Just got back from the kitty cardiologist and Jack is doing much better than I expected. Turns out heart murmurs, even higher stage ones, can have relatively benign causes. He has a little cardiac hypertrophy, but no enlargement of any of the chambers, and the murmur the regular vet is hearing is not because of a valve problem, but because hie heart has tipped forward (Lazy Old Man Heart) and that puts an extra S-curve in one of the arteries leaving the heart. The blood has some turbulence through this curve and that turbulence is the murmur There is more turbulence when his heart rate is faster, so its a stage !V when he is excited or upset, and only a stage I or II when he is calm. At whatever stage, his blood pressure is good and his pulse is strong, and he has no symptoms of any circulatory problems. And since 15 years in a cat is relative to about 75-85 years in a human, hes doing pretty well, indeed.
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 22:46:30 +0000
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