Heart Murmur In Cats Sound
Heart murmur Heart arrhythmia Tachycardia Muffled heart sounds Pounding heart sounds.
Heart murmur in cats sound. Based on the loudness and intensity vets rank heart murmurs in grades from one to six with one being softest and six being the most audible. If you regularly visit a professional vet for a routine checkup of your cat they will be able to differentiate between normal and abnormal heart sounds. However in some cases a veterinarian may listen to a cats heart with a stethoscope and hear an abnormal sound -- otherwise known as a heart murmur.
The PMI of the murmur in HCM cats is usually heard over or just to the left of the sternum. A heart murmur is an unusual sound that can be heard with a stethoscope when listening to a cats heartbeat. A heart murmur occurs when there is turbulent blood flow in the heart as a result of structural problems or other health issues.
If your vet hears a heart murmur when listening to your cats heart it will be like a swishing noise. However regular monitoring of a cat that has evidence of a physiologic murmur is advised to ensure that no other problems develop. It occurs when the thyroid overproduces hormones.
Yes there are different reasons for heart murmurs just as Petnurse explained I was also told that cats can get a heart condition that thickens the heart and if this is detected early enough then this can be controlled with drugs. The most common underlying structural heart disease causing a heart murmur in adult cats is hypertrophic cardiomyopathy HCM. My cat had an ultrasound scan to determine the cause which I believe was a faulty valve.
For example a heart murmur refers to a strange heart sound which is audible only through a stethoscope placed on the chest. How are heart murmurs assessed. Also young cats may have structural heart diseases commonly recognized in adult cats such as HCM.
The normal heart makes two distinct sounds often described as lub and dub which are the sounds of the heart valves closing. Two heart sounds normally heard in dogs and cats are S 1 and S 2. 3-6 however for a large proportion of cats a heart murmur is innocent For those cats with heart disease as the cause for the murmur hypertrophic cardiomyopathy HCM and systolic anterior motion SAM of the mitral valve is the most common diagnosis.