Heart Murmur In Cats Uk

Symptoms of heart disease in cats include.

Heart murmur in cats uk. Your vet will be able to hear whether you cat has a murmur using their stethoscope. Heart murmur is also known as heart arrhythmia. If the cat is born with a hereditary defect in the heart wall or the valves of the heart this can cause a murmur that is present at birth.

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. In a normal heart cycle heartbeats create a sound in unison to the closing of heart valves. Not all heart murmurs indicate a problem.

Describing the murmur as significant isnt really helpful in terms of how you might agree to any treatment. Cats with benign or innocent murmurs will have a normal life span while cats with heart murmurs caused by life threatening structural defects of the heart may only live for months or a few years. Although a murmur may signify a problem with the heart or its blood.

Studies indicate that as many as 50 of cats have a heart murmur. Read on to know more about heart murmur in dogs its symptoms and treatment. Normally two distinct sounds are heard when listening to the heart of a normal dog or cat.

However this may occur with murmurs of either pathological or non-pathological causes. These are often described as lub and dub. The life expectancy depends on the cause of the murmur.

Heart murmurs in cats are usually graded on a scale of 1 - 5. 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. 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.