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Heart problems in cats- Covid related?

4 replies

queensonia · 09/05/2022 19:02

Just adopted a three year old cat. About six weeks after I got her, I noticed her coughing as though she had a fur ball. Nothing came up. Next day I noticed her coughing again, so thought it might be a chest infection and took her to the vet. It turned out to be a form of heart failure with fluid on her lungs and I was told to put her to sleep because she'd probably only live 11 days. A month later, she's still with me - on three kinds of medication and chattering happily at the birds through the window. I know that Covid in humans can cause long term heart problems so I did some research and read that in the states they have found an increase in heart failure in cats whose owners had had Covid. I checked with the people who I'd got the cat from and three members of their family had Covid just before I adopted her. I just wanted to flag this up in case anybody here notices similar signs in their own cat as it wasn't something my vet mentioned to me at all

OP posts:
Toddlerteaplease · 09/05/2022 20:52

Has she ever been found to have a murmur, that would indicate a pre existing problem.

Lonecatwithkitten · 09/05/2022 21:23

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was very common in cats long before Covid came along. It eventually causes congestive heart failure and then a pleural effusion.
But many, many cats can do really well on medication even after surgical drainage of their pleural effusion.
This is also a risk of them throwing a clot this is a much much more serious consequence of HCM.

Toddlerteaplease · 10/05/2022 00:38

My cat has horrendous HCM, she did well with medication. Fortunately she was an absolute super star at taking her 8 pills a day!

KellyM1998 · 28/01/2023 21:17

i know you’re comment was posted a while ago. Just found out my cat might have HCM and is having his scan Monday. How old is your cat? Thank you

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