Health & Fitness
The Heart of the Matter
Most pet owners do not think of heart disease in cats. Read on to see how common it is and how it can be diagnosed.
October is National Pet Heart Month. This means that veterinarians get bombarded with information on heart disease. However, few pet owners are even aware that they need to be concerned about the health of their pet’s heart.This column is an attempt to interpret and pass on the information about heart disease in cats.
Pet owners are most familiar with heart disease in dogs. Either they or a friend have had a dog with heart disease of one type or another. Very few people know of someone with a cat that has a diagnosed heart condition. This is because the most common sign is sudden death. The most memorable case this veterinarian had involved a roommate playing with 18 month old cat that then laid down and stopped breathing. On autopsy, a specific genetic disease - hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) - was found. This disease causes thickening of the heart muscle that interfers with the regular heartbeat, leading to a cardiac arrest. Other signs of heart disease might be not wanting to play, acting tired most of the time, panting, coughing, and collapsing or fainting.
It is reported in scientific liturature that 16-22% of all cats have some type of heart disease. There may or may not be a murmur or irregular heartbeat to warn us. The disease may or may not show up on x-rays until the final stages. Some breeds are more likely to have heart disease than others. There is a blood test that can help determine if there is currently heart damage. To diagnose heart disease in the cat, veterinarians need to examine the cat and hear a murmur or irregular heartbeat to become suspicious. The next step is to check heart health with a chest x-ray and/or electrocardiogram(EKG) and do the blood test in certain cases. To make sure that the murmur is not complicated by other diseases, it is best to do a blood panel (complete chemistry profile, complete blood count, thyroid hormone level, +/- feline leukemia/feline immunodeficiency virus, a set of chest x-rays, and urinalysis. Then, if the results indicate a heart condition, your veterinarian may do a heart ultrasound or she may refer to a veterinary heart specialist for further diagnostic tests and management. A correct diagnosis lets veterinarians use the appropriate supplements and/or drugs to treat the condition.
The genetic disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), causes a heart murmur in 67% of affected cats. It is more common in pure breeds, such as Maine Coon Cats and Persians, but can be found in alley cats as well. HCM and other heart diseases can be managed with medication and sometimes dietary supplements depending on the cause of the disease. Many cats live years after being diagnosed with heart disease, it does not mean that they are going to die soon. There have been cats that were given 6 months to live and were still going strong 13 years later. The point is to manage disease so that the cat has a good quality of life and so that the family knows what to expect during the life of their companion.
Dr. Pam Cuevas
La Grange Park Cat Clinic Phone: 708-562-2287
3075 S. Wolf Road www.lgpcatvet.com
Westchester, IL 60154 lgpcatvet@att.net
