- Joined
- Jul 7, 2014
- Messages
- 8
- Purraise
- 2
Hey guys,
Being an overprotective cat-mama, I'm starting to become concerned about my 3 month old kitten, Ruby. At her last vet appointment for vaccines, the vet informed us that she has a heart murmur, however she noted that this is usually not a major concern in kittens as most grow out of it. What's bothering me is that I'm starting to wonder if some of her other behaviors may be related to this. For example, she's laying all sprawled out on the floor all of a sudden like she's deathly tired, we did just have a pretty active play session and our air conditioning just happened to kick out for a bit so it was pretty warm in the house, (right now though the thermostat is reading 76 degrees) so I was attributing this to her actually being tired and maybe hot. But I just caught her breathing pretty rapidly and that reminded me that I have noticed her doing so before. She will all of a sudden start to breathe very quickly and then it gradually slows down again. This is not all the time, and I'm actually not sure how often it occurs, but when I have noticed it it's only been for a few minutes. And I should note that it's not always after she's been running around. The other thing she's been doing is just sort of hanging around with her mouth open. Again, this is not for extended periods of time but longer than for a yawn, etc. My boyfriend and I have been catching her doing this more and more recently and we just sort of look at each other puzzled and I ask Ruby what she's doing. It will just be random times again, like most recently she was sitting in the bathtub (no water) when I walked into the bathroom and she looked up at me and her mouth was open. She wasn't panting and otherwise was acting normally and after a few long seconds she closed her mouth and moved onto other kitten activities. I don't know if this sounds like nothing to worry about or normal cat-stuff to other people. Like I said, I'm just wondering if these behaviors in conjunction with the heart murmur may add up to something wrong. I also know some people will probably be of the opinion that I should just take her in and ask the vet. I have no objection to doing so, however she has another vaccination appointment scheduled for a week and a half from now and the vet was already planning on checking in on the heart murmur again. So basically I will be asking the vet about all of this when we go next, but I just wanted to see if anyone was of the opinion that it sounds serious or urgent to the point that I should try to get her in sooner. Again, I realize this could possibly just be me overreacting but seeing as how I have never dealt with a cat doing these things before, I just want to be careful and make sure my furbaby is happy and healthy.
Thank you in advance!
~CheshireKitty & Ruby-Lou
Being an overprotective cat-mama, I'm starting to become concerned about my 3 month old kitten, Ruby. At her last vet appointment for vaccines, the vet informed us that she has a heart murmur, however she noted that this is usually not a major concern in kittens as most grow out of it. What's bothering me is that I'm starting to wonder if some of her other behaviors may be related to this. For example, she's laying all sprawled out on the floor all of a sudden like she's deathly tired, we did just have a pretty active play session and our air conditioning just happened to kick out for a bit so it was pretty warm in the house, (right now though the thermostat is reading 76 degrees) so I was attributing this to her actually being tired and maybe hot. But I just caught her breathing pretty rapidly and that reminded me that I have noticed her doing so before. She will all of a sudden start to breathe very quickly and then it gradually slows down again. This is not all the time, and I'm actually not sure how often it occurs, but when I have noticed it it's only been for a few minutes. And I should note that it's not always after she's been running around. The other thing she's been doing is just sort of hanging around with her mouth open. Again, this is not for extended periods of time but longer than for a yawn, etc. My boyfriend and I have been catching her doing this more and more recently and we just sort of look at each other puzzled and I ask Ruby what she's doing. It will just be random times again, like most recently she was sitting in the bathtub (no water) when I walked into the bathroom and she looked up at me and her mouth was open. She wasn't panting and otherwise was acting normally and after a few long seconds she closed her mouth and moved onto other kitten activities. I don't know if this sounds like nothing to worry about or normal cat-stuff to other people. Like I said, I'm just wondering if these behaviors in conjunction with the heart murmur may add up to something wrong. I also know some people will probably be of the opinion that I should just take her in and ask the vet. I have no objection to doing so, however she has another vaccination appointment scheduled for a week and a half from now and the vet was already planning on checking in on the heart murmur again. So basically I will be asking the vet about all of this when we go next, but I just wanted to see if anyone was of the opinion that it sounds serious or urgent to the point that I should try to get her in sooner. Again, I realize this could possibly just be me overreacting but seeing as how I have never dealt with a cat doing these things before, I just want to be careful and make sure my furbaby is happy and healthy.
Thank you in advance!
~CheshireKitty & Ruby-Lou
