Heart scan or not?

[Toddlerteaplease]

Took fattycat along to the veterinary hospitality just for a health check as Snorg was going. And I'm a bit neurotic about her now! The vet suggested doing an ultrasound scan if her heart, as she has a murmur. It's been mentioned at my normal vets previously but nothing else said about it. She's 6 and fit and healthy and doesn't seem to cause her a problem. The vet admitted that she is very pro scanning and would scan if it was her cat. But it's my choice. Really not sure if it's worth doing or not. It's will be about £300 ish. Which isn't a huge issue.

What would it achieve? ( Genuine question.) Would it lead eg to any revisions to the way of life she has if it went one way or the other?

I'm conscious, by the way, that you won't be/can't breed from your two.

I would. Knowledge is power, always better to know and be able to make plans around that than be oblivious.

We've had one of our healthy cats have an ultrasound when her (suspected but not proven) littermate developed a heart condition. No regrets. Glad to have the piece of mind.

I did it when my cat was 11. In his case, I wanted to be sure of how bad things were so that I didn't carry on medicating his for kidney disease if his heart was failing. To be honest, all it did was reassure me his problems weren't severe so I'm not at all sure i'd have done it with no symptoms/problems to lead me there.

Around 60% of cats with heart murmurs who are scanned are found to have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Early diagnosis, early initiation of appropriate treatment can dramatically increase the lifespan of these cats. It also reduces the risk of sudden death from a blood clot.

I was told my grey puddle of fur had a murmur, had a mobile ultrasound done, and there was nothing. It can sound like one when they are stressed, i.e going to the vet!

If it's going to help in some way, I probably would have the procedure carried out. If not, then probably I wouldn't.

Part of me wants to do it because if it's normal then It's reassuring. But is it opening a can of worms and looking for problems that aren't there. I've no concerns about her and have a very low threshold for taking her to the vet anyway. No vet before has ever been concerned about it. She's an indoor and not hugely active cat, so not sure it would change anything anyway.

I did wonder if it sounds worse than it is due to stress. She was very stressed this morning. Ears back and looking martyred!

How does it look in context with - forgive me but you already are aware of this - their known problems? (Dear, lovely girls.)

Not sure what you mean cozie. Apart from Snorgs nose, they are both healthy cats who just had a rough start in life. Not sure lack of brain cells counts as a 'problem'

Their rough start is what I meant - also their 'breeding'. They weren't bred .........'over-carefully', were they?

I don't believe so, no. My poor princesses!

They're a wonderful pair, though.

Lone, you just told me the subtext of what my vet was saying. I was in France at the time, she was lovely but not always as direct as we are in the UK. So, I did the right thing for him at the time and then wondered why I bothered afterwards. Toddler I'd say do it, knowledge IS power.

What does your normal vet say? Something you are already aware of, no health issues otherwise to date? I think you have described them as a pair of pet rocks previously, so not exactly a stressful lifestyle? What is emergency vet's rational for the scan? Maybe ask a few more questions before committing?

P.s. my boy had his first vet appointment last week, for his boosters. Was purring so hard that I'm not sure the vet could hear his heart when it was checked! She commented on weighing him "that's a lot for a cat", but then conceded, "but he's a huge cat". He was a very good boy and I'm proud of him. He's come a long way for an unhomable nervous wreck.
Good to know Snorg has come on so well and I understand your paranoia about fatty.

My normal vet has said that she has it but nothing else. No talk of any tests. I think it's only been mentioned once. So maybe it only comes on when she's stressed..spoke to the rescue lady who said if it's grade 4 or 5 then scan if below that, don't bother. I suspect the hospital vet is similar to me in that you don't quite believe there are any healthy cats/ children. Because all you see is the sick ones. I do agree that knowledge is power though.

She had a general anaesthetic and it was never mentioned.

Please please please do it. I lost my beautiful cat at the end of last to HCM. If the murmur had been picked up earlier then it could potentially have been managed with medication.

I think I will pop her along to my usual vet and see what they say.