(Asymmetrical or any type of) heart murmur in cats

MrsE_2

Just come back from the vets (annual jabs) & George has an asymmetrical heart murmur:(

I'm trying to remember what the vet said now (I was a bit shocked & didn't take everything in), I think he said 10-20% of cats who have these asymmetrical heart murmurs go on to develop heart disease from it, then their days are numbered:(

George is an exotic shorthair & it is more common in pedigrees:(

Ted was a red persian & he dropped down dead just over two years ago, with no symptoms & the vet said it probably was heart failure, but Ted was never diagnosed with a heart murmur, in any of his medical checks.

The vets says he can go to a specialist for an ultrasound to tell me a bit more about it, but then its just wait & see if he's lucky or unlucky:( If it does develop into heart disease then they can give him treatment to help him & prolong his life. Right now I feel that if he had a lesser quality of life & then I would rather let him go (be PTS) rather than hang on & not be fit & healthy. He finds the vets stressful at the best of times.

Anyone else got a cat with any type of heart murmur?
What have you been told by your vets?
How is your cat coping with it?

scaredy_cat

hi, my sugar has always had a heart murmur, but it got worse and i only noticed when her pupils had dilated and wouldn't shrink. She had an ultrasound done, which showed her heart muscle had thickened, and this caused high blood pressure. This was about 6 years ago and since then she's been on tablets to lower her bp and also beta blockers to reduce her heart rate, and she's been fine on them.
Though in the summer she started having seizuers, her heart meds were reduced and she is also now on fortekor which has stopped the seizueres.

She is 21 years old, and apart from the blindness which caused her to stop asking to go out, she's just the same. Her sense of smell has increased noticabley!! She can smell a hot sausage roll from 20 feet!! lol ...

MrsE_2

scaredy_cat wrote: »

hi, my sugar has always had a heart murmur, but it got worse and i only noticed when her pupils had dilated and wouldn't shrink. She had an ultrasound done, which showed her heart muscle had thickened, and this caused high blood pressure. This was about 6 years ago and since then she's been on tablets to lower her bp and also beta blockers to reduce her heart rate, and she's been fine on them.
Though in the summer she started having seizuers, her heart meds were reduced and she is also now on fortekor which has stopped the seizueres.

She is 21 years old, and apart from the blindness which caused her to stop asking to go out, she's just the same. Her sense of smell has increased noticabley!! She can smell a hot sausage roll from 20 feet!! lol ...

Wow 21, thats amazing. Does she have to have tablets everyday? I have murders with the 3 monthly worming tablet:eek: Do they get used to it?

scaredy_cat

yes, she has tablets every day. She's on 1/4 of atenonol and 1/8 of istin. she will take them put straight down her mouth, but i sometimes just use as cat stick treat, break a bit oof, split it and fold it over the timy bit of tablet. She loves the treats and doesn't notice!!!

i've also used cheese to hide them in!

geri1965_2

Mine has a heart murmur, the vet told me it was very common in older cats (she is 13) and that it would be unusual for a cat of that age not to have one.

She said there is no need to worry about it at all unless her heart starts to fail. I've just put it to the back of my mind really, I've noticed no difference in her behaviour at all and if we hadn't taken her for the check up (it was just for flea treatment) we would be none the wiser.

Lil_Me_2

My Tiger is 2 1/2 and has a heart murmur found when she was 1 and 3/4 yrs old. She's seen the cardiologist (scanned and x-rayed) who says that she has a deformity as she reached her adult size and it's caused a bit of back flow in the heart and the muscle has thickened.

The only thing we have to do is keep an eye on her weight, he doesn't want her to get fat, and we also monitor her breathing rate. 20 per minute is good, anything above around 30 (when resting) and we need to take her back in. She was scanned when they found it, and 6 months later.

We have a plan set up with our vets that means both my cats get 6 monthly check ups, and luckily Oliver is one of the resident vets so we just arrange to see him and we get a cardiologist check up for free!

In the 9 months since we found out we've noticed that Tiger doesn't go out and run around as much as she used to, but she does still act like a normal cat! She jumps up trees and chases leaves just not for as long as she used to.

Oliver thinks that she'll go on to lead a full and happy life! If (and it is an if) she develops heart failure we should notice quite quickly and we'll medicate her to manage the symptoms of that.

scaredy_cat

My Sugar has check ups every 6 mths as well, her BP is checked. Cos of her age, her weight is monitored but she's always about the 2.5 kg range. At the moment, she mminly sleeps all day... in front of the heater!!

Mankysteve

Both our old cats had heart murmurs. Neither required further treatment. The tabbi had murmurs for year 10+. Tom developed them later on, he had to be pts for a unrelated problem.

paddypaws101

I would start giving a taurine supplement daily as it is beneficial for cardiac health in cats. You can buy from https://www.myprotein.com
Paddy has a heart murmur, diagnosed around 8 years ago, it always seems worse when he is ill from something else.

scaredy_cat

hi, i was just wondering if you have an update on George?

MrsE_2

scaredy_cat wrote: »

hi, i was just wondering if you have an update on George?

There is nothing further to do, exceptr wait & hope he doesn't develop heart problems. He said just make sure he has his jab & check up every year & get him down the vets asap if I'm ever worried about him.

Looking at him you wouldn't believe it, he looks like a huge healthy strong boy.