Heart Murmur in Older cat - anyone with experience?

[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