Heart Murmur In Cats And Anesthesia

You dont say how severe Rockies heart murmur is but wed imagine its moderate to severe if your vet is worried about his ability to survive anesthesia.

Heart murmur in cats and anesthesia. To be clear you want to avoid anesthesia if possible but it is not something that has to be avoided at all costs. If you have an undiagnosed murmur it is important that this is further evaluated before surgery. The grade of murmur does not necessarily mean heart disease is more or less severe or even present.

For induction of anesthesia propofol is one of the safest methods. Heart murmurs are most commonly a result of a compromised heart valve. Typically murmurs are caused by leaky heart valves or a narrowing or thickening of the chambers of the heart or heart muscle which can indicate heart disease.

The prognosis depends on the cause of the heart murmur. Heart murmur in cats brought on by congenital diseases often requires surgery. A veterinarian cannot tell the cause of the heart murmur just by listening to the heart.

Studies show that anywhere between 21 and 50 of healthy cats have murmurs. But sometimes the position cats are standing in when we listen can affect the sounds we hear. None of those methods have pain-relieving properties so a separate pain reliever like Buprenex is a must.

A leaky valve or dysfunctional large vessel will mean that there is usually backflow of blood which means that the output of the heart is decreased and the heart will need to work harder to move the same amount of blood than a normal heart. Yes certain heart conditions do increase the risk of general anesthesia. A heart rate monitor counts your cats heartbeats per minute.

I think that sometimes cats with mild heart murmurs suffer much more from things like severe dental disease that goes unchecked because of the fear of putting them under anesthesia. Cat heart murmur medication costs between 200 and 500. The ultrasonographer will tell us if this murmur is serious or not.