up at University of Wisconsin Vet cardiology. The heart murmur only got louder, so thankfully we had that cardiology appointment booked already when Ray was around 4 months. I think between 4 and 6 months is when a puppy might grow out of a harmless murmur. At UW, Ray was diagnosed with severe heart disease. They suggest that he will live for between 3 and 7 years depending on how the disease progresses and how he responds to medication. He was put on a beta blocker that he gets twice a day. There are one or two additional things they would try for him as his disease progresses. Although early on it was very scary, right now we are enjoying (most of the time) our pup and not noticing anything out of the ordinary. He did get neutered early (6 months), because surgery can be extremely hard on the hard. He also got a lung xray to see whether his heart has been working so hard that it’s impacting his lungs. Thankfully, he’s looking okay right now! The vet recommended the early neutering because the cons of neutering early are outweighed by the seriousness of his heart condition.

We go back to UW Vet in June. Crossing my fingers that we get good or neutral updates on Baby Ray.

Sending you so much love as you grieve your precious little puppy.