Question about heart murmurs

[neko1]

I have a question for those of you who have/had kitties with heart murmurs.

6 months ago, Neko was found to have a heart murmur and our vet suggests getting an echocardiogram every 6 months.

I was wondering if that is really necessary that frequently?

She did not say what grade the murmur was, just that it was slight.

The echo he had done 6 months ago came back fine.


Thanks a bunch for your input :)

[kittycats_delight]

I am not too sure about this but I know I am required to have an one once a year because of very slight enlargement of the left ventrical so I would think with something like a murmur even slight that every six months is not so bad. Probably just a precautionary measure and better to be safe than sorry.

[kuhio98]

Forgive me, but I don't remember how old Neko is. Our vet told us that sometimes they "grow out" of a heart murmur. So, if Neko is young, that may be why they want to check a couple of times.

On a scale of 1-6 (6 being the worst), our vet says Pepper's heart murmur is a 6. He does not recommend any more testing. She is 4 years old. She will never get better. No medication will help. Since they don't do kitty heart transplants yet, he said to just take her home an love her.

She has never been sick in her life and runs around like a crazy girl. So far, so good.

[Freedom]

I don't have any direct experience. You can google - heart murmur feline - and lots of info comes up.

Some sites say young kittens will have a heart murmur their first vet visit and 6 months later it is gone and no one really knows why. So that may apply to Neko.

Some cats live into their teens with no other symptoms or problems, other do develop other symptoms which are then treated (the symptoms, not the underlying issue).

I will give you this link, it is for a feline heart group on Yahoo. It came up on page 5 of my google search, so not eay to find. You may want to browse through that or even join and ask your question.

http://ca.geocities.com/[email protected]/feline-heart/FelineHeartFAQ.html

Good Luck!
Sandra

[Laura's Babies]

Giz was found to have a murmer, a gauge 3 and they did no testing except to monitor her blood pressure and do some blood work. She is on medication daily now and they have said nothing about any other tests, just bring her back for her annuals. I trust my vet since he know what frantic Meowmies we are and how quick I am to bring them in if I suspect ANYTHING is wrong. He could have ordered every test in the book and knows I would have paid for anything he said we needed.

[neko1]

Thanks, everyone, for your responses. :)

Sandra,
Thank you for the link, I will look further into that :)

Sorry, I forgot to mention that Neko will be 10 in March. He's been fine all his life, the murmur was just something that my vet noticed last time he went for his yearly checkup.

If she hadn't told me he had a murmur, I would've never guessed it for a second. Neko is his usual lovable self.

I will talk with my vet further about Neko when I take Tama in next month for his yearly check up.

(Poor Tama, he's still chewing himself apart...the move was just too much for him. He's improved quite a bit but still has certain spots that he will not stop going after.)

Thank you all again, I appreciate it.

[catmandu]

Bo Bo is at least 13, and now has to go in twice a year as she has a slightly enlarged heart.This has to be watched and she has to have her blood sugar monitored too as shes borderline diabetic too.
We are sending prayers for Our Dear Friend Neko, and pray that she will be well.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v621/catmandu/new%20photos/cats579.jpg

My little Patients Bo Bo and Precious in the spare room.
The Precious Ouchie ear's almost normal now.

[wolflady]

This thread really hit home for me. My vet discovered a heart murmur in Marius during one of his annual checkups a couple of years ago. He has a grade 3 murmur, however he is not on any medication. The vet told me to watch him, and if he continues to act like he normally does, that we don't need to do anything at this point. He did get an echocardiogram, and I was told to come in a year later for a follow up echo, which I did; and my vet listened to Marius's heart and said it was the same, so no need to do it again. I'll be checking again soon to see if we need to do another echo. I just don't want it to get worse. Marius is so old now (guessing around 12, as I found him about 10 years ago, and he was estimated to be around 2 at that time).

I hope everything is ok with Neko. As long as she's acting her normal self, that is a good thing :)

**hugs**

[Catlady711]

Dusty was found to have a very slight heart murmer when she was 7 years old (she's 16 now). The only reason they found it was that she had pneumonia and they were doing alot of testing on her. She's never had medications for it, and we've checked her at work with the EKG and it just shows up occasionally after a few minutes. Every check up (3 times a year) the vet listens to her for quite a while and it's never gotten any worse. He said if I hadn't said something, he'd probably never have even caught it without some luck.

On the human front, I have an uncle that's had a mild heart murmer since he was a child and he has never needed meds for it either.

If your vet recommends testing I'd maybe think of giving it a try at least once to see how severe the murmer is and go from there.