Heart Murmur In Cats Life Expectancy
This can be scary to hear but the majority of these cats with murmurs never develop heart disease.
Heart murmur in cats life expectancy. 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. Yes a heart murmur in cats can happen just as other pets can. Murmur or not cardiomyopathy often leads to congestive heart failure and may need to be treated with medicine to slow the progression of the disease.
Anaemia is another cause of heart murmurs in cats but the cats often show other signs of lethargy and anorexia as well. Cats with this type develop it later in life. This type is present at birth and is commonly caused by heart defects or diseases.
While treatment and prognosis are the biggest questions on pet owners minds who are faced with this diagnosis the treatments and life expectancies vary greatly based on the type of heart murmur and any accompanying heart disease. He lived six years. This makes regular vet checks even more important for cats.
Symptoms Treatments of Common Cat Diseases Learn about common diseases and conditions in cats such as FLUTD. If left undetected and untreated it can lead to congestive heart failure in cats. This type of murmur is benign not harmful.
Cats with benign or innocent murmurs will have a normal life span while cats with heart murmurs caused by life threatening structural defects. 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. Once in congestive heart failure most cats with HCM have a life expectancy of 6 and 18 months.
A small number of cats will be found to have significant heart disease. Treatment and Prognosis. If the murmur is caused by a functional problem that is treatable or by an extracardiac disease it might resolve over time.