question regarding heart murmmer

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dian and wheezer

dian and wheezer

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a friend at work has an almost 3 Y/o cat she got from the shelter. was treated years ago for pneumonia (gonna assume URI) but anyway,cat went for yearly and vet said they heard a grade 2 heart murmer. he advised that this could have manifested itself from stress. cat is nuts when in car.. told her to go to cardiologist for doppler. wants to know if stress will cause these and if they can come on that quickly in young cat and if not, why it was not detected earlier?
anything I should know to tell her like how bad is a grade 2 and if declines tests what to watch for or anything
thanks
 
very helpful Lisa. thank you. I was thinking along those lines but did not and do not know enough to say anything.'
appreciate it
 
Hi Dian

dian and wheezer said:
a friend at work has an almost 3 Y/o cat she got from the shelter. was treated years ago for pneumonia (gonna assume URI) but anyway,cat went for yearly and vet said they heard a grade 2 heart murmer. he advised that this could have manifested itself from stress.
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He may have meant that the high heart rate made it more audible.

cat is nuts when in car.. told her to go to cardiologist for doppler. wants to know if stress will cause these and if they can come on that quickly in young cat and if not, why it was not detected earlier?
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Yes, go to the cardiologist. Cats can have benign murmurs, but she'll never know unless she gets it checked out. The first sign of heart disease in cats is usually congestive heart failure :( and you don't want to find out about it that way.

anything I should know to tell her like how bad is a grade 2 and if declines tests what to watch for or anything
thanks
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Is the cat truly that young? A lot of places underestimate age. Has she had recent bloodwork? The post Lisa linked to mentions other testing. I think it's worth it to go to the cardiologist though.

As far as "watching" at home, she can keep an eye on her respiration rate. If the cat has any symptoms of possible heart disease AT ALL such as reluctance to exercise (some people don't recognize this as such, and think that they have a 'lazy cat'), panting after exertion, avoidance of activities such as jumping, climbing stairs, etc., she needs to go to the cardio sooner rather than later.
 
thanks Jess. I am just repeating what she told me. she got the cat from a shelter and her vet gave an age. cat is very active at home and just had her wellness BW done and all was well. no panting with exercise, sob or anything. picture of health. she mentioned something else I think. nagging at me but I cannot remember.. I see her again tomorrow then she is on vacation. will pass on info.
you think this is too young?? questioning age
thanks so very much
 
dian and wheezer said:
you think this is too young?? questioning age
thanks so very much
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Do you mean do I think the cat is too young to have heart disease? No, unfortunately not. We have diagnosed HCM in cats that are as young as 10 months old :(

I asked about the age, though, because if the cat was truly young, it wouldn't make sense to test T4 and BP. If the age is in question, they should do it (or go to cardiologist first -- if nothing is amiss, they only need test for those things if other symptoms appear or as age warrants).
 
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