3 Year Old Cat W. Heart Murmur - Echocardiogram?

[Erinlinkcappy]

Our little cat has a heart murmur - no symptoms and vet thinks we should watch it but we are thinking of getting him an echocardiogram from a cardiologist?

Has anyone gone down this path? What should I expect?

 

[LTS3]

What grade did your vet say the murmur is? The range is Grade 1 (barely audible and only experienced vets can hear it) to Grade 6 (can be heard just by placing an ear to the chest).

There's good info here: Dear Doctor – Cat With a Heart Murmur

Some cats may suddenly develop a low grade heart murmur and then it just goes away on it's own. A "wait and see" approach is usually done first. If a check up a few months later still shows a murmur, an echo is usually recommended to rule out any issue with the heart. There is also a blood test for heart disease, NT-proBNP, which can be done if the echo shows possible heart issues.

One of my cats has an echo scheduled for her grade 1 murmur. The vet first heard it at the yearly check up last fall. I knew something was wrong when he spent several minutes listening to her heart. We recently did a follow up and the murmur is still present. The vet felt an echo should be done just to check the heart. My cat has no issues related to the murmur.

 

[di and bob]

Some cats are born with a murmur, and just like people, MANY develop them when they get older. i worked in a nursing home for years and almost everyone had a murmur, and they did fine. Most cause no issues at all, they need to be monitored for a decline and then something can be done to help. I had a cat on lasix for many years and he did fine with a heart that was enlarged and had a murmur. I would rely on your vet for advise, ask him with all his experience if he thought it was bad enough to seek other tests. Just make sure your cat gets exams regularly, if it is older, every 6 months, and preferably with the same vet.

 

[Erinlinkcappy]

Thanks. Link was diagnosed with a murmur about a year ago but he’d been particularly sick with another issue so the vet said to follow up later. At the time they just said it was mild. I was hoping it was stress related.

I followed up today but at a different vet as The first one was a university hospital some hours away. My vet today was a graduate - she seemed to think it was a grade 2 to 3 and favored a watch and see approach but admitted she’d had little experience with it and said she’d speak to colleagues. I’ll wait to hear from her as well.

I called the old vets and they said they were happy to book him in for an echo but I’ll have to drive him 2 hours which makes him scared. I just don’t want to miss something treatable but my poor little cat has had a lot of tests in young life so feel bad.