Heart Murmur In Cats Life Expectancy
And up to to 3 years with proper medication.
Heart murmur in cats life expectancy. The most common underlying structural heart disease causing a heart murmur in adult cats is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy HCM. But our feline friends do less ball chasing than their canine cousins and tend to take life easy. Veterinarians grade them from 1-6 with 6.
This type is present at birth and is commonly caused by heart defects or diseases. Heart murmurs are classified as congenital acquired and innocentphysiologic. Some normal adult cats may have an intermittent heart murmur that shows up when their heart rate is increased due to stress.
Heart murmur in cats life expectancy. Heart disease in cats is detected but there is a lack of any outward signs. This can be scary to hear but the majority of these cats with murmurs never develop heart disease.
Grade Levels Vets grade heart murmurs on a scale of 1 to 5 from the barely audible grade 1 to the very loud grade 5. Cats with this type develop it later in life. Anaemia is another cause of heart murmurs in cats but the cats often show other signs of lethargy and anorexia as well.
While you can expect your cat to live its life span with heart murmur the life expectancy reduces to about 6-18 months if it develops congestive heart failure from heart murmur. The life expectancy of a cat with a heart murmur depends upon the seriousness of the murmur and the underlying illness if there is one. For those with no signs of heart disease there is currently little evidence to indicate that treatment will delay development of HCM or extend a cats life expectancy.
Occasionally cats are reported to have incidental murmurs as adults and this is called a physiological murmur eg the blood flow within the large vessels exiting the heart may occasionally be heard as a murmur but this is usually of no clinical significance and does not result in. If your cat is showing symptoms that could be the result of HCM or if your cat is known to have a heart murmur have your primary care veterinarian perform a complete physical examination and any other tests heshe deems appropriate. The life expectancy depends on the cause of the murmur.