Should You be Concerned About Your Cat`s Heart Murmur
Cat health and heart murmurs are neither related nor free. The veterinarians use the stethoscope on the cat to listen to heart beat, heart rhythm [the even space between the heart beats] and heart sounds[ the sounds are produced by the blood movement in the heart of the cat] to assess the condition of the heart. There are only two heart sounds. They are lub and dub. Besides these two sounds any extra sound is heard, and then they are called as heart murmurs.
There are different types of murmurs. They are physiological murmurs [these murmurs are produced by certain physiological conditions like fever and anemia], innocent murmurs [caused by no apparent reason] and Pathological murmurs [produced by certain pathological condition of the heart muscle and valves]. Cat health is not affected by innocent heart murmurs.
In order to find out more about the heart murmurs, the angel memorial hospital for animals at Boston, United States of America conducted research on 100 cats. Of all these cats nearly 21 percent of the cats had heart murmurs. From these 21 percent cats, which had heart, murmurs seven cats were subjected to echocardiography. In this only one cat was found to be normal and the other six cats were found to have heart problem. The heart problem was none other than hypertrophy cardiomyopathy.
The final outcome of the research is that heart murmurs can be noticed even in healthy cats and the hypertrophy cardio myopathy is the most common heart problem of the heart of the cat. The cat heath cannot be in danger because of heart murmurs alone.
The heart murmurs of the cat are graded. There are 6 grades in case of heart murmurs i.e. grade I to VI. . Grade I is very mild and the grade VI is very severe. Here the disturbing factor is that the severity of the heart problem doesn`t necessarily relate to the higher grade heart murmurs.
As discussed earlier the heart murmurs are noticed in healthy cats too. For example the kittens will have heart murmurs and the same will disappear after six months. Anemia can lead to heart murmur but there will be other signs such as weakness and paleness of the mucous membrane in case of anemia. The healthy adult cats can have physiological murmurs such as incidental heart murmur.
The cat health should be tested in case heart murmurs are noticed in them. In case the heart murmurs are noticed in the cat, the veterinarian will further investigate the cat in order to rule out the possibilities of any heart problem. In case the heart murmur is associated with other signs such as abnormality in respiration, lethargy and paleness, then the root cause of the problem must be ascertained. The veterinarian may subject the cat to ultrasound examination and ECG to find out the heart problem if they are any.
Glossary
ECG- electro cardio gram
Anemia- reduced hemoglobin content in blood. Hemoglobin carrier of oxygen in blood.