Heart Murmur in Older cat - anyone with experience?

[Freedom]

Well, I am still trying to determine what action to take - if any - for Ruffles.

Brief history: she has hyperthyroid, it is controlled by her meds. Vet detected a ehart murmur for the first time in January, whent he hyperthyroid was discovered.

She had a full elderly cat blood work up in early March, all looks well. Kidneys are fine. Actually, the vet said remarkably well for a cat this age! She has lost weight. At that visit in early March, the vet gave me some high calorie foods for her. She is eating it and appears not to be losing any additional weight. But I don't think she is gaining, either. She is 16 to 17 years of age.

The next options include:
1. getting an ultrasound and /or EKG (?) to see the heart and the extent of the heart murmur, if there is heart disease or a leaky valve
2. getting an ultrasound to see if there is anything in her abdomen to account for this weight loss. We are talking possible tumors in that case.

I am seriously considering doing nothing. She does not appear in pain, or uncomfortable. She jumps up on the bathroom sink each morning - and several times per day - for tap water. (Yeah, she has water bowls, and she DOES drink from that too, it is a cat thing.) She goes up and down the cellar stairs once or twice per day. She always appears with the other 7 if the can opener runs. She jumps up in mine or dad's lap if she wants to snuggle or just sit. Yes, she sits more and sleeps a little more than the others, but she is the oldest by 7 years.

Doing any of those tests will involve anesthesia which is a risk. And what do I do when we find something? Treatment for a cat this age, well, I just don't know. If it is a tumor, then is it cancerous or not, and how do we treat that, surgery, biopsy, more anethesia? And if it is heart disease, then I don't know how that gets treated.

I have tried google searches, didn't find anything that swayed me one way or the other.

So I am just wondering if anyone has experience with this.

[carole]

Well i cannot say i have experience as such, but my cat Ash, the big grey one in my siggy, is coming up 12 years old and last visit to the vet, i was told he had a heart murmur, apparently they are graded, his is very low grade, however I was advised to do nothing, just keep an eye on it, on his last visit which was saturday just gone, the vet could not even hear it, so i am a bit puzzled, it does not mean he has not got one i guess, but the fact it has not gotten worse, or does not appear to be there is a good sign, i was told that cats with heart murmurs, especially elderly ones are prone to renal failure,but then that is quite normal for older cats anyhow, so worth keeping an eye on, but I have not been told to do anything, so IMO, if kitty seems ok and is doing well, and you keep a close eye on it, i would not go down that road, if it ain't broken don't fix it,come to mind, but would be good to get some further advice from people on PT who have been through this, as i said this is also new to me.,good luck.

[wolflady]

I have an older kitty with a heart murmur. It was discovered a couple of years ago at an annual checkup, so since it wasn't there before, they recommended me to get the ultrasound. I did and they rated Marius's heart murmur a grade 3. The vet told me that as long as he's acting normal and feeling ok, that I needn't do anything but keep an eye on it. Over the past couple of years, I've checked with my vet to see if I needed to do another ultrasound, but he said that it seems to be staying the same, so it's still just a matter of observing. So far he seems to be doing ok, so as long as nothing changes (eating habits, litterbox habits, water intake, activity...etc) I don't need to do anything.
I would think that if your kitty is acting normal, then you could probably wait it out. It could be a good idea to get the ultrasound (I don't think they use anesthesia for this one, but I could be mistaken) just to get a grade, but other than that, you could probably just observe her to see if anything changes in her behavior/habits. I believe they treat high grade heart murmurs with medications, so hopefully neither of our babies will require it.

Do let us know how she's doing.

**hugs**

[mike001]

I don't know much about cats, but my friend's dog has had a heart murmur since it was born and it is now 11 yrs old and never needed treatment. This is just a mixed breed too, so I don't know if cats work the same way. Maybe like some people who are born with this and never are bothered by it?

[Grace]

Our Duffy was 4 or 5 when his murmur was first heard. He had an ultrasound - piece of cake, no anesthesia just some goop on the chest. Lucky for him and us, his murmur is just a functional one - like mine. When he goes to the Vet, he gets in a twit and the murmur appears.

[kb2yjx]

Our Riley was discovered to have left ventricular hypertropy(left ventricle of the heart responsible for pumping the blood out of the heart )too thick) at the age of 7 months. Every 2-3 years, Riley gets a cardiac ultrasound(no anesthesia involved. Just a shaved chest and like the above post said about the gooy stuff that they put on the chest). He had one done last month. A minor change noted. His murmur is still a Grade II, no symptoms, and no meds. If your sweet senior kitty is doing well(sounds like it), I might consider holding off for a bit. But the decision is yours....Good luck!

[Catlady711]

Dusty has had a heart murmer for years. Hers was found when she was about 6 yrs old, they said not to worry about it, that it was mild. When she was 7 she developed aspiration pnemonia and among the things they did was an EKG, they also found the murmer, but agreed that it was mild and just to keep an eye, or rather, ear on it.

A few years ago we got a new EKG machine in at work and needed 'test subjects', needless to say I voulunteered Dusty. It took several different leads before we finally found the murmer, and the dr. confirmed that it was a very mild and needed no treatment. (BTW my uncle has also had a murmer since he was a boy and never needed treatment).

Dusty is now 16 1/2 and her murmer still isn't a problem for her.

Also they shouldn't need to put your cat out all the way, a light tranquilizer should be sufficient for an EKG (I couldn't tell you on an ultrasound as we don't have one of those at work). We only tranquilized Dusty for the EKG we did, we didn't put her all the way out. (BTW we didn't tranq. her just for the EKG, she was also in for a dentistry at the time and required the tranq. anyways.)

If it were my cat I'd probably ask the vet if he/she thought an EKG was even warrented, and if so that would probably be my route if they could just tranquilize rather than put the cat all the way out.

Is there something that makes your vet suspect a tumor?

[Freedom]

The problem is this weight loss. She is down to 7.4 pounds, skin and bones. She lost a pound in a month, from Feb to Mar. That is why we did all the blood work again, thinking the thyroid meds likely needed adjusting. Nope that is fine. No renal failure, those readings are all very healthy.

Vet agrees she is very underweight, not healthy, something is happening, we just don't know what.

[Catlady711]

Hmmm that's rather baffling, typically in older cats weight loss is thyroid, diabetes, or kidneys, all of which should have shown in the blood profile. I'd say that an EKG might be a good option, they should only need to lightly tranq. the cat for that. As some have said earlier in this thread, that an ultrasound doesn't seem to require anesthesia either.

My only personal experience with a pet with a tumor was a guinea pig, he kept getting skinnier and skinnier, but his actual weight never changed one bit. Seems the tumor was growing at the same rate he was losing body mass.

Let us know what the vet says/recommends.

Good luck