Are my 4-month puppy's chronic hiccups linked to her heart murmur?

Puppy hiccups are quite common and typically become less frequent with age. Often this is due to gulping air with excitement or eating/drinking to fast. If the latter is the case you can try feeding on a plate with a cup or rock in the middle to make her eat around it thus slowing her down. I hope this helps and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Hiccups are normal in puppies and usually occur when they get tired. They will outgrow this! A cough can be nothing. It minor irritation from the new allegens and environment or from a mild case of kennel cough. If it progresses or seems to interfere with daily life then I would get it checked. If. It make sure you mention it when her vaccines are due

Hiccups are normal in puppies, and they can have them on and off throughout the day. Typically, they occur after a meal, but they can occur at any time. Eventually, Bolt will grow out of them, so it's not something to worry about :-)

Hello. Hiccups are the result of a spasm in the diaphragm. It can occur from various maladies including heartworm disease, stimulation of the phrenic nerve & cancer ( very unlikely in such a young dog ). This may also be a case of Synchronous Diaphragmatic Flutter, also known as Thumps. I would talk with your veterinarian to see if an EKG & blood work is needed. Otherwise, some of these dogs will respond to a tapering dose of Prednisone, &/or an oral calcium tablet. Sometimes, it just eventually goes away by itself. Just to make sure, have your vet take a look at things. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Most dogs with a heart murmurs are fine and symptom free, there is no way to know for sure but when she is a little older you can ask your vet to refer you to a cardiology specialist to have a few tests done to check if her heart is in healthy condition.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding your potential new puppy. Young puppies can occasionally have what is known as an innocent murmur. This is a heart murmur they will outgrow usually by 6 months of age and is not associated with any ongoing disease. Other murmurs are associated with congenital heart disease and go on to cause the puppy significant disease. I recommend having the puppy evaluated by a board certified veterinary cardiologist. A procedure known as an echocardiogram will likely be needed to assess for any structural heart disease. This will give you the longterm prognosis for the puppy. I hope this information helps!

This doesn't sound like anything to be particularly concerned about, as long as the hiccups are not occuring all day long. Hiccups are usually caused by some kind of irritation to the phrenic nerve that leads to the diaphragm, so perhaps when she lays down, she is causing irritation to the nerve. It is quite odd though and isn't something we see very often in veterinary medicine. It isn't something that we can necessarily test for either or treat for in general. If you still want to look further into other possible causes however, then a referral to an internal medicine vet will likely be the next best step for Zelda. Even with that said, it is a good chance that this is a symptom that the vet will recommend benign neglect (just monitor). Thanks for visiting Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach and I hope that Zelda is ok moving forward. Take care!