kitten has heart murmur

hey everyone,
been to the vets today and found out that my 13 weeks old kitten has a grade 3 heart murmur. the vet said that is was quite common, but just wondering if anyone has a cat with a heart murmur and if they do anything special for it or anything.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76361

This thread is just above yours and talks about this problem.

Here are two of my threads about my kitty with a high grade heart murmur. There's tons of valuable info reguarding anesthisia in the second one
http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75732

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...ghlight=MURMUR

I haven't had any experience with this. Hope your cat will be okay.

I didn't understand with this. Anybody else could explain?

A heart murmur itself in a kitten isn't diagnostic of anything - you would need more testing to know for sure what it is....it could be an innocent murmur (that means there is a murmur but it has no effect on the cat) or it could be heart disease (ex: cardiomyopathy). A lot of times, kittens will be born with murmurs and they will disappear by about 6-8 months. Some cats live with murmurs their whole lives and have no problems. (sometimes, the murmur is just a fluke - and you won't hear it anymore)

To test for heart disease, you'd need a chest x-ray to see if the heart is enlarged (which would indicate congestive heart failure), and also a heart ultrasound (at a kitty cardiologist) to see how the heart is functioning (sizes of ventricles and stuff). If there's heart disease, there are some treatments (which I am not familiar with enough to detail). If there is not, there is nothing you have to do.

My kitten has a grade 1 murmur and I am choosing to just monitor it for change and to see if it goes away by 8 months. I am also monitoring her for symptoms - looking for her having trouble breathing, changes in eating habits, less playing/other reductions in activity level, etc. So far she is one of the most active kittens I've ever had and eats like a horse - she seems really healthy.

The grade of the murmur doesn't really indicate the severity. Any grade could potentially be heart disease. However, it is less common that a high grade murmur is innocent. (your kitty's murmur could have just been louder, though, because he/she was nervous)

I hope the murmur is just an innocent one!