Cat With Low Appetite, Occasional Vomiting And Heart Murmur

Erinlinkcappy · Jul 14, 2018

Hi all,
A few questions here.
Firstly, recently my little cat Link was quite ill and I spent a lot of money with the vet - he got a lot of tests and stayed 5 days. He has taken 8 weeks of antibiotics now and seems to be mostly himself.

They found a mild heart murmur at that time and recommended he see a cat cardiologist at some later stage. I’m just wondering how long I can leave it before I get a heart murmur treated? I’m quite low on funds and would like to prolong it if possible while I save.

Also Link has been vomiting occasionally lately. Yesterday I woke up and he had thrown up 3 times , all his dry food ( which is Hills digestion). This has happened a few times.

He has always been picky and not eaten much which seems to be a constant source of worry for me.

Are these things a worry or related to his heart?

Daisy6 · Jul 14, 2018

I don't want to pretend I am a vet, but feel I need to say this anyway.

Ge4 him off the Hill's dry food ASAP. If he stops throwing up, that is the culprit. A lot of cats throw up dry food but not wet food. If he started eating less after being put on a prescription diet, the recipe is yucky. Is he also eating the wet version of Hill's digestion? If not, ask the vet to give you a sample can.

silkenpaw · Jul 15, 2018

can you tell us more about Link’s illness? The one he was in the hospital for? What was he on antibiotics for! Thanks.

Geoffrey · Jul 15, 2018

Erinlinkcappy said:
Hi all,
A few questions here.
Firstly, recently my little cat Link was quite ill and I spent a lot of money with the vet - he got a lot of tests and stayed 5 days. He has taken 8 weeks of antibiotics now and seems to be mostly himself.

They found a mild heart murmur at that time and recommended he see a cat cardiologist at some later stage. I’m just wondering how long I can leave it before I get a heart murmur treated? I’m quite low on funds and would like to prolong it if possible while I save.

Also Link has been vomiting occasionally lately. Yesterday I woke up and he had thrown up 3 times , all his dry food ( which is Hills digestion). This has happened a few times.

He has always been picky and not eaten much which seems to be a constant source of worry for me.

Are these things a worry or related to his heart?

I have not been able to contribute to this cat forum for some months due to ill health, however I am now improved and am happy to answer Daisy 6.- I am a retired human Physician and cardiologist, and stress that I am not qualified in feline veterinary medicine although the physiology (science of mammalian body function) is similar in all mammals including humans..

You have not said in what way your cat was sick; what was the final diagnosis?

The main point that I must make is that a heart murmur is NOT a disease but what is called a 'sign'. It may be associated with a healthy heart, or severe heart disease, and has no particular symptoms of its own as any symptoms are due to its underlying cause. Cats, or humans, may have loud murmurs but very little symptoms. They may have quiet murmurs but are very short of breath. (I personally have a loud murmur due to narrowing of a valve but suffer very little from this and ignore it).

Blood is pumped around the body by the heart muscle and can only be pumped from the body to the lungs, where it's oxygen is absorbed, because of the opening and closing of the valves in each chamber of the heart. A damaged or irregular valve causes an eddy in the flow of blood and it is this eddy that is picked up by the doctor or vet as a noise called a 'murmur' heard using a stethoscope. (If the valve leaks then the stethoscope picks up a blowing noise and if it is narrowed then you hear an entirely different sound).

Damage to the valve(s) can cause the heart muscle to fail to pump blood around the body, the cause of a heart's failure to pump may be due to a number of things, infection, lung disease, physical distortion of the valve, etc. and it is not possible to advise on how long you need to wait before seeing a specialist feline cardiologist; this depends on whether Link is suffering from the cause of his murmur - and you should discuss his problems with your vet. It may well be that there is no urgency to seek specialist opinion- but await what the vet says.

As for dry or moist food -- In general I avoid dry food or mix dry and moist food. I do not think it suitable to force the poor cat to live entirely on dry food. Cats in the wild live on moist food!

With best wishes t o you both,
Geoffrey

mani · Jul 15, 2018

Good to have you back G Geoffrey and glad to hear you're recovering.

(I might have to flag myself for being off-topic, but it is lovely to have your input again).

Geoffrey · Jul 16, 2018

Mani,
Thank you very much for your kind comments. I am glad to be back.
Geoffrey

Btw I must apologise for replying apparently to

Daisy6 when of course my response should have been to the questions from

Erinlinkcappy !

Timmer · Jul 16, 2018

I'm not a vet either but my cat has a heart murmur and it's not being treated. She had blood work done to test certain levels. Having said that, I don't believe that vomiting has anything to do with the heart. Is there fur in the vomit? It's hot right now and my cat is doing extra grooming to try and cool down.
I had a cat a few years ago who threw up regularly for years. She was just a barfy cat. Turned out four years later she had kidney disease. My vet said cats with kidney issues create a lot of stomach acid and throw up frequently.
As others have said, you did not give any information about the prior illness. Perhaps a call into your vet is in order.

Erinlinkcappy · Jul 19, 2018

silkenpaw said:
can you tell us more about Link’s illness? The one he was in the hospital for? What was he on antibiotics for! Thanks.

He got very sick with a high fever that wouldn’t go down and a sore spine - it turned out to be toxoplasmosis.

We’d been feeding him a lot of raw food which he loves but are not allowed to give it to him anymore because he likely contracted the disease from the meat.

Erinlinkcappy · Jul 19, 2018

Daisy6 said:
I don't want to pretend I am a vet, but feel I need to say this anyway.

Ge4 him off the Hill's dry food ASAP. If he stops throwing up, that is the culprit. A lot of cats throw up dry food but not wet food. If he started eating less after being put on a prescription diet, the recipe is yucky. Is he also eating the wet version of Hill's digestion? If not, ask the vet to give you a sample can.

I got rid of the Hills and g

Geoffrey said:
I have not been able to contribute to this cat forum for some months due to ill health, however I am now improved and am happy to answer Daisy 6.- I am a retired human Physician and cardiologist, and stress that I am not qualified in feline veterinary medicine although the physiology (science of mammalian body function) is similar in all mammals including humans..

You have not said in what way your cat was sick; what was the final diagnosis?

The main point that I must make is that a heart murmur is NOT a disease but what is called a 'sign'. It may be associated with a healthy heart, or severe heart disease, and has no particular symptoms of its own as any symptoms are due to its underlying cause. Cats, or humans, may have loud murmurs but very little symptoms. They may have quiet murmurs but are very short of breath. (I personally have a loud murmur due to narrowing of a valve but suffer very little from this and ignore it).

Blood is pumped around the body by the heart muscle and can only be pumped from the body to the lungs, where it's oxygen is absorbed, because of the opening and closing of the valves in each chamber of the heart. A damaged or irregular valve causes an eddy in the flow of blood and it is this eddy that is picked up by the doctor or vet as a noise called a 'murmur' heard using a stethoscope. (If the valve leaks then the stethoscope picks up a blowing noise and if it is narrowed then you hear an entirely different sound).

Damage to the valve(s) can cause the heart muscle to fail to pump blood around the body, the cause of a heart's failure to pump may be due to a number of things, infection, lung disease, physical distortion of the valve, etc. and it is not possible to advise on how long you need to wait before seeing a specialist feline cardiologist; this depends on whether Link is suffering from the cause of his murmur - and you should discuss his problems with your vet. It may well be that there is no urgency to seek specialist opinion- but await what the vet says.

As for dry or moist food -- In general I avoid dry food or mix dry and moist food. I do not think it suitable to force the poor cat to live entirely on dry food. Cats in the wild live on moist food!

With best wishes t o you both,
Geoffrey

Thank you Geoffrey - he is very spoilt so will never subsist on dry food alone. Sometimes it feels like I just buy endless sources of food for him to turn his nose up!

He initially had toxoplasmosis. I don’t believe this was related to the heart murmur - that was just picked up throughout all the testing as it was difficult to diagnose and he was very poorly.

For the most part , save his recent illness, he seems happy though I have noticed that a lot of exercise or too much heat leads him to pant which I have read may be heart related. He also does vomit from time to time ( even after I stopped the Hills). I appreciate that you have taken the time to explain what a murmur is and the possible causes.

I am usually a very diligent vet goer but between him and my other cat I’ve spent about $4,000 in a matter of weeks- and it’s 2 hours drive to the university vet hospital for the heart referral which means a day off work so I’m more hesitant than usual. I might just go to the local small town vet and have them listen rather than spring for the specialist at this stage.

Thanks

Timmer
I’m hoping he can go along untreated for the murmur at least for the short term. He might just be vomity!

Daisy6 · Jul 19, 2018

Erinlinkcappy said:
I am usually a very diligent vet goer but between him and my other cat I’ve spent about $4,000 in a matter of weeks- and it’s 2 hours drive to the university vet hospital for the heart referral which means a day off work so I’m more hesitant than usual. I might just go to the local small town vet and have them listen rather than spring for the specialist at this stage.

In this situation, your local vet will need copies of all medical records and a phone number from the university vet.

Timmer · Jul 19, 2018

And that's why I won't feed a raw diet. I'm glad you are getting some answers and he's doing better.

1 bruce 1 · Jul 19, 2018

Erinlinkcappy said:
He got very sick with a high fever that wouldn’t go down and a sore spine - it turned out to be toxoplasmosis.

We’d been feeding him a lot of raw food which he loves but are not allowed to give it to him anymore because he likely contracted the disease from the meat.

No matter where the toxoplasmosis came from, now is not the time for a raw diet, I agree!!
We had one with heart disease. The murmur was not found until we realized their exercise tolerance went downhill quickly.
He was put on Enalapril and COQ10, with additional taurine powder. He also got fish oil. We did feed this one raw at the time (no toxoplasmosis here) and he got a LOT of heart meat--chicken, turkey, and beef. But we were absolutely anal about making sure this meat was sourced from clean and pastured animals, no filthy CAFO meat allowed.
We did not speak to a cardiologist, as our vet was comfortable treating him and knew we would recognize signs and get him in if we knew something was off. The only call to a cardio vet was during his last days when he was fading fast to question a potential drug to help, and it was decided with his case and his specific heart problem, that the drug would actually make it worse! (This was many years ago and I still say a silent thanks to the kind cardiologist that took time out of their schedule to read his X-rays, ultrasound, talk with our vet, and hear his case without charging us a cent...)
Is your cat overweight at all? (If he's a picky eater, I doubt it, but sometimes extra weight can cause problems and the mild heart murmur might not be as dangerous in the long term if he gets any excess weight off and replaces it with lean muscle mass.)

The vets know he has a mild heart murmur, which is great...but have they diagnosed him with actual "heart disease", and if so, what type? That, to me, makes a HUGE difference.
Best to you =)

Cat With Low Appetite, Occasional Vomiting And Heart Murmur

Erinlinkcappy

TCS Member

Thread starter

Daisy6

A cat's best friend

silkenpaw

TCS Member

Geoffrey

TCS Member

mani

Moderator and fervent feline fan

Geoffrey

TCS Member

Timmer

TCS Member

Erinlinkcappy

TCS Member

Thread starter

Erinlinkcappy

TCS Member

Thread starter

Daisy6

A cat's best friend

Timmer

TCS Member

1 bruce 1

TCS Member

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