Aortic regurgitation

[BayMoose]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking to see if anyone has any experience with horses with aortic regurgitation?

My yearling was just diagnosed and although the cardiologist thought it wouldn’t be too much of an issue based on his echo until he was a bit older, I’m wondering if anyone has managed one of these horses. It is secondary due to a fever, not a congenital abnormality which is a bit depressing.

[ThreeWishes]

Bumping this up for you. No experience only best wishes.

[2tempe]

somewhat familiar with heart issues - had a TB dressage gelding years ago that was diagnosed with A-fib and a murmur. But he was 17 then Discovered only because he popped a mild and unrelated fever. Vet put stethoscope on him and said “on my”. Trip to Ohio State vet clinic, mild damage, they said just to watch for exercise intolerance, depression, weight loss. It caught up to him at about 25.
Wondering if your vet gave indication of the grade, and what, if any changes to the heart structure were visible. There is a lot of info in this article; though no specifics, it appears the prognosis is generally worse in it shows up in young horse. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvim.12340.

Very sorry to hear this. My thought is you manage him just like a “regular” yearling but have him rechecked periodically (cardiologist can suggest frequency depending on what was seen on echo). You really wont know much about the impact until he is old enough to do some sort of work/training. On the practical side, sadly, he will likely be very difficult to sell.

[BayMoose]

Thanks for that. I did see that paper, and thankfully he’s in the excellent category for all but the age of onset. I have no plans to sell him, but I do want him to be happy and healthy for a long, long time. He’s very lazy, and I’m unsure if that’s just his breed (he was admittedly lazy before this whole incident), or if it’s truly exercise intolerance. The plan so far is to have him rechecked when he is full grown unless something changes before then.

[GoodTimes]

No real advice. I’m a human cardiac sonographer so am very familiar with aortic regurgitation and how it typically presents and progressing in humans, but of course there are differences when it comes to horses.
If it’s just trace or mild regurg than I wouldn’t be overly concerned. There’s a good chance that it may never progress and the left ventricle can compensate easily for that extra volume. If it’s more than mild? Then I would be a little more concerned. It may not get worse, but would be more likely to cause exercise intolerance, and could be a complication in old age.