Heart Murmur In Cats Life Expectancy
This makes regular vet checks even more important for cats.
Heart murmur in cats life expectancy. 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. Cats with benign or innocent murmurs will have a normal life span while cats with heart murmurs caused by life threatening structural defects of the heart may only live for months or a few years.
This type of murmur is benign not harmful. Moreover the more advanced the poorer the prognosis. Also young cats may have structural heart diseases commonly recognized in adult cats such as HCM.
If left undetected and untreated it can lead to congestive heart failure in cats. Death can often result from emboli or blood clots and sudden and severe rhythm abnormalities. The life expectancy depends on the cause of the murmur.
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. Heart disease in cats is detected but there is a lack of any outward signs. 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.
Furthermore what is the life expectancy of a cat with a heart murmur. 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. If the murmur is caused by a functional problem that is treatable or by an extracardiac disease it might resolve over time.
But our feline friends do less ball chasing than their canine cousins and tend to take life easy. Yes a heart murmur in cats can happen just as other pets can. 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.