When Poppy first came to the Cleveland APL, he was only a few weeks old. Since his mother would no longer take care of him, our team knew that he needed us to help keep him alive. We immediately sent him to a loving foster home where he could get the special attention every tiny puppy needs.
If Poppy were a normal, healthy puppy, he would have gone up for adoption already, but this sweet little guy is not your average pup. When he arrived, our team noticed that Poppy had something very uncommon for a puppy—a very loud heart murmur.
Heart murmurs are graded by their loudness, and a 1/6 is the quietest murmur. Poppy has a grade 5/6 heart murmur, which indicates that blood is not being pumped through his heart either efficiently or correctly. In order to determine what we need to do to give Poppy a healthy life, we would like to send him to a cardiologist to have an ultrasound to help identify the source of the problem. With this ultrasound, we will not only be able to properly treat his heart murmur but we’ll also give Poppy’s future adopter peace of mind while caring for this sweet puppy with an uncommon issue.
We want to make sure that Poppy’s heart murmur is managed before he goes to his forever home. To do so, we need your help to send him to the cardiologist.