How to Diagnose Heart Disease in Your Cat

How to Diagnose Heart Disease in Your Cat. Part of the series: How to Treat an Injured Cat. Losing the use of its back legs is one sign that your cat may have hear disease. Learn more in this free video.

[@inhibited44]

thanks. This is interesting stuff. I took a vet assistant class a few months ago and had a parent that died from HF.

[@TheSathandra]

My cat had this about 8 months ago. CKD patient, dilated pupils since last summer. She kept falling over, walked like a drunk on her hind legs. Took her to the vet as soon as they had an opening (day 3) She had regained most of her mobility. I had her take her BP. The BP was high, but vet told to me ignore the reading due to my cats anxiety.The vet did blood work, it came back normal except for high calcium. My vet... did nothing. Nothing with that info. She didn't know what could of caused my cat to loose her hind legs, didn't know why Ca was high. She gave me no tips on what to do next. NOTHING. I paid her... Why? I don't know. One clinic, 3 vets, and NONE of them have been to my satisfaction. How is it that I am co-incidentally browsing some cat info and come across this simple video? How is it my vet had NO ANSWERS? Anyway, since she is a CKD patient (that was my diagnosis years ago, my vet said she might have kidney failure after another vet from that clinic put her on steroids for her coughs and told me to clean my house) I figured having more protein may help her recover her muscles - so I got her Weruva Chicken Liver pouches to mix in with her RC canned kidney food. Put her under a heat (IR) lamp whenever she wanted. I also encouraged her to walk, much to her dismay. She recovered quickly. She used to love to go for walks, but nowadays I still have to make her take her daily walks for exercise, she hasn't been wanting go for walks since she turned 17.5 years old 2 years ago. My vet said her getting grumpy when taking her out could just be due to age, she said when cats get older then get that way (no) So 3.5 years ago, I took her to the vet for COUGHS, which happened shortly after meal times, so thats why I thought liver or kidney failure. My 2nd vet said 'possible' kidney failure, lightly elevated results. Okay, I went with that, the *kidney prescription food does work on preventing these coughs* whenever I give her too much chicken or dehydrated raw meat, she gets the coughs. She lost her vision 2 weeks ago, I went to the vet to get a prescription for Amlodipine to see if it was due to high BP/detached retina, and the 3rd vet, from that same clinic, never used the drug before but gave it anyway, without a BP reading (risky). She's regained her vision, it's not perfect, and were only 2 weeks in, but she can see. Do I have CKD cat - or do I have a cat with heart failure that somehow responds well to CKD food, needing daily IV fluids to make sure she feels well? Is it both? Is it high BP for years leading to CKD/heart failure? Her coughs only come back when she is dehydrated or if I sneak to many snacks in... Gosh, I hate doing all this work. If only I had someone with this knowledge, that I would be willing to pay them for, to find out... (3 vets ya'all)

[@briannab5296]

Thats a lot on your shoulders to carry! I hope things get much better for you both soon. Yesterday i asked my vet if there's such a thing as miniature Maine Coons because mine isn't getting any bigger. . She laughed at me and said he isn't a MC because they are really huge (maybe when grown!!) and that mine is just a long hair domestic. He has EVERY SINGLE characteristic & looks of MC but she doesn't even see that. Makes it scary to trust vets who don't even know what breed cat they are treating.

[@nunyuh3693]

High calcium is a sign of hyperthyroidism in humans. My cat has high sodium and calcium no vet could help him. I'm going to ask for a specific test for him. Next time

[@TheSathandra]

@@nunyuh3693 *Tanya's feline guide* has a subject on hyperthyroidism. I had already suspected this to be the case. It definitely needs to be looked at. My cats just died at the age of 20, she got fluid around her heart, along with her kidney failure (needing fluids) this was un-treatable. My vet should of know this, yet to this day I am sure they remain ignorant. I could hear it on the stethoscope (handy to have) but didn't understand why her heart sounded so heavy, her lungs seemed clear but she was struggling to breathe. I feel like I could of done more, but doing your own research is so overwhelming. How I wish I had more intelligent vets who would actually help their clients rather then looking for another paycheck.......

[@The_Soulful_Ginger_]

@@briannab5296​​⁠Ohhh if I had a nickel for every crazy lady I’ve met with a completely normal domestic long haired cat who wants to believe/tries to convince everyone that their cat is a genuine Maine Coon cat I’d be an outlandishly wealthy woman! I’m sure she did laugh. It’s ignorant people like this who think they know more than an ACTUAL DOCTOR that give their local veterinary practices a bad name just because you don’t like the DOCTOR’S well informed answer. Can you imagine if every time someone went to have their annual check up at their human doctor or had to schedule a wellness check because they were feeling ill and they didn’t like what their physician ended up diagnosing them with, went out of their way to not only question their credentials but to smear campaign their name/practice?? We wouldn’t have any actual human doctors left in business to treat us anymore! Dragging them through the mud like you do! Your vet knows EXACTLY what they’re talking about I can say that with almost 99.99% certainty. You want to believe you have a genuine Maine Coon so badly that you would go as far to say, “Oh that DOCTOR doesn’t know what they’re talking about. I- who have ZERO veterinary background and did some googling on the breed- know far better than any DOCTOR.” Working in the animal welfare community, I have met my fair share of crazy “I know more than you” people. And THE WORST have to be the women who think they own a genuine Maine Coon cat. And I bet that your vet did laugh at you because we all laugh at women like this. You have a regular ass DLH. Your cat may be special to you but there is nothing notably special about your cat that makes him/her a MCC. Unless you paid thousands of dollars & purchased them from a breeder, the chances of you having an actual MCC are null.

[@inhibited44]

it's such a sad way to get a medical education. You with your cat and my father had something similar -- Heart failure.

[@scottishfoldmocha5875]

My kitten had a different congenital heart defect - Tetralogy of Fallot- he was put to sleep at 7 months of age after this diagnoses, and I regret terribly, I think he could have lived a few more months or even years if I didn't go the the vet at all and didn't do any diagnostics, but the reason I went to vet I thought he had Brachycephalic Obstructive Airway syndrome and that it could be corrected by shortening soft pallet.

[@inhibited44]

surprised the muscle gets necrotic so close to the cat's heart since the legs are level with the heart. My father had HF and his leg muscles didn't get hard. They just turned purple if he stood up. I guess his heart was more efficient still than most cat's with HF

[@whoopdeedoo876]

One of my cats got a clot like this and we had to have her put to sleep right after we rushed her to the vet. She was near death and screaming in pain. It was very traumatic 😢

[@Rjcgf-hk2ul]

so sad. I'm sorry you and your cat had to go through that. 😿😿

[@lunathebreadthief4407]

We had to put down my cat Luna from this

[@colombilatus4157]

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