Heart disease or arthritis?

lilblu

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So we (my family) had a bit of an emergency today with grandpa's 15 y/o cat. From what I was told, the cat wouldn't/couldn't jump up on her favorite chair, was dragging her rear legs and was wobbly when she did walk. I didn't get to see any of this so I don't know exactly how she was dragging her rear legs.

The vet checked the cat out and seems to think it may be severe arthritits. They're going to leave the cat at the clinic tonight and they will have something setup so the cat has access to one room and can be monitored via a webcam. They want to see how the cat moves about.

Here's my concern that I would like opinions on: A human being with coronary heart disease cannot be diagnosed with a stethoscope and an x-ray. A doctor might think that everything is fine, when in fact, that person is a heart attack waiting to happen. I know this because this is what recently happened to my uncle.

So how can the vet know for sure that the cat doesn't have advanced heart disease or is in heart failure? One of my cats was in congestive heart failure and two vets missed it and the cat ended up dying.

So somebody please tell me how this vet can be 100% certain that grandpa's cat doesn't have a serious heart problem? My understanding is that without an ultrasound there is no way the vet can know for sure. Isn't that correct? This is a constant problem I have with all vets. They don't know what the heck they are doing. I've had this problem with every veterinarian I've ever gone to. It's getting to be depressing. I've prematurely lost three cats because of this issue.
 

jiskefet

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A cat with haeart failure will be tired and out of breath, panting and gasping rather than dragging his legs. The differential diagnosis will be between neurological problems and arthritis rather than arthritis and heart failure.
 
 
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violet

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The only way to know for sure whether a cat has heart disease or not is to have a heart ultrasound done by a highly skilled, specially trained tech, or a heart specialist.  There is no other way to know for sure.

If you research the subject you'll find that the reasons for heart disease in cats are totally different from the reasons of heart disease in people.

In young cats, a potentially deadly heart defect the cat was born with and that was not detected before spay or neuter surgery, can cause the cat to die from the procedure. It's heartbreaking and happens far more often we would think. But, thank God, that does not apply to you in this situation. 

With older cats.....heart disease always needs to be ruled out when there are certain health problems.

Arthritis may require different tests. When doing tests, special attention always needs to be paid to the spine. Many times the most serious problems originate in the spine.

If you need help with detecting/treating arthritis, you really need to contact an orthopedic specialist. After testing he/she can advise you about the best treatment options which, you might be surprised, can be natural treatments.

For peace of mind you might really want to rule out heart disease. 
 
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