Now Bass has a heart murmur

[jezebel]

Thanks Liz. Bass does like treats and has them often but only in small amounts.

[Liz]

Does she do treats at all they can help with the weight gain and Complivit is a marvel has kept some of my oldies going and when ill great stuff, 1 pump equals a full days calories for a 4kg cat - mine get 3 or 4 a day with wet food just mix it through the wet food - it looks like Bovril but do shake the pump as it does need to be mixed as it looks very oily

[jezebel]

I hate predictive text, the things my phone tries to write sometimes are extraordinary!

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Complivit, jezebel - Kindle predictive struck again. 

[jezebel]

Thanks Sue. I'm going to order some from Amazon.

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Liz uses complicit with some of hers to get high nutritional value into them, Jezebel.  I wonder if it would be worth trying?   

[jezebel]

Thanks for all the advice and good wishes, they really do help!

I just wish Bass would put some weight on, she looks thinner every day. I tried her on kitten food, which she liked, but it didn't help. She'll eat a little Royal Canin Senior Consult, which the vet recommended and which she used to love but is now not so keen on.

I wonder what I used to worry about before I got these two!

[alisonandarchie]

My beloved Parki had a heart murmur that was picked up when she was 14 years old. Following this she had ops which were fine. Each time the vet scanned her heart to make extra sure.

She later died from cancer but her heart was fine until the end

Wishing Bass all the best and am sure all will be ok, but understand the worry

[Lyn (Slugsta)]

Hi Jezebel,

It's such a worry when our babies are not well, isn' it? I do agree that more tests at this stage could be too much for Bass and, as has been said, most heart murmurs are 'incidental findings'.

[jezebel]

Thanks everyone, that's reassuring.

It's difficult to know what to do for the best, sometimes. I don't want to keep taking her to the vets for  more prodding and needles (she's as good as gold with the vet but it's obviously stressful for her) but I also don't want anything serious to go untreated.

She has to go back to the vet's in a couple of weeks but just to be weighed, so I'll  tell them no more tests for the moment.
 

[Judecat (Paula)]

Trouble was diagnosed with a heart murmur when he was about 16, the vet wasn't overly bothered, just said that we would keep an eye on him.

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Oh Jezebel.  That will have come as unwelcome news, but try not to worry.

Paddy had a heart murmur for the last 5 years of his lifem, and it gave him little trouble. 

They're graded on a scale from 1 to 6, with 1 being the least troublesome. 

Most of them don't need to be treated.  Paddy's certainly didn't, and his was a grade 3.  It meant we had to be really careful in terms of anaesthesia, so dental work became a bit of an art form, with our dentist removing chunks of plaque from rear gnashers with a practised finger, rather than putting him under.

[Dawn F]

I tend to agree, one of ours was diagnosed with a heart murmer aged around 7 and died of something unrelated at age 14, he was on a quarter of an antenol (sp) a day for a few years but when we moved house the new vet took him off

[Desley (booktigger)]

Most cats live with a heart murmur with no problems, most of my oldies have, none have been put on medication and none of them have died from that - a couple were diagnosed around that age. I wouldn't put her through any more tests at the moment, like you say, she's had a lot this year.

[jezebel]

Since her thyroid operation in May, Bass hasn't put on any weight (in fact she's still losing a little), despite eating well. Blood tests have shown nothing obvious - her thyroid count is still dropping, albeit slowly.
The vet now thinks she has a heart murmur and has offered yet more tests but wasn't clear about what would happen if they showed anything wrong. I suppose it depends on the cause, but it sounded so vague that I'm not sure it's worth putting her through any more - she's already been through a lot this year.


Are heart murmurs common in elderly cats (she's 17 this year) and what's the treatment?