Civie Smokey is not herself - heart murmur

[knolet]

Smokey has not been herself for the past week.... I thought it was the heat. She's had a lot of hairballs and Her appetite has not been as good, but she was still eating and drinking.I should mention, she's never really liked the canned food, she'll lap at it, but never finishes the dish. I've been slowly trying to get her to eat more of the canned and less of the dry. She's always been free fed - and I continued that when I inherited her 2 years ago (from my aunt), but since Zeus was diagnosed FD, I've picked up the dry and feed only at meal times.

We went to the Vet yesterday and he noticed that she has a heart murmur. Smokey is almost 16, they've never said that before. But the Vet said she's not constipated, so the fur balls aren't causing an issue there - that's good news. The Vet also said that she wasn't sitting on the exam table like a normal cat does, and he wondered if she might be having some pain. It seems like she's walking normally. She only has to jump up on the couch, I bought stairs so that she could get on and off the bed (she learned really quickly).

This morning, she didn't want to eat AT ALL. Not her dry food, and not the canned food. I tried putting the freeze dried chicken dust on top. I finally broke out the canned tuna and put a little of the water on the canned food. She ate a little but not much, so I mixed in some of the tuna. She ate a little more, but still not much. She even left the tuna that was mixed in. I'm worried.

The only advice from the Vet was, to keep an eye on her and if her behavior doesn't return to normal to bring her in for an XRay. He thought some of the behavior might be due to the heat - but I think it's more than that. nailbite_smile

 

[Larry and Kitties]

The heat does not hep eating based on my experience. How bad is the murmur? They are usually rated on a scale of 1-5 or 1-6.

 

[knolet]

I'm not sure, the Vet didn't say how bad the murmur was. While I think he's a good Vet and knows his stuff, he's hard to read. His expression rarely changes, and he gives good news and bad news in the same matter-of-fact manner. I asked what I needed to do, and what signs I need to look for with Smokey. He said just to watch her, and that there probably wouldn't be any major signals.

The good news is that she just perked up and looked for her dry food, so I gave it to her. She didn't eat much of it, but she did eat some. And then I gave her a 1/4 can of FF, and she ate about 1/2 of that. She's now watching the birds from the kitchen window.

I hope it's just the heat.

 

[Squeaky and KT (GA)]

Kathie,
I have a civie with CHF also, we've been doing THAT dance too since January. There are many times Scruffs doesn't want to eat right then but will later. Not sure why but sounds like same thing as Smokey. He takes enalapril 2.5mg 2x daily as well as 1-2 10mg Lasix as needed.

HUGS

 

[Larry and Kitties]

Kathy you said: "I have a civie with CHF also". Knolet never said the vet said that Smokey had CHF. There are many reasons for a hear murmur besides CHF.