Need some serious advice please

We recently reserved and placed a deposit on an ADORABLE Manx kitten from an excellent breeder. He went in today for his vet check, shots and fixing prior to us bringing him home next week.

It has turned out that the kitten has a heart murmur (thanks to the breeder for being so honest iwth us!) as confirmed by the vet this morning when he went in to get fixed (he wasnt' able to be fixed as his testicles have not dropped.) The breeder has told her this is common and often goes away. Both my husband and I feel terribly uneasy with this. Could I ask some advice? How often have you seen this occur and it is something we should take lightly? Are heart murmurs in kittens common and do they just "go away?" Everything I read online says otherwise... or am I just reading worst case examples?

Hope Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m not being a pest, feeling quite hurt right now, and I could only imagine how we would feel if we were to bring him home to find out he had a serious congenital heart defect. The object for us here is to get a cat with a perfectly clean bill of health (obviously.) I could really use some good unbiased advice from folks with kitten and breeding smarts.

I did tell her we wouldn't be bringing the cat home unless his heart murmur was gone. He has an appointment 4 weeks from now to get fixed (by then his testicles will have dropped.) But I'm thinking 4 weeks isn't enough time. Part of me is actually already attached, but I'm thinking I need to be logical with this rather than think with my heart.

Drew...you may want to post this in the breeders forum so that other breeders can comment on how frequently they have seen this occur.

Katie

Thanks a bunch. I'm a new person here, and don't know my way around.

I moved this to the Breeder's Forum so you can get various responses from our experienced breeders ...

I won't say that heart murmurs are common but they aren't uncommon either. Most of the time, when a young kitten is dx'ed with a heart murmur, it does go away as they get older. But this isn't always the case.

How old is your kitten? It may be that he will grow out of it, but it may be that he won't. If not, he can live a relatively normal life with proper care from your vet.

As for the undescended testicle, that isn't uncommon either. The neutering procedure is a bit more invasive as they may have to go in and root around to remove it, but they normally recover just fine.

Depends how serious the heart murmer is. Apparently there are different "grades". A lot of my rex kittens had some very mild heart murmers when getting their first shots (8-10 weeks old). All of them outgrew them and by the time they were spayed/neutered at 7/8 months old, NONE of them had any kind of heart murmer.

But I have heard that if its a medium/high grade, then it will not just go away. How severe is the heart murmer?

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

Depends how serious the heart murmer is. Apparently there are different "grades". A lot of my rex kittens had some very mild heart murmers when getting their first shots (8-10 weeks old). All of them outgrew them and by the time they were spayed/neutered at 7/8 months old, NONE of them had any kind of heart murmer.

But I have heard that if its a medium/high grade, then it will not just go away. How severe is the heart murmer?

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Thanks for the posts! It means a lot to me. If he is going to be part of the family, the choice we make is a serious one.

Dont' know the grade. I will call the vet on Monday and find out.

that is weird that the vet wouldn't neuter for that reason. I take all my kittens in at 8-12 weeks and never had a problem. I never heard of a vet saying they won't do it because of that reason.

My advice to you is be careful. In my last litter of siamese kittens I lost a kitten that had a severe heart murmor. I would say if the kitten is past 8 weeks he will probably be fine. I lost the kitten when he was 9 days old, but he started to go downhill at 5 days. So I would say that if he lived to 8 weeks then he should be fine. Observe the kitten. Is he playing like the others or is he easily tired and lethargic? Ask the vet about the severity of the condition.
In the same litter I had a kitten with Flat Chested Kitten Syndrome. I realized that his ribs just didnt feel right, right after he was born. Everything I read said that chances were he was not going to make it. I took him to the vet and he could give no guarantee. It was a waiting game.
Well, I am happy to say that the kitten is now almost a year old and living with his brother and new family. He is very healthy with no indication of problems. His chest is now completely normal. His family sent me a picture of of him and his brother. They are bigger then their mom.
I knew that he was going to be fine when he was six weeks old and was jumping onto my bed which is almost four feet off the ground.
Good luck with your decision.