Heart Murmur In Cats Uk

In a normal heart cycle heartbeats create a sound in unison to the closing of heart valves.

Heart murmur in cats uk. Many healthy cats with a heart murmur never develop any problems with their heart and go on to lead long happy and healthy lives. On its own a heart murmur is not a reliable indicator of heart function and is commonly found in healthy cats. Being told that your pet has a heart murmur can be very daunting.

Like others have said a murmur is a really unhelpful symptom because it can mean that the cat has heart problems like HCM or nothing at all. The good news is that approximately half of these cats will not go on to develop heart disease nor will it. A heart murmur is one of several types of abnormal sounds your veterinarian can hear when listening to your pets heart with a stethoscope.

You need to ask your vet what grade would your cat be on. A heart murmur is caused by turbulent blood flow within the heart or the large vessels exiting from the heart. Murmurs in cats do commonly change in intensity with stressexcitement or variation in heart rate.

It is a cardiac disorder that is a result of the hearts unstable and turbulent blood flow. An echocardiogram is necessary to differentiate between a heart murmur that is just due to excitement versus. Heart murmurs A heart murmur means that in addition to normal lub-dub heart sounds the vet can also hear extra sounds when listening with a stethoscope.

A cat with a heart murmur that is caused by a structural heart disease or an extracardiac problem will generally have some sort of symptoms or clinical signs that can be attributed to the disease. Studies indicate that as many as 50 of cats have a heart murmur. Heart ultrasound echocardiography is very helpful as it allows a view of the internal dimensions of the heart the wall thickness and the contractility of the heart to be assessed.

Not all heart murmurs indicate a problem. Heart murmurs in cats. Heart murmurs in cats are usually graded on a scale of 1 - 5.