Bass has hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

[Bee]

will do Gill, but I think on this occasion it was to do with the fact she had a load of toilet stuck to her that hadn't stayed in the litter tray 

I will certainly keep an eye though, 

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

If she keeps on wiping herself on the carpet . please get her to the vets.......again!..............cos its a sign of anal glands needing emptying which the vet can do.

[Bee]

Thanks TM

Both our girls are insured for lifetime with petplan so no worries there. She is absolutely fine too, she was a bit depressed about two visits to the vets inside of a week and this morning was behaving a bit oddly (wiping her bum on the carpet, never done it before and very good with toilet) but I'm putting that down to just being a bit stressed, otherwise she is fine. She's always been the lazier of the two which I now understand might be related, and they both tend to pant but only when we really wear them out with Da Bird or it's very very hot, not seen it at all this year.
Yesterday's scan was an ECG I believe but they've graded her 2/3 for her murmer and are content to just monitor for now and check if there has been any further change in her heart in 6 mnths. If it is the same then they won't see her for another year and will class her as stable, if any changes then we take it from there...

[Tiggy's Mum]

Sorry to hear that Bee 

Is she insured? If so it might be worth asking for her to see a specialist as Riley was investigated for panting as a kitten (which turned out to be over enthusiastic use of Da Bird  ) and at one stage it was thought his heart lining was thickened but there is a heart specialist at my vets who studied the scans and declared him just to have a big heart in comparison to his body size - nothing to worry about.

Also, with regards the murmur my childhood cat had one and it never affected him in the slightest - he had a long and happy life which was only cut short by cancer, nothing to do with his heart. Did the vet say what grade the heart murmur is? They are grdaed 1-5 in severity (I think) so that will give you an idea of how pronounced it is.

I hope Bass isn't affected by it too much 

[Bee]

Thanks Gillian, I'll definitely check it out. The vet said it is often genetic in maine coons and other pedigrees...  I think we are lucky we have such a good vet that has picked up on whilst she is only two, hopefully we can starts any meds needed early as we will be getting her checked again in 3 months when they will be able to decide if she is stable or if her heart is still changing...

[Gillian Harvey]

My Sam (RIP) had HCM (probably had it since birth, but he only started to show symptoms a few years before he was diagnosed at about 10 yrs old) He coughed like he was going to bring up a hairball and it took me a long time to realise he was never actually bringing anything up  Then he got poorly with fluid building up around his heart, but after a few scary weeks, he improved greatly on meds and had another 2 good ish years before he went into congestive heart failure  Whe he was diagnosed I joined the Yahoo feline  heart support group which was very helpful  http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/feline-heart/

[Bee]

...in other words her heart is too muscular 
The vet picket up a pronounced heart murmur in a check up (never been identified before) so a small shaved patch, a scan and £400 later that's the diagnosis. Apparently just for monitoring now and she will need meds if she goes into heart failure. Anyone got any experience of this?
Poor little baby. She's fine though, just stroppy about the shaved patch and being made to wait for her dreamies