My Cat Has A Heart Murmur. How Do I Proceed? My cat has a heart murmur. The murmur was defected when he was very small. Murmur can be heard throughout life and different disease can cause a murmur. Heart disease is a younger cat disease. This seem odd since in people heart disease tends to be in older people. When older cats have murmurs hyperthyroidism and hypertension are our two main rule outs. In younger cats, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) or benign valve regurgitation are the most common causes. For my kitten, we were concerned that it was something congenital. We made our appointment to see the cardiologist at Chesapeake Veterinary Cardiology Associates (CVCA). They are the largest veterinary cardiology group in the United States and have offices in various Maryland and Virginia. To learn more about CVCA please click here. Both the doctor and technician were great with Bart. Kittens like children do not have a lot of patience and the echocardiogram took about an hour. During the examination, the doctor was great about explaining what she was seeing. Bart has a hole in his heart or a Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD). This allows blood to flow from the bottom left ventricle to the right side. He has two holes on in the muscle and one in the membrane. This unfortunately is more severe than if it were just the membrane. This defect is also enlarging both the left and right upper chambers. Bart is at risk for left and right sided congestive heart failure. He has been placed on Plavix to help prevent blood clots. He is also on an ACE inhibitor to help his heart not have to push as hard. We are very lucky to have such great resource as CVCA in our area . We will going back in 6 months and I will keep you posted. If you cat has a heart murmur, please check with your veterinarian.
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