What do you do when your cats in heat

Hello, I've had my cat for about 6 months or so now (she's about a year old) and she's been going into heat pretty constantly. This drives my boyfriend nuts since she seems to be attracted to him. Unfortunatly she's got a heart mumur and I've been told that the anestisia could kill her during the spaying process. Does anyone heard of any procedures that are less dangerous but can still spay her? Has anyone ever had to risk having a cat being spayed with a heart murmur, and if so what happened? Is there anything I can do to reduce her 'symptoms'? Any help would be grealy appriciated, thanks!

Do you realize its a lot more stress on her and her heart by allowing her to come in to heat over and over without being bred?

Since the vet is aware of the heart murmer they should be more cautious. Its a risk anytime an animal (or person) is put under, but far better to risk spaying her with a heart condition now, then to let her go into heat all the time.

I've had kittens with slight heart murmers at 2/3 months of age and outgrow it by time they were 8 months and spayed. No problems.

Yea that's kind of what I figured (it being more stressfull) but it seems that my local vets just don't seem to care enough! I've been told by 3 vets that her heart murmur is about a 5 or 6 out of a 6 scale. She's a double inbred cat (her parents were brother and sister and her grandparents were brother and sister) which I unfortunatly didn't know at the time. She just turned a year old so she may have grown out of it a little but probably not by much since it's probably genetic :-/

With this grade of murmur, I can well understand the vet's reluctance to subject her to anesthesia. She presents a very high risk. You may discuss with him the option of using gas only anesthesia with gas only induction and IV fluids/pain relief onboard throughout the procedure. If he is comfortable with it, it will be a bit more expensive than a normal spay procedure with injectible anesthesia, but the risks may be lessened.

Cardiomyopathy, is one of the leading causes of heart murmurs in cats is also
considered to be one of the leading causes of death during anesthesia. If you can afford it and it is available in your area, have an echo cardiogram performed on your cat prior to spay surgery. This will allow your vet to evaluate the risk without alot of guessing.
With your cat's murmur scaled at 5 to 6, I would say that you should try to find out exactly what is wrong with your cats heart before you risk anesthesia of any sort.

Murmurs scaled that high, don't go away with maturity. Most kittens that have murmurs that disappear as they get older, are scaled at 1 to 2.

Have your vets offered a cardiac ultrasound? A heart murmur that severe needs to be worked up!

One of the vets did recommend a cardiologist, which I have consider. I'm just hesitant to pay a ton of money for the cardiologist to just tell me that I can't get her fixed, which I basically know already, grr! lol So I guess spaying her is probably out of the question. I will ask about a reduced anestesia procedure though, thanks for the suggestion. I wouldn't mind paying the extra money for that.

So are there some things I should keep an eye out for in terms of help related problems due to not being spayed? Right now she gets a lot of hairballs from trying to clean herself while she's in heat so I give her a laxitive recommended by the vet and try to trim her hair down near her tail. She also tends to get diarrieh (even before I gave her the laxatives) while she's in heat, is this normal?

Mellanie, would they be able to do anything to her if they did find out what exactly was going on? Would they do surgury or give her medicine?

Does anyone know anything about life spans of cats with severe heart murmurs?

This is tricky. No matter what you do, the cat is in high risk. If you don't spay her, then she's at increased risk of cancer. If you spay her, she's at risk for not coming out of the surgery.

Its a catch 22. Did you get this kitten from a breeder? Is there any other kittens in the litter? Sounds to me if its double inbred, then its from a backyard breeder. Does the breeder know about your cat?

The cat isn't from what I would necessisarily call a 'breeder' he does breed animals (mostly because his animals aren't fixed) but I don't think he does it on purpose. The guy does know about the cat, but there's nothing I really expect him to do about it.

She originally was given to my boyfriend's mom's friend, who was pretty violent with her, throwing her into walls and such. His house caught on fire and he was staying a friends for a while so he gave the cat back to my boyfriend's mom. She told him if he didn't get the cat after 2 weeks then he wouldn't be his anymore. So I offered to adopt her. I was hoping to get her fixed that way I he wouldn't be able to have her back unless he covered the costs involved in fixing her, which I knew he wouldn't be able to do. When I first got her she had a pretty severe cardiac cough, and was an overall mean kitty lol, she would hiss at anyone trying to pet her. I've had her about 6 months now and she's turned 180, she doesnt' cough like she used to (she's probably a lot less stressed now), and she will now come up to people on her own.

I guess that makes me feel like this... If I spay her now she will most likely die now, but if I let her continue to go unspayed she may have problems in the future and I can humanely euthinise her then, that way she at least has a couple of good years in. 5 years is better than 1 right? Or would she be in a lot of pain and discomfort for the next few years? I must admit I have the worst luck with animals! My other kitty recently broke his leg and almost died after becoming extremely weak from dragging a heavy cast around (there may have been other health problems involved too).

So what should I look for as warning signs for my unspayed cat?

Originally Posted by lizch6699

She originally was given to my boyfriend's mom's friend, who was pretty violent with her, throwing her into walls and such...

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Good Lord! What kind of a monster IS this person?

Please, do everything you can to save this poor kitty... after such horrific abuse, she deserves to be loved and cared for and made happy for many, many years. Maybe a Comfort Zone diffuser would calm her a little bit...

I dearly wish I could get my hands on her former owner. I'm the most non-violent person on earth, but if I had a chance to do that person damage, I would.

Yea no kidding! The worst part that is that this man is literatly about 7 feet tall and a good 250-300 pounds of muscle. He's HUGE! So one time he grabbed her out of my arms and there wasn't much I could do to fight back! Every once in a while my boyfriend and I will visit his mom's house (we take the cats with us) and he'll be over there too. She runs the second she sees him and I usually end up putting her in the closet so he can't find her. It's just an overall bad situation and I try not to go back there as often as possible (we used to live there). She has made a great turn around though. She used to just hiss at you if you looked at her and now she will jump into your lap to be loved on.

Please don't take her there anymore thats like taking a child back to her abuser. Its going to ruin any progress you have made with her.

Originally Posted by lizch6699

Hello, I've had my cat for about 6 months or so now (she's about a year old) and she's been going into heat pretty constantly. This drives my boyfriend nuts since she seems to be attracted to him. Unfortunatly she's got a heart mumur and I've been told that the anestisia could kill her during the spaying process. Does anyone heard of any procedures that are less dangerous but can still spay her? Has anyone ever had to risk having a cat being spayed with a heart murmur, and if so what happened? Is there anything I can do to reduce her 'symptoms'? Any help would be grealy appriciated, thanks!

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I spay them!

Originally Posted by emb_78

I spay them!

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I don't think you understood, or maybe didn't read all of the posts. My cat cannot be spayed due to a severe heart murmur. I've been told by 3 vets she will most likely die if she is spayed. I'm not looking to be told to spay her because I already know I can't, just looking to see if I can do anything to keep her more under control. Thanks anyway though

Originally Posted by Sims2fan

Please don't take her there anymore thats like taking a child back to her abuser. Its going to ruin any progress you have made with her.

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Yes I know, and if I can help it I don't. He very very rarely is there and I'm very very rarely there. I hate bringing my kitties there anyway because the house is not very well maintained and I'm afraid of them getting into things. There has been 1 chance occurance when he was there while I was. But I don't plan on going back there if I can help it! Lol

She will most likely get a uternie infection if she continues to go into heat without being bred. If that happens most likely the'll have to spay her to save her life. It is a catch 22!
One thing that might work is looking into an intact but sterile male to breed with her. That way she'd go out of heat but she wouldn't get pregnant.
I know that F generation bengal males are sterile. Maybe you can look into getting one of those. They are expensive and they aren't as good of a pet as a domestic but if you go to the right breeder you can get a nice one. It's a pretty drastic solution but that might be the only thing you can do in this situation.

I know there is a pill available in European countries to prevent cats from going into heat. It is given once a month, like birth control.
The name escapes me at the moment....anyone else know?

that's interesting...do you know would it mess up the cats heat cycles when you take them off of it? Why did they develop the pill, was it for breeders?

I have heard of the pill but like you said it's not available here. Look like i'm in a no win situation. I called the vet today and they said they could have a cardiologist look into everything but it would cost about 250-400. Is it worth that? I'm afraid I'm going to pay all that money and all their going to do is tell me that she still can't be fixed which is something I already know.

Bengalbabe, I have actually considered it since reading about it. Although I do live in an apartment and I'm not sure they'd be happy with me having 4 cats lol. Around how much is that breed of cat? Do they have problems with spraying since they're not neutered? Do you know of any symptoms I can keep an eye out for regarding the uterine infection? And do you know how quickly they develop or if there's anything I can do to help prevent it?