Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

[Worried74]

Our 9 year old girl has just been diagnosed with this, does anyone have any experience of this? What can we expect? She has also recently started yowling in the evening, are they linked? Very concerned and vet not hugely forthcoming.

I'm sorry to hear that. Sadly we had the same news with our cat at the same age quite out of the blue. I was given heart medication and diuretics for her as there was recurring fluid of her lungs. We had monthly check up appointments too.
She really very quickly deteriorated and wasn't herself at all and not wanting her to suffer,with the vets support took the decision to have her put to sleep.
Many cats can live for several years after it's first diagnosed.

My cat also had it. She was asymptomatic. She was put on anticoagulants, diuretics and things to help her heart. She was on eight pills a day. She had 9 moths of really good quality life, until her kidneys failed. And she was PTS.
She was eight.

@Saxendi and @Toddlerteaplease thank you for your replies. It's just such a shock

OP my girl had this she had a funny turn and lost her eyesight, the vet said it was high blood pressure that caused the blindness and put her on amlodipine which is the human treatment for hbp. She got her eyesight back once her bp came down.
They did a scan and found she had an enlarged heart and cardiomyopathy so I knew I wouldn't have her long. She did well for about a year and went down suddenly, coughing and bringing up small amounts of liquid and her breathing rate was really fast.
I had her pts straight away then rather than put her through anything else she was 19 and hated going to the vets.
Have you had her blood pressure taken? Vets don't always do this and if it's up it's important to get it down for the heart and to try and prevent saddle thrombus.
Good luck, I know what it's like it's so upsetting but with treatment hopefully your girl will be good for a long time.

Yes lots of experience. Has she been diagnosed by a cardiologist after an echo? Or is this just a guess diagnosis by a GP vet?
Cats with HCM are very variable and unpredictable so it depends largely on her heart size. Is she stage b1 or b2 or C at this point?
Some cats will do very well. Others will decompensate quickly. My own cat has HCM stage b1. She’s had it for roughly 3 years. It will be very unlikely to kill her.
If you haven’t already I would get referred to a specialist cardiologist and you’ll have a much better understanding of likely outcome for your kitty

@Unforgettablefire and @Gymmum82 thank you. I will be calling vets today and asking more questions. She did have an echo but I don't know what stage or if blood pressure was checked.

Who did the echo? If it was done in house then it’s unlikely to have been done by a specialist. For the best management and outcome it’s worth seeking specialist opinion. I can possibly recommend someone in your area if you let me know a rough location.
She definitely does need blood pressure checking too and baseline bloods if they have started any medication.
Is she on any medication and if so what? Does she have any symptoms or was this just an incidental murmur finding?

The cardiologist never grades my cats heart. But she described it as a 'horrible heart' and it was really obvious on the echo. If you are in the vicinity of Derbyshire. Sarah Smjth Cardiology is brilliant.

I'm so sorry to hear this.

My cat was diagnosed when she was 3 after she had a blood clot in her leg. We thought she'd broken her leg as she came limping in to the room dragging it behind her. They did more tests and said her heart was very enlarged and with medication she'd have around 6 months. She died 7 months later. Her quality of life was excellent right up until she had another blood clot. We were in the garden and suddenly her back legs stopped working. She was put to sleep at the vets less than 20 minutes later. He said that it was so quick between the symptoms and putting her to sleep that she wouldn't have had time to be in pain.