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Hi all

We took our two young female cats to the vets yesterday. One is around 1.5 yrs old and the other around 3 yrs (rescues so only the estimate given by vets and they also think they are mother and daughter).

8 months ago when we first rescued them they mentioned a slight heart murmur in the older cat's examination. Yesterday at a half yearly check up they said that this a four beat gallop and she was at risk of sudden death and decreased life span. They said they could not say what this was without us paying £600 for a scan to diagnose this and that they would need to act very quickly in order to help her if it were treatable.

During the exam the vet took the cat to another room to ask a colleague to listen to her heart too.

We are so upset and worried, but also concerned that they could give us so little information without doing the scan first. A quick google of 4 beat heart gallop told me the most likely cause was HCM and I am very surprised they didn't at least mention this to us, considering that it is common.

I will also say that other than her heart beat, she is a perfectly healthy cat that is extremely playful, eats well and often runs around like a lunatic in the house! She has recently been bringing in mice she caught outside too so is obviously very quick and active outside too. Her weight and appetite are both healthy.

I asked whether based on the fact she has a weak heart should we keep her indoors, and the vet said to continue letting her outside. Again, I am confused by this as would have thought keeping her indoors would reduce the stress on her heart.

We are going to seek a second opinion from another vet and ask them to check her heart.

Has anyone had a similar experience with any of the above? All comments appreciated.

Thank you

Hi and welcome, I have had cats with heart murmers, that have only progressed slowly and lived normal lives, so I can’t help unfortunately, others may. I do think you’re doing right to get another opinion, and I would also mention the HCM if they don’t too. Very best of luck and I hope all goes well. Do let us know how things go.

Janey wrote:Hi and welcome, I have had cats with heart murmers, that have only progressed slowly and lived normal lives, so I can’t help unfortunately, others may. I do think you’re doing right to get another opinion, and I would also mention the HCM if they don’t too. Very best of luck and I hope all goes well. Do let us know how things go.

Thank you for your response, glad to hear that yours were able to live normal lives with murmers

I was told my 14 year old had a grade 4 heart murmur, which made removal of a lump under her eye too risky - that was 9 months ago and she was supposed to go back for further investigation when the surgery had completed purchase of specialist equipment

but they forgot to contact me when this was set up, and as she has never shown any sign of heart trouble I have decided to leave well alone for the time being, whilst keeping a close eye on her breathing

but of course it is easier to adopt a wait and see attitude with an oldie, and a second opinion from a specialist for your girl sounds like a good idea to me too - you'll either get expert advice on the best treatment, or reassurance that there is little to worry about so a win win really

I would definitely get a second opinion, that seems steep for a heart scan, Buster had a few and the most I paid was £120, although it was reviewed by his regular vet rather than a specialist

Kay wrote:I was told my 14 year old had a grade 4 heart murmur, which made removal of a lump under her eye too risky - that was 9 months ago and she was supposed to go back for further investigation when the surgery had completed purchase of specialist equipment

but they forgot to contact me when this was set up, and as she has never shown any sign of heart trouble I have decided to leave well alone for the time being, whilst keeping a close eye on her breathing

but of course it is easier to adopt a wait and see attitude with an oldie, and a second opinion from a specialist for your girl sounds like a good idea to me too - you'll either get expert advice on the best treatment, or reassurance that there is little to worry about so a win win really

Thanks for your response, I think we are going to try and get another apppintment this week to hopefully shed some more light. I agree that as she is so young we need to act now really rather than just wait.

booktigger wrote:I would definitely get a second opinion, that seems steep for a heart scan, Buster had a few and the most I paid was £120, although it was reviewed by his regular vet rather than a specialist

Thanks for your response. It sounds as though the higher cost was due to the vet wanting to get a specialist involved.

Thank you to everyone for your helpful responses. Just as an update....

We went to another vet this evening that had been highly recommended to us by a colleague.

The vet had a good listen to her heart and said that it was not in fact a 4 gallop heart beat. Instead, one side of the heart sounds completely normal - a 2 beat heart beat. On the other side of the heart, a third "beat" could be heard. They identified that this may be one of two things; potentially a hole in the heart, and said "beat" is the actually the sound of the swoosh of the blood and the hole. The normal side of the heart has become stronger to compensate for the hole in the other side making it weaker. Alternatively, this could just be a murmur/irregular heart beat (I should point out that this is consistent with her first ever examination at the vets which was with a different one at the same surgery).

He mentioned that a scan for around £600 is still an option, but at this stage it would predominantly offer reassurance and only possibly help to anticipate the need for medication in the future. There is likelihood that we would have a scan that wouldn't be conclusive at this stage and mean that a repeat would be necessary in the future. They said at the most, all that would come out of the scan would be that they might prescribe a light dose of blood thinners, but even that might not be necessary.

As it stands currently, they said there is no need to worry, as the heart is functioning well and that the best thing to do is to monitor and log her breathing rates when fast asleep. If there is a change here it would be due to fluid on the lungs which would indicate something more sinister.

They also said that a lot of the time, cats live long and normal lives with a hole in the heart or a murmur, as most of the time these don't actually progress in to anything harmful.

I can't express how relieved I am and so reassured by their experience and knowledge. To go from one vet saying that my cat was at risk of sudden death and will have a short life with no explanation, to another just 2 days later have a completely different conclusion and be able to explain the "science" behind it is very hard to get my head around.

I don't mean to say that the first vet was wrong, as I do not think they would have said what they did unless they believed it to be true. But I can now see how important it is to find a vet that has experience and can explain what is going on. The first vet looked in their mid/late twenties so likely had not been a vet for long, where as the second vet had been a vet for more than 26 years.

Thanks again everyone!

So pleased the new vet was more reassuring - if it helps, Molly was diagnosed with a heart murmur at 17, and died of something unrelated at 21, as did Zia.

That’s good news My cat had his heart murmer all his life from a kitten, it only went up slightly over the years on his usual vet check ups and he was passed in his teens for something totally unrelated. I fostered another cat with a murmer and the rescue just mentioned it casually as nothing to worry about. Humans can have murmers that are nothing to worry about too, it was mentioned that I have one once.

My cat was diagnosed with HCM at the age of 16 and probably she had it all her life, who knows. Of course we tok extra precautions after learning this, but it was a bit useless because we didn't in the years before.
My cat died 27 days ago from a totally unrelated cause.
No meds were given us for this heart problem. It seems that lots of cats suffer from heart diseases without their owners knowing it.
Hopefully your very young cat will live a very long life!
Pf course keep us posted!