Heart Gallop?

Hi all,

I'm new here but I just want to know if anyone else has experiences what I'm going through.

We took our 11 week old kitten (coming up 12 weeks) to the vets last weekend. We went for a general check up and vaccinations. While we were there we were told the kitten (Mowgli) has a heart gallop and it's the worst case she's seen. She recommended a heart scan to see what's going on.

He has his scan booked on for 9th May and I'm terrified - during the check up the vet said that he wouldn't need to be put to sleep "yet"... I'm distraught. He's just a baby. I don't know what to expect on Monday.

Mowgli himself just acts like a normal kitten. He eats, drinks, poops and plays! He chases my other two up and down the stairs - you wouldn't have thought a kitten with a possible heart problem would act like this, so you can see why I'm struggling to come to terms with this.

Has anyone else experienced a kitten having a heart gallop before?

The only time I had a cat with heart gallop, he turned out to have heartworm, which is very rare in a cat, and it wasn't diagnosed until after he died.   His symptoms were classic, but the vet never suspected it because it's really rare in cats.  There is no treatment for heartworm in cats other than surgery to remove the worm (cats rarely have more than one heartworm).  If they give chemicals to kill it, it will likely go into the lungs, block the blood flow and kill the cat.  It was a long time ago and it came on suddenly so we never got a cardiac ultrasound, which would have revealed the heartworm.  He died within a day of the symptoms starting.  It's a delicate surgery but I know they have done it at the two vet schools near me, University of Georgia and Auburn in Alabama, so I could have taken him there if we had time.  If your kitten has heartworm, you could get it removed.  If it's heart disease instead, then maybe medicines could help.

That being said, heart gallop is definitely something that needs to be followed up immediately.  It sounds like your Mowgli does not yet have any signs of heart failure and there may be some treatment that could help him continue to enjoy his life.  Here is an excerpt from a paper from The Cat Doctor in Seattle:

"Cats with primary heart disease may also have irregular heart rhythms (“cardiac arrhythmias”) or a more

ominous heart sound called a gallop rhythm. A gallop rhythm is heard with the stereoscope as an extra

heart sound and strongly suggests the presence of heart disease and impending heart failure. Cats that

develop heart failure may exhibit lethargy, weakness, and labored breathing. In some cats blood clots break

away from the heart and lodge in arteries where they obstruct blood flow. These clots usually lodge in

vessels supplying the rear legs (a “saddle thrombus”) and cause paralysis of the rear legs. Uncommonly cats

die suddenly due to acute, catastrophic cardiac events.

Cardiac ultrasound is the single most valuable test we use to rule in or rule out heart disease and to

diagnose conditions accurately so we can choose the best treatment. Cardiac ultrasound is the best way to

determine whether your cat’s heart murmur poses an anesthetic or surgical risk. With cardiac ultrasound

the veterinary cardiologist can visualize the heart three dimensionally and see muscle wall thickness,

dynamic wall motion, heart chamber size, turbulent blood flow, and even blood clots.

Prognosis and Treatment   

Conditions that result in heart murmurs are more likely to respond well if diagnosed and treated early. A

thorough work up by your veterinarian, often including echocardiography, is essential to providing a

prognosis and effective treatment."

http://www.catdoctorseattle.com/downloads/Heart-Murmurs-in-Cats.pdf

I'm glad you discovered this before it caused him any physical problems.  Let us know what the ultrasound shows and what your treatment plans are.  This will be helpful to the next person on here who asks about this.

Thanks for getting back in touch.

I wanted the scan to be sooner but they had to call someone in to come and do the scan. The vet said that if it turns out to be a hole in the heart then he can live a comfortable life with that. My cats are strictly indoors so mowgli wouldn't have the added stress of traffic and other animals outside which would benefit him a lot.

I'll post what the scan says.

Has your cat had the scan yet?  How is he doing?